Serena Williams and Caitlin Clark are two influential athletes, inspiring women on and off the court.
Williams is one of the greatest women’s tennis players of all time, and Clark is a rising basketball star. Both have stunned the world with their talent, setting records in their respective sports. In doing so, both have become symbols of empowerment for all female athletes.
The attention they have brought is changing the sports world. Statistically, women’s sports receive less than half the media coverage than men’s with limited airtime and promotion.
Athletes like Williams and Clark have helped change statistics by bringing more coverage. This is impactful in many ways because they are the representation that young women want to see in the media.
“I think it’s really important to see female athletes in the media so that other young women can be inspired to do the same thing, and feel like they have other people who are just like them,” said varsity tennis player Ameek Chadha ‘27.
Williams has four Olympic gold medals and 23 grand slam singles titles to her name. Making her debut in professional tennis in 1995, and becoming a top 10 player in the league in 1999 at only 17 years old, she instantly had an audience who was fascinated by her talent.
“I think she kind of got people looking at [tennis] and made them realize that it is actually interesting,” Bishop Gorman High School varsity tennis captain Emma Balelo ‘25 said.
Clark shares a similar story being the first overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft by the Indiana Fever. At 22 years old she became the highest scoring player in NCAA history. “I wanna go watch her play and I’m not an Indiana Fever fan,” said varsity basketball player Lila Neubauer ‘25.
Clark is responsible for 26.5% of the WNBA revenue. “I’m all about growing the women’s game, and I’m glad I’ve given something that little girls can scream about at the top of their lungs. I can imagine when I was younger, I was doing the exact same thing watching on TV. It’s pretty fun,”said Clark.
Though Williams is retired, now she is still making an impact in women’s sports by advocating for female athletes to receive equal pay, fighting against body shaming, and standing up for minority athletes. Similarly, Clark is now giving back to the community by donating to four Iowa charities, the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital, Coralville Community Food Pantry, Boys and Girls Club of the Corridor and Special Olympics Iowa-East Central.
“The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another. We should raise each other up,” said Williams.
This women’s history month, The Lance is featuring some of the strong female students and staff on campus, as well as women in sports and pop culture. If you have an idea of someone who you would like to see featured, fill out this Google Form.
