“The constant disrespect for women’s sports”: 2022 ESPY Awards face massive backlash after failing to invite Women’s Sports Nominees to ceremony
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2022 ESPY Awards
The 2022 ESPY Awards were all set to be held on Wednesday night. Hosted by NBA superstar Stephen Curry, the awards based in Los Angeles are quite a big show of some of the greatest sports stars and icons in the world. However, there was one noticeable and rather disappointing aspect to the ESPYs this year- several of the women athlete who had been nominated for awards were not actually invited to the show.
Celebration for several nominations soon turned to disappointment and outrage as the fans found out their favourite athletes were not invited. Caprice Dydasco of NJ/NY Gotham FC received a nomination for the ESPYs, but did not get an invite. This caused outrage as her fellow athlete Nicole Baxter called out the Award Show.
Also read: “The GOATS”- Sunisa Lee, Katie Ledecky, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers among nominees for ESPY Awards
ESPY Awards cite ‘Covid restrictions’ as cause for not inviting several athletes
South Carolina superstar Aliyah Boston, who was nominated for the “Best College Athlete” ESPY, was also not offered a seat at the show. According to Insider, a representative said that “both COVID restrictions and a new venue with much less seating capacity than previous shows” forced the company to “prioritize athlete invitations to focus on specific awards that will be handed out during the broadcast.”
“Additionally, this year we moved several Sports Humanitarian Awards into The ESPYS broadcast — including the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award, the Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award, and the League Humanitarian Leadership Award,” the representative continued. “This means that several ESPY awards are being announced via other platforms including several of our studio shows and The ESPYS Preview Show that is airing [Tuesday] on ESPN at 8p ET.” However, some other famous names like Dwayne Johnson, Allison Brie and Lil Wayne still made their way to the ESPY Awards.
The matter was further disappointing as the 2022 National Player of the Year, Aliyah Boston was also not invited to the event. ESPN extended a late invite to the 2022 National Player of the Year. The superstar center declined, explaining in a statement that “it hurt more to see ESPN change course and invite me only after social media caught wind of it.”
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Saivee Phatak
(1164 Articles Published)