As a teenager and young adult, I often wondered if my family had a way of communicating on a soul-level through sports that I didn’t understand. Granted, it wasn’t entirely my family’s fault. They tried. I hadn’t followed my grandmother’s advice to read the entire sports page in the paper every morning, especially Jim Murray’s column, and I didn’t take sports very seriously. I just didn’t seem to care the way that they did. I…

BBC presenter John Inverdale’s comments about Wimbledon women’s single champion Marion Bartoli’s physical appearance earlier this week, and the furor they inspired, have called attention once again to the deep-rooted, pervasive sexism within professional sports. But her reaction serves as a barometer of how things have changed for women athletes over the years. For those who don’t know, Inverdale, chatting with another commentator about champion Bartoli’s technique as a player, remarked: I just wonder if…