Black Women, Sexuality and Sports - Role Models for Healthy Living - Case Study Example

Black Women, Sexuality and Sports: Role Models for Healthy Living This paper researches three African American women who have made it big within their respective fields. Sheryl Swoopes Introduction and Historical Background Sheryl Swoopes is the Micheal Jordan of women basketball. She is a pretty unique woman, standing 6 feet tall and who made her career in basketball and eventually ruled the courts for over a decade. She is a multiple Olympic gold medal winner for the US woman basketball. Swoopes has won gold medal for 3 consecutive Olympic Games in 1996, 2000 and 2004. She is also credited 3 times as MVP and has been labelled as one of the greatest collegiate players of all time. She also has been declared 3 times as the best defensive player of the year, plus a four time WNBA champion with Houston Comets. Her extraordinary scoring and defensive ability has made her the first three-time WNBA MVP (2000, 2002 and 2005) as well as the first three-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year (2000, 2002 and 2003). Swoopes is a four-time WNBA champion (from 1997 to 2000). Swoopes is the second player in WNBA history to win both the regular season MVP award and the All-Star Game MVP award in the same season. The first player to accomplish this was Lisa Leslie. Swoopes is also the first player in WNBA history to record a playoff triple-double. Question How can a living legend like Sheryl Swoopes guide the next generation of basketball players by helping them overcome fitness and health issues? Evidence When someone has achieved so much in their life already, having such an illustrious sporting career which is decorated with medals and honours, one does not want to hang up their boots anytime soon. But then again there is a time for everything in life. She did not quit but stopped playing professionally last year. Swoopes is 38 years old now and is presently associated with Mercer Island as the assistant coach for the girls team. She still believes that there is a last good run left in her to perform at the top level basketball. She has played professionally for over 15 years and is still ready to take the court by storm. It just goes to shows the fitness of the star that one known by the name of Sheryl Swoopes. She is a role model for not only the girls who want to become professional players, but young boys as well. If one has to make a long career in any form of sport, staying healthy and fit is the key. Swoopes has had her fair share of injuries over the years. She went through major knee surgery which made her skip the 2001 season. In 2007, she once again missed majority of the season, not before a successful back surgery. Apart from this, throughout her career, she has been quite fit which has contributed a great deal to thrive her career (Potts 2005). Sheryl Swoopes is now working with young talent, grooming them and creating future stars. All the young girls she coaches, look up to her as a role model and aspire to be a basketball legend like her. In a way, Swoopes is giving back what she learnt and providing opportunities to others that she was not able to gather at her time. After she was let off by Seattle Storm, she has not played any competitive basketball on a professional level, but her urge of staying fit and healthy made her hit the gym again, in the form of a coach this time. Swoopes works quite hard with her team. She has devised a program since she started coaching at Mercer Island. She gives personal clinics to each individual player whereby she discusses their game and helps overcome their health and fitness issues. Conclusion Sheryl Swoopes is an absolute role model for healthy living as her persistence and determination have made her the number one woman in sports. This was not achieved overnight. It required years of hard work and training which enabled her to climb the top of the ladder. She accomplished a lot in her career; the biggest success must be winning 3 consecutive Olympic gold medals for her country, making the whole nation proud and joyous. Michelle Obama Introduction and Historical Background Michelle LaVaughn Robinson has a surname that in today’s world makes her one of the most powerful and influential women in this world. She happens to be the wife of the 44th President of the United States of America, Mr. Barrack Obama. Her husband has made history by becoming the first African-American man to hold the American office at the White House (Hunt 2008). Michelle Obama is now the First Lady and her immense support for Barrack Obama was seen by the world throughout his presidential campaign which proved her mettle. Michelle Obama is not just the wife of the president; she herself has a certain charm in her own personality. Her keynote address at the 2008 Democratic National Convention reflected the charming personality that she has. A law graduate from Harvard Law School and Princeton University; she had been an extraordinary student and received a cum laude from Princeton at the time of graduation. Later she went on to practice law with different firms at Chicago. During her early career she held the offices of public sector as an assistant to the Mayor of Chicago. Amongst many of her achievements in her career she raised huge amounts of funds working with the Chicago office of Public Allies – a non profit organization – these funds still stand at a record of 12 years. Question How important a role will Michelle Obama play as the First Lady in influencing Barrack Obama’s policies to bring about a change in the healthcare policies? Evidence One of the highlights of her career is the position at University of Chicago. She worked as the executive director in 2002 and then later on in 2005 as Vice President for Community and External Affairs. During that time period, she worked for the University of Chicago Medical Centre. The hospital is considered to be the best in United States. It has the best facility for healthcare. It is not without the efforts of Michelle Obama that the hospital achieved its status. The medical centre carries out one the most extensive researches that are carried out in the entire US, and it serves as an excellent facility for teaching hospitals. Michelle Obama has made a great deal of contribution towards ensuring health reforms and community