Dick’s Sporting Goods Says It Will Deliver Fitness Equipment to Support NCAA Women’s Team After Viral Photos Show Discrepancies Between Men’s Facilities

Elisa Lewittes
·2 min read
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Dick’s Sporting Goods is supporting the NCAA women’s team after viral videos shared how the basketball players lacked resources compared to their male counterparts. On Friday, the athletic retailer announced that it is working to deliver fitness equipment to the women’s NCAA tournament bubble. “@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,” the company captioned a tweet featuring one of their storefronts with U-Haul trucks lined up outside.

This initiative comes following accounts on social media that shared the discrepancies between the facilities and food options available to the NCAA men’s and women’s teams.

Ali Kershner, a Stanford performance coach, provided images of the two teams’ bubble facilities to provide context to the NCAA’s resource distribution. While the men’s tournament space is fully equipped with professional machines and a variety of weights, the women’s space is sparse with yoga mats and small dumbbells.

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A post shared by Ali Kershner, MS, CSCS (@kershner.ali)

“We acknowledge that some of the amenities teams would typically have access to have not been as available inside the controlled environment. In part, this is due to the limited space, and the original plan was to expand the workout area once additional space was available later in the tournament,” NCAA vice president for women’s basketball Lynn Holzman said in a statement.

Coinciding with Women’s History Month, this program’s efforts reinforce Dick’s Sporting Goods’ mission to support female athletes. On March 8, International Women’s Day, the company announced its commitment to acknowledging the accomplishment of its female senior leadership team and investing in women and girls around the world.

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