Players Call Out NCAA for Disparities in Men’s and Women’s Weight Rooms

People across social media are calling out the NCAA over disparities between the training facilities of women’s basketball players and the ones assigned to the men’s team. The criticism began after photos showing stark differences between the two weight rooms began circulating online.

2020 WNBA No. 1 overall pick and New York Liberty player Sabrina Ionescu shared photos showing the facilities, writing, “Women’s @NCAA bubble weight room vs Men’s weight room… thought this was a joke. WTF is this?!? To all the women playing in the @marchmadness tournament, keep grinding!”

CJ McCollum of the Blazers also chimed in with a trash can emoji while Las Vegas Aces player Aja Wilson called out the NCAA over the larger swag bag given to men.

Lynn Holzman, the NCAA’s vice president for women’s basketball, responded to the backlash and partly blamed the disparity on “limited space.” 

“We acknowledge that some of the amenities teams would typically have access to have not been as available inside the controlled environment,” Holzman said on Thursday. “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. However, we want to be responsive to the needs of our participating teams, and we are actively working to enhance existing resources at practice courts, including additional weight training equipment.”