The Luxury of Humility

“You guys want to win the game? Give me the ball and get out of the way,” said Larry Bird. He went down in history as Larry Legend.

“I’m now a legend. I’m also the greatest athlete to live,” declared Usain Bolt. The world dubbed him “Lightning Bolt” 

“It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am,” announced Muhammad Ali. He called himself “the Greatest” and now history calls him that too. 

“We have the best team and the second-best team in the world,” said Ali Krieger. Her team was vilified for their so-called arrogance.

Bird, Bolt, and Ali proclaimed their greatness and the world rewarded them with money, fame and adoration. The world clamored for more. Whether out of love or out of hate, sports fans crave the bravado of their male athletes. But female athletes? Not so much.

Those same sports fans demand that their female athletes are humble. The problem is, if female athletes don’t assert their own greatness, no one will recognize them. And when they do claim it, their egos are used as tools to discredit their success. Women can’t afford to be humble, and they can’t afford not to be.

Serena Williams has been a tennis champion for more than twenty years. She is the definition of absolute athletic excellence, having won 73 career singles titles, including 23 Grand Slams, and four Olympic gold medals. She holds more Grand Slam singles titles than Roger Federer and is by myriad measures the most successful player in history.

But despite her tennis dominance, she has been subjected to scrutiny and punishments unlike her male counterparts. When Serena Williams slammed her tennis racket down in her match against Naomi Osaka, she was deducted a point. And when she protested the deduction’s obvious sexism, she was further punished with the deduction of an entire game. The call divided tennis fans across the world. Supporters of Williams agreed wholeheartedly that her outburst greatly resembled those of “bad boy” John McEnroe. Williams’ critics were quick to suggest that her outburst was born of an inflated ego and unwarranted sense of entitlement. There should be no doubt: gender was central to the controversy.

Simone Biles is one of the most decorated gymnasts in history with 25 World Championship medals and four Olympic gold medals. She has four skills named after her. Her all-around victory at the 2016 Rio Olympics was the biggest margin of victory from 1980 to 2012, combined. She is the winningest gymnast on the world level, male or female.

When Biles competed in an Olympic qualifying meet