Which female athlete has most frequently adorned the covers of Sports Illustrated?
The answers can easily be found in the SI Vault (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/). The website includes a database that allows sports enthusiasts to conduct searches on articles, covers, galleries, and swimsuit issues. These searches provide an interesting perspective on what has been important in sports since SI began publishing in 1954.
The purpose of the following analysis is to identify the female athletes who most frequently adorned the SI covers and to look for other interesting trends. In December, 40 female athletes were selected for analysis. Their names, as listed in the charts below, were placed in the advanced search engine (exact phrase). Note that slightly different frequencies occurred when the names were placed in the general search box. It was also necessary to be aware of multiple athletes with the same name. As well, there were challenges associated with identifying tallies for women who played their sport under maiden and married names.
Keep in mind, the purpose of this analysis is not to identify the best athlete; rather the intent is to point out the athletes that adorned the SI covers most often. Athletes such as Suzanne Lenglen passed away before SI began publishing, so her coverage is minimal compared to current players. There are a number of factors that can determine whether an athlete makes the front cover or just receives mention in an article or picture gallery. The following questions address these factors:
• When did the athlete play?
• Did they participate in a team sport or an individual sport?
• How long has their sport been in existence, for example snowboarding is a relatively new sport?
• Did the athlete play in a major sport or a minor sport?
• Did the athlete play in a small market or a major market? Did they compete internationally?
• Who did the athlete have as sponsors and how well were they marketed?
• Was the athlete a flashy player who drew attention, such as Anna Kournikova, or were they a steady performer like Mary Jo Fernandez?
• How has the interest level in their sport changed over time? Are people as interested in that sport as they once were?
• Were there lockouts or strikes during an athlete’s career that prevented additional exposure?
• Did the athlete experience injuries that reduced media coverage?
• Were there other events that were more significant or overshadowed the significance of an athlete’s performance?
• Was it a “slow sports day”, which allowed for certain athletes to receive greater coverage?
It is interesting to note who has been on the cover most frequently, but it can be equally as intriguing to consider the factors that may have caused or prevented greater coverage.
The data suggests that there are a handful of athletes who might be considered media icons. While the men had media icons such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Muhammad Ali, no women received the same level of coverage as they did. Jordan was on the cover of SI 58 times, yet Martina Navratilova filled the spot only 9 times. The results also showed that only 10 of the 40 women in the sample appeared on the SI cover more than twice.
It is particularly interesting to note that 8 of the top 12 spots are filled by women’s tennis players. Would that be a function of the WTA’s efforts to market their women players and the sport or was that a result of a weak field on the men’s side?
It is also interesting to note that none of the 40 women were mentioned in articles more than 1,000 times. Half of the 50 men were mentioned more than 1,000 times.
In 1972 Title IX was put in place to give women an equal opportunity to participate in sports. Clearly, playing and coaching opportunities for women have increased drastically since then. Right or wrong, this basic analysis suggests that media coverage of men’s and women’s sports occurs at significantly different levels.
Analysis of the SI database is included in the December 2, 8, and 20 blog posts. The three discussions identify the sports, major sporting events, male athletes, and female athletes to most frequently adorn the front cover.
