NEW YORK (AP) — Alexis Ohanian known as out the will for a protected paintings surroundings in the National Women’s Soccer League whilst receiving the Champions for Equality Award at the once a year Salute to Women in Sports match on Wednesday night time.
The former govt chairman of Reddit is a founding investor of the latest ladies’s skilled football workforce, Angel City FC in Los Angeles. He was once accompanied through his spouse Serena Williams and daughter Olympia.
“As a club owner, as a husband and as a father, I have been disgusted by what’s been brought to light as part of this ongoing investigation,” he said. “I’m hopeful it will lead to necessary reform.”
He praised the avid gamers in the NWSL who’re hard duty and adjustments after closing week’s file from an unbiased investigation highlighted systemic sexual misconduct and emotional abuse. The investigation detailed administrative reporting screw ups in the game, impacting a number of groups, coaches and bosses in the league.
“It’s to their strength, their bravery and their courage that we’re going to get a better NWSL,” Ohanian mentioned to cheers on the Women’s Sports Foundation’s match in Manhattan.
Five of the ten head coaches in the NWSL both have been fired or stepped down closing season amid allegations of misconduct. Two homeowners have just lately stepped clear of their groups.
Ohanian mentioned he watched the U.S. ladies win the 2019 World Cup and mused about how Olympia would possibly in the future play in a World Cup: “Serena said, without missing a beat, ‘Not until they pay her what she’s worth.’”
Ohanian is a part of the majority-female Angel City FC possession crew that comes with Williams, Natalie Portman, Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach, Julie Foudy, America Ferrera, Uzo Aduba, Candace Parker and Billie Jean King, amongst others.
Foudy, a two-time U.S. World Cup champion, mentioned rigorous tips are had to struggle sexual misconduct and it might “absolutely” assist to have extra feminine homeowners and feminine coaches in the NWSL.
“The change of mindset in Angel City and that ownership group … is remarkable to see,” she mentioned. “You don’t have to spend so much time expending energy about why you should support these women. They get it. The Angel City refrain I always get it is: ’What’s possible?’”
Olympic gold medalists Sunisa Lee in gymnastics and Maggie Steffens in water polo have been additionally venerated as Sportswomen of the Year on the awards dinner, which venerated the fiftieth anniversary of Title IX.
South Carolina ladies’s basketball trainer Dawn Staley won the Billie Jean King Leadership Award. Staley no longer most effective led the U.S. ladies’s basketball workforce to the gold medal on the 2021 Tokyo Olympics but additionally guided South Carolina to its 2d NCAA name in 5 years in April. Staley is the primary Black trainer to win two NCAA Division I basketball championships.
Bobsledder Elena Meyers Taylor, essentially the most embellished Black athlete on the iciness Olympics with 5 medals, was once given the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award. She approved the award along with her younger son, Nico, at her aspect. Meyers Taylor received her most up-to-date medal regardless of having COVID-19 on the Beijing Olympics.
“I’m inspired by this remarkable group of honorees, who are breaking records, eliminating barriers and blazing a path for a brighter future in and out of sports for girls and women,” mentioned King, who in 1974 created the Women’s Sports Foundation, which gives group sports techniques and coaching grants.
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