Female Athletes Deserve Sponsorship

Apparently the lackluster support for men’s soccer might serve as a criterion regarding support for women’s soccer [“It Was a Big Kick, but What Will Net Result Be?” Advertising & Marketing, July 13]. It would take a shortsighted frame of mind to decide on that basis.

Given the choice of watching an action-packed women’s soccer game or a baseball game played by overpaid buffoons who can’t field a ball or throw accurately, many of us would opt for the soccer game. For women and young girls in particular, soccer has become a sport to which they can relate. The exciting victory by the U.S. women’s soccer team in the women’s World Cup has cemented that relationship beyond expectation.

American women athletes have proved themselves to be fiercely competitive time and again, not just in soccer, but in other sports as well. We need only to reflect on how women have become increasingly responsible for winning more and more Olympic medals for the United States.

They are the very essence of courage, stamina, skill, and perseverance as demonstrated by Briana Scurry blocking that kick and by her teammates scoring five successive penalty kicks, clinched by Brandi Chastain’s winning goal. The entire U.S. team played superb defense against a very strong Chinese team, with kudos to Michelle Akers and Kristine Lilly.

Coach [Tony] DiCicco described them best when he called them champions. They won the gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and now they have won the Women’s World Cup final. There are many more soccer champions waiting in the wings, and they all deserve sponsorship into a league of their own. And while the payoff lies ahead for farsighted sponsors, the time has come for American women of soccer to take their rightful place in the sun. They earned it!

VINCENT MARTELLA

Cypress