Summer Roundup: A Groundbreaking Summer for Women in Sports

Women are breaking barriers in almost every sports arena. As the summer comes to a close, it's time to look back on all the groundbreaking moments from this summer for women in sports.

Soccer

Excitement for Women's Soccer gripped the nation in July, with millions of fans watching on tv or heading to Canada to be there for the U.S. Women Team's win. According to SBNation, more Americans watched the Women's World Cup Finals then had watched the NBA finals or Stanley Cup, which sparked discussions on twitter, Facebook, and the national news over whether or not women in sports has been getting enough airtime. After the win, the members of the U.S. Team were invited to NYC for the first all women ticker tape parade. According to CNN, "the last time female athletes paraded along the Canyon of Heroes was in 1984, when gold medalists Mary Lou Retton and Cheryl Miller joined other U.S. medal winners -- male and female -- after the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles." 

Baseball

The U.S. Women's Soccer team wasn't the only team to have a big win this summer. The U.S. Women's Baseball Team won the gold in the Pam Am games. According to US News, it was the first time women's baseball has been featured in a multi-sport event. Lessons supposedly learned after the U.S. Women's Soccer team coverage went big were ignored for the Baseball Team's debut as not one channel covered the event. Headlines and tweets appeared that made it known that many people weren't even aware there was a women's baseball team. Under the Team USA blog post about the win, the first comment is, "Women play softball, not baseball!" Followed by the response, "Looks like you've already been proven wrong, bub." If people didn't know that there were women's teams playing baseball, they do now.

The win wasn't the only women's baseball news this summer. At the start of the summer, a 16 yo baseball player from France named Melissa Mayeux made news when she became the first woman added to baseball's international registration list, which makes her eligible to be signed by a major league team.

People also continued to talk about Mo'ne Davis who made national news last summer when she pitched a shutout game during the Little League World Series, which landed her on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Mo'ne wasn't the first girl to go to the series, and she won't be the last, which prompted the Little League to write an article about all 18 girls who have made it to the Little League World Series.

Football
In football news, this summer saw the addition of two groundbreaking women to the sport. Jen Welter  became the first woman to coach an NFL game while Sarah Thomas became the first woman to work as a full-time on-field official. You can see a photo of the two women at Fox News, along with other news sites. You can learn more about Jen Welter's feelings about her role in football in her Behind the Facemask post.

Basketball
This summer, the news reflected on Becky Hammon finishing her first season with the San Antonio Spurs as the first NBA female full-time assistant coach. She was quickly followed by Nancy Lieberman, who was hired to be an assistant coach for the Sacramento Kings.