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"If you look at the gender breakdown for women’s sports consumption, it’s largely 50-50...it shows that everyone is watching women's sports."

— ESPN vice president of women's sports programming revealing that the viewership of their women's sports broadcasts and social coverage is split evenly between men and women.

**Could UCLA's national title win only happen in women's college basketball?**

The last time UCLA won a national women's basketball championship was in 1978 as part of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women — the NCAA didn't take over women's college sports until 1982 (which came with its own problems!).

That meant that UCLA's victory over S. Carolina on Sunday was the school's first NCAA women's basketball national title. 🏀 It was also just the second women's Big Ten team to ever win, but that's only because a Los Angeles school is now in the Big Ten after the Pac-12 conference collapsed. 🤔

It was also a team of all seniors, led by Kiki Rice & Gabriela Jaquez (yes, whose brother plays in the MNBA) and last year's transfer star Lauren Betts (whose sister also came to join her at UCLA).

Why wouldn't that happen in the men's college tournament? Because the men's college players largely leave after their freshman or sophomore year to enter the draft. In the NIL and transfer portal era, it's rare to have any teams, but especially men's teams, now where the players have been together their whole college careers.

What's next?

All three UCLA stars are expected to go in the first-round of the WNBA draft on April 13. (The WNBA is also in the midst of free agency player moves after the ground-breaking new contract.)

In the meantime, L.A. will be celebrating the team later today on campus 🎉

And maybe the players will do their championship dance again 💃

_____

🤯 What happened with S. Carolina coach Dawn Staley and UConn coach Geno Auriemma? Oof. After UConn's semi-final loss, Auriemma appeared to confront Staley at halfcourt – with a lot of different complaints. It was a whole thing, and certainly not uncommon at this level of play.

But Staley has said the two have since spoken and is urging everyone to move on and focus on the players. She also congratulated UCLA coach Cori Close, after the final, for all her hard work. 🤝

(Photo: UCLA)

What is going on with the Olympic's sex testing policy?

While the focus of many headlines about the IOC's new policy have been framed purely as a ban on trans women competing in the Olympics, the actual policy requires genetic testing for all female athletes — which has larger implications for all female athletes.

The new rule — which track & field rolled out last year — will require that all women get an SRY gene test, which is typically found on the Y chromosome and plays a role in sex development. However, the scientists who developed the test say sex development and sex characteristics are far (far!) more complicated than that. Some small percentage of people (between .2-2% depending on definitions) have differences in sex development — and many of those people never know.

Women who test positive for the gene will now have to undergo additional testing to prove they do not athletically benefit from their genetic variation. For example, some small percentage of women have a Y chromosome but have Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome — meaning their bodies do not respond to the androgens and they develop as female. The last time these genetic tests were in place, in the 1996 Olympics, eight women tested positive and were then later medically cleared.

However, because of the history of sex testing "outing" women who had no idea they were somehow "different," and the cost of that, many countries have bans and privacy laws against these kinds of tests (for example, France).

It's also important to note that it's not yet clear who will pay for the tests or how the tests will be administered — with lab access for athletes varying widely across the globe.

Sex testing for female athletes was last abolished in 2000, because of the various issues around the tests. The rules now go back into effect for the 2028 Olympics...

🎧 LISTEN: The Tested podcast with NPR & the CBC; we also covered the return of genetic sex testing in track & field last year

The highlight reel

🚲 Demi Vollering finally won the Tour of Flanders — and it was an emotional weekend. A commitment to closing the gap between the men's and women's races meant it was the first of the one-day Monuments to offer equal prize money.
Imogen Boddy 🏃‍♀️ set a new solo women's course record for The Speed Project — running from L.A. to Las Vegas in 77 hours, 54 minutes.
☀️ ❄️ The Beyond the Ultimate global race series covers six races (over 800 miles) in hostile and remote terrain. Iona Barbu was the first person to complete all events in one year.
🌵 Sarah June set a fastest known time for the 247-mile Maricopa Loop in Arizona (84 hours, 17 minutes).
🏃‍♀️ Jane Hedengren set a new NCAA 10,000m record (30:46).
Follow along with Des Linden's attempt at the Marathon des Sables across the Sahara.
The Stawell Gift is a handicapped 120m race on a grass track in Australia – with runners given headstarts based on their records. Sha'Carri Richardson started behind everyone else and became just the third woman to win from the very farthest back position. 🏃‍♀️
90-year-old Ann Esselstyn set a world record as the oldest person to hold a dead hang from a pull-up bar — holding it for 2 minutes, 52 seconds.
⛷ The U.S. women's ski team won the Nations Cup title for the first time since 1982.
🏀 The Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo made their WNBA expansion draft picks.
🏐 Madisen Skinner scored 34 points, the most ever in a LOVB match.
The PWHL 🏒 sold out the Madison Square Garden, setting a league attendance record, as the New York Sirens beat the Seattle Torrent.
🤸‍♀️ The Elite Eight for the NCAA gymnastics national championships is set for next weekend.
Wrigley Field will host a doubleheader NCAA women's volleyball match.
💰 A lawsuit stemming from women's tennis, expected to be decided in the next few months, will determine if college athletes get to keep the prize money they earn before college.
🎾 The Charleston Open, won by Jessica Pegula, became the first WTA 500 standalone tournament to award equal prize money to the men and women.
🏎️ The all-women's F1 Academy has added extra races to their Montreal and Austin stops to account for the Saudi Arabia cancellation.
The U.S. Basketball Hall of Fame class this year will include Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne, and the entire 1996 women's national team.
Bobbi Gibb, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, was honored with a statue along the race course.