service. Since the start of her career she has been involved with community service programs, and later on becoming a part of the most prestigious medical centres in the country. Since taking the office of the First Lady, she has carried on with her surge for health reforms. She started off by visiting homeless shelters and soup kitchens. The idea for hygiene and healthy food was presented by her. The issue of obesity is fast becoming a concern for the entire US population as it threatens the future of more than half of America’s children. According to research, the obesity rate in children has increased 3 folds in the last 3 decades. The lack of healthy food is a major reason for the increasing obesity rate in children. Michelle Obama’s initiative to curb obesity and provide healthy food to the masses is an effort towards the prevention of the menace. She has taken the step ahead in ensuring that healthy food is made available around the white house, by planting an organic vegetable garden in the lawn of the White House. Her efforts to create awareness about healthy food have become a talking point for the media, which has opened many doors for her to get more funds and support for the cause. Conclusion The healthcare system in the United States has not been very friendly with women. Michelle Obama has taken the issue of women healthcare in support of Barrack Obama’s plan to change the healthcare policies across the country. Her struggle for a healthy lifestyle across the US is a long and steep process. Her involvement in promoting nutrition, wellness and prevention is considered to be the key for solving health issues of the country. The efforts that both the President and the First Lady are putting in to bring about a change in the health systems will soon pay off and it will give Americans a better life to live. Lisa Leslie Introduction and Historical Background An all-time WNBA star and a four-time Olympic gold medal winner, Lisa Leslie is one of the biggest sports celebrities in the United States. She is a four time MVP in the league and was once considered as the cornerstone of the league. The speciality about Lisa Leslie is that she is 6 feet 5 inches in height, which is quite remarkable as she uses her height to a good advantage and makes her presence feel on the court. Leslie was the first ever female player to slam-dunk a basketball. Her one-handed slam dunk against Miami stunned the crowd which was in attendance (Hall 1998). This flamboyant basketball player is also a model since she has appeared in the Vogue Magazine and also has done various modelling assignments with Armani and Tommy Hilfiger. Question How can Lisa Leslie play her role in creating awareness about health issues such as breast cancer? Evidence Lisa Leslie has been a renowned public figure and has been in the limelight for quite sometime. She has been speaking on various forums about different issues. Being a celebrity, she has quite a huge fan following and whatever she speaks is regarded and well respected amongst the circles that follow her. Primarily being an athlete, she has been endorsing different sports brands and the products associated with it, but a real substantial way of utilizing her celebrity appeal would be to talk about fitness and issues related to health. Since staying fit and healthy is every athlete’s requirement, therefore someone like Lisa Leslie discussing about health will become even more relevant. Lisa Leslie is a speaker for Energyfirst. She gives health tips on how to stay fit from the platform of Energyfirst. Balanced nutrition, effective exercise, utilizing the time at the gym and staying fit – all of this can help prevent diseases like diabetes, cancer and heart ailments. Also she gives useful insights on how important nutrition is for one’s beauty as it is directly linked with the dental health. Her tips can help curb issues like stress management and exertion which have become quite a problem for the fast paced lifestyle of today (Daddario 1998). Taking out little time for one’s own self and making note of one’s tips can help improve someone’s health a great deal. It is not always advisable to kill one’s self at the gym, but by taking out sometime and just exercising will allow a person to relax, feel energetic and stay healthy. She has been involved in numerous causes over the years but most of her attention is positioned towards spreading the awareness about breast cancer as this issue is becoming a major one around the globe for women. The number of breast cancer patients is increasing every year around the globe. Leslie’s attention towards breast cancer increased as she discovered a few years back that her mother had two lumps in her breasts. That turned out to be shocking news for her, as she never expected such a misfortune. That is when Leslie decided to get more educated about cancer, since her own mother was at risk. Since then she has been supporting the cause of breast cancer by wearing the pink ribbon and spreading its awareness, because most of the women who die of breast cancer are because they are unable to get diagnosis and appointments beforehand so that the treatment can be carried out. Conclusion Leslie has now become the spokesperson for Sears WNBA Breast Health Awareness Program. She is also associated with National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organization to raise awareness and prevention of the disaster caused by cancer. Her aim is to talk more and more about the issue and make sure that the treatment and diagnosis is done on time for the women who do not really have enough information about the disease. She has made commendable efforts in spreading the awareness about the disease and played an active part at ensuring that lesser African American women, the most number of breast cancer causalities, get affected by the disease. Works Cited Daddario, Gina. Women’s Sport and Spectacle: Gendered Television Coverage and the Olympic Games. Praeger, 1998 Hall, Ruth. Encyclopedia of Women and Sport in America. Oryx Press, 1998 Hunt, Liz. Michelle Obama is the real personality in the US Election Drama. Found Online at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/lizhunt/3559697/Michelle-Obama-is-the-real-personality-in-the-US-election-drama.html 21 June 2008 Potts, Gregory. Hoopla over Swoopes. The Advocate, 20 December 2005 Read More