The NCAA came under fire in recent days after University of Oregon forward Sedona Prince posted a video comparing the weight rooms provided to male and female athletes. Several people weighed in, including Vanessa Bryant. She offered to help in any way that she can.
via: The Blast
Vanessa Bryant is offering help to NCAA Women’s Basketball after the organization was called out for its ridiculous accommodations for the female athletes during ‘March Mardness’ compared to the men’s — specifically the weight room.
Kobe Bryant’s wife shared a viral video, Saturday, of Stanford Univerity’s sports performance coach — Ali Kershner — who pointed out the huge discrepancy between the men and women’s facilities.
In the video, Ali shows off a single free-weight tree which is the whole women’s weight room — compared to a massive room filled with all sorts of weights for the men.
Although there are rules against private donations and gifts for NCAA athletes, Vanessa offered to help in any way possible.
“I know there’s gifting rules…. how can we help?” Vanessa said on Instagram.
In the post, you can see the insane difference between the two facilities. Following the backlash, the NCAA Vice President issues a statement claiming the difference was caused by”space limitations” in the woman’s facility.
But, the message was met with more backlash, as the coach shared a video of the massive room available for building out of the women’s weight room or facilities.
“Kobe would be outraged. He advocated constantly for women’s sports,” one fan wrote.
NBA superstar Steph Curry spoke up about the situation, tweeting, “wow-come on now! @marchmadness @NCAA y’all trippin trippin.”
Plus, WNBA star and last year’s NCAA national player of the year, Sabrina Ionescu, said, “Women’s @NCAA bubble weight room vs Men’s weight room… thought this was a joke. WTF is this?!? To all the women playing in the @marchmadness tournament, keep grinding!”
“Sad how more effort was put into making a “sanitized yoga mats” sign. Damn they’re not even subtle about their disrespect,” fan posted on Vanessa’s social media.
Dick’s Sporting Goods also responded, posting a photo of several employees next to U-Haul trucks. The retailer said that it had workout equipment ready to send to the San Antonio facility.
@NCAA Our teammates have worked quickly to get truckloads of fitness equipment ready to send to the women’s @ncaawbb @marchmadness bubble – we are standing by to deliver it and have your facility outfitted within hours! Let’s make this happen. pic.twitter.com/6QJJjrrDgx
— DICK'S Sporting Goods (@DICKS) March 19, 2021
A new weight room did ultimately become available to the first- and second-round teams. There were new benches, dumbbell sets, treadmills, rowing machines, spin bikes, and squat racks.
