ESPN’s Her Story: Celebrating Women in Sports

Multiplatform Coverage Throughout Month Begins March 8 on Outside the Lines
Special One-Hour Program March 27 Highlights Today’s Young Female Athletes

In March, ESPN will celebrate Women’s History Month by sharing many empowering and inspirational stories of young female athletes through a cross-platform initiative, culminating with a one-hour special, Her Story, on Friday, March 27, at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. 

Focusing on female athletes between the ages of 13-24, this month-long effort will kick off Sunday, March 8 with an investigation into young girls and the underreporting of concussions by reporter Peter Keating (Outside the Lines, 9 a.m.).  A series of vignettes, airing multiple times across ESPN’s networks, will also begin on March 8.   

“ESPN has long been a home of women’s sports, including the entire NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament,” said John Skipper, executive vice president, content.  “This month-long celebration provides an opportunity to highlight the accomplishments of young female athletes, their contributions to advancing the world of sports and the challenges facing these athletes today.”

Marcia Keegan, ESPN vice president, content integration and strategic planning, is overseeing the initiative, while Kristin Huckshorn, ESPN senior news editor, is coordinating all production elements across platforms.   

Her Story:  The Special

Her Story, hosted by SportsCenter’s Hannah Storm, will highlight up-and-coming athletes, as well as the issues they face:

• Teenage surfing phenom Bethany Hamilton, who returned to her sport with a vengeance after a shark attack in 2003.  Despite losing her left arm, Hamilton has continued to rise in the rankings and become one of the world’s top surfers.
• Twenty years ago, the Women's Sports Foundation released a study that determined Hispanic girls had far lower participation in sports than other ethnicities. Few studies have updated that premise. Shelley Smith looks at some of the barriers to participation as well as success stories, proving that with the right amount of family and school support, Hispanic girls may just prove to be sport's fastest growing demographic.
• Interviews with Courtney and Ashley Paris, daughters of former San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman Bubba Paris, who give Oklahoma its best shot of winning an NCAA women’s basketball title.
• The rebirth of roller derby, which made a comeback due to a grassroots revival in Austin, Texas.  This resurgence has led to more than 200 amateur, all-female roller derby leagues across the country.
• A feature on Shoni Schimmel, a Native American teenager in Oregon who is among the top high school hoops players in the country but must deal with cultural bias and personal challenges as she heads towards her senior year.
• In addition, fans will be encouraged to post inspirational clips about themselves, a teammate, a coach or a team on ESPN.com’s dedicated Her Story page.  The winning clip will be included in the special.

Outside the Lines

An Outside the Lines investigation by Peter Keating into how concussions are often underreported by girls.  The story, to air Sunday, March 8, will examine the implications and how concussions affect girls over the course of their lives.

Vignettes on Multiple Networks

On March 8, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPN Classic and ESPNU will begin airing a series of vignettes which will air during studio shows as well as during basketball programming.  This series will  include: 

• Inspirational young women, including Kim Bain-Moore, the first woman to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic, and Jessica Long, a double-amputee who won multiple gold medals at the 2008 Paralympic Games.
• Male athletes telling how they are inspired by the female athletes in their lives, including Jamie Dixon, men’s basketball coach at the University of Pittsburgh remembering his late sister, Maggie Dixon, who coached at Army; Davidson basketball player Stephen Curry discussing his mother, Sonya Curry, a former volleyball standout for Virginia Tech; and New York Giants cornerback Aaron Ross reflecting on his fiancée, Sanya Richards, Olympic Gold Medalist in the 4x400 meter relay.
• “Then and Now” historical moments in women’s sports, including auto racing’s Janet Guthrie and Danica Patrick and tennis stars Althea Gibson and the Williams sisters.

ESPN.com

ESPN.com will host a dedicated page for a month’s worth of original content including stories, columns, video and links from all platforms, including OTL and ESPNRISE.com, as well as a community space where fans can engage in conversations, blogs and more.  This page will also serve as the home to the My Story link where fans can send in inspirational clips, with the winner being shown on televised Her Story special.

ESPN The Magazine

The March 23 issue of ESPN The Magazine cover story will focus on WNBA star Candace Parker, accompanied by an in-depth look at concussions in young girls, complementing the OTL feature.

ESPN Classic

ESPN Classic will honor women in sports with an 11-hour marathon on Saturday, March 14 beginning at 10 a.m. and featuring athletes who left their marks on the sports world including Danica Patrick, Liz Johnson, Nancy Lopez, Bonnie Blair, Mia Hamm and Florence Griffith-Joyner.  Coverage will start with a documentary on Title IX and will conclude with a classic battle between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, followed by Bill Jean King’s classic match with Bobby Riggs.   ESPN Classic’s Tribute to Women Schedule

ESPN360.com

ESPN360.com will offer more than 180 hours of women’s sports programming in March.  In addition, ESPN360.com will highlight some of the great women’s sporting events over the last couple of years including the 2009 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament; Tennessee Coach Pat Summit’s 1000th victory; WNBA; Australian Open; FIFA World Cup; ISU figure skating; NCAA competitions including volleyball, softball, soccer, swimming and diving and track and field; and X Games.

ESPN Deportes and International

SportsCenter on ESPN Deportes, as well as several international networks in Latin America, will offer an expanded Spanish-language version of the Hispanic girls’ participation in sports story.

For more information and photos for ESPN’s Her Story or any of the programming featuring female athletes during the month of March, please visit the Women’s History Month media kit.

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