Gender Bias in Sports Commentary : the CrossFit Games

Abstract: This paper examines the phenomenon of gender-biased language of sports commentary in the 2019 CrossFit Games. Three events from the 2019 CrossFit Games were transcribed verbatim and analyzed to answer five hypotheses relating to the overarching question of this paper; Do commentators' talks contain noticeable differences in the mentions of female and male athletes? The results of the five hypotheses were mixed; two were confirmed, two were ambiguous, and one was refuted. However, in relation to previous research, the conclusion of this paper was that the phenomenon of gender-biased speech in sports commentary exists in the sport of CrossFit in the year 2019. This paper suggests that further research should be carried out in the field of gender-biased commentary in sports and its relation to society and, more specifically the communities of both athletes and commentators.