In Her Own Words is a series where I share the ways Black sportswomen are telling their own stories. In the last edition, we focused on Medina Dixon. Today we're highlighting Venus Williams. I won't even explain all that she's done on and off the tennis court – check out her Wikipedia page to get started. The focus of today's newsletter is her YouTube channel. I love it when athletes share with us what they want us to know, and her channel is a mix between personal storytelling and athletic/tennis tutorials. Venus Williams posted her first YouTube video in July 2019, and it was a vlog-style d ..read more

Recently, I was applying for an internship (it’s required for our grad program), and I sent over some work samples. I found many of my best pieces right here at The Black Sportswoman. So for this last day of Black History Month – Happy Leap Day, btw! – I would like to share some of my favorite stories over the last few years. I’ll have new content next month. There's a lot of content in the works, but February was an intense grad school month. Also, while looking at this work, it’s helping me think of some ideas for my final projects for Spring 2024 and for my program capstone.  Below I ..read more

Mary Currie is a Dubach, Louisiana native who competed at Grambling from 1983 to 1987, finishing her career as the women's basketball program's leading scorer. She majored in computer science and scored 2,256 points and grabbed 905 rebounds. In one game she scored 51 points, during a tournament held at Ole Miss in December 1985. She was named to the Black college SID association's All-America first team, All-SWAC first team. In both high school and college, Currie was coached by the legendary Patricia Bibbs-Cage. "I remember Mary Currie as a complete player because she could do a lot of thing ..read more

Eugenia Conner was born in Gulfport, Mississippi in 1963 and competed at the University of Mississippi from 1981 to 1985. A formerly self-described "uncoordinated" player who was told she was going to play basketball, became Ole Miss team captain junior and senior seasons and an All-American and All-SEC player. She would also eventually serve as captain of Ole Miss women's basketball, who beat Tennessee in 1985 to advance to its first NCAA tournament Elite Eight. And longtime Ole Miss head coach Van Chancellor told the Biloxi Sun Herald, "I thought from day one, Eugenia Conner had greatness w ..read more

Zanele Situ was a South African Paralympian athlete who became the first Black South African woman to win a Paralympic gold medal (Sydney 2000). She has mostly competed in the F54 category of throwing events. In 2000, she won silver in the discus and won the gold in javelin (while breaking the world record). In javelin, she also won gold in 2004 and bronze in 2016 – the same year she was flag bearer for the South African team. Between the ages of 11 and 12, Situ got sick with tuberculosis, which paralyzed her from the waist down. She then moved to Mthatha for what she calls a “special school ..read more

Medina Dixon began telling her own story on YouTube in 2020. Dixon was an Olympian, world and national champion basketball player, who played professionally overseas for more than 10 years. In 2021, she decided to begin telling her own story on YouTube in 2020. In 2021, she passed away at the age of 59 from pancreatic cancer.  Her series, “Legacy of Medina Dixon,” covers many topics: living with epilepsy, going to university, her first overseas trip, playing days in Japan, and more.  She talked about the things that made up her life, and it’s worth a watch. “I am in a fight. A big f ..read more

Angela James, the first superstar of modern women's hockey. That’s what countless articles – and hockey players – call the prolific hockey scorer and former Team Canada hockey captain.  Her playing style is described as tough. Both she and her shot were quick and accurate, and she was known to leave competitors in her icy dust.  “She sounded like an absolute beast on the ice,” Sarah Nurse said. “She sounded like she could take over games when she decided to turn it on and she seemed like such a dominant force.” With Team Canada and various leagues, James had a 20-year professional c ..read more

This post is inspired by my current read: The Race to Be Myself by Caster Semenya. I'm not finished reading but I still highly recommend it. Running quieted Caster Semenya's mind.  She played plenty of team sports – baseball, basketball, soccer, netball – and practiced martial arts, but those activities distracted her from her problems. Track and field/athletics offered her something deeper. “There was constant banter with other players,” she said of team sports in her memoir, The Race to be Myself. “You had to deal with their nonsense for the entire game. I was good at talking shit and ..read more

Mae Faggs (1932-2000) was a sprinter and a foundational member of the Tennessee State University women’s track and field team, the Tigerbelles.  She was a three-time Olympian, competing in three consecutive Games: 1948, 1952, and 1956. In the latter two Olympics, she won a gold (‘52) and a bronze (‘56) medal as the third leg in the 4x100 relay. “Those have to be the highlights, running on those Olympic teams,” she said in 1976. “Within a 12-year span of time, making three Olympic teams is really something – especially now when I look back at it.” She grew up in New York State, and her at ..read more

Fear and public scrutiny of Black women athletes' bodies. Where does it come from and why is it still an issue ..read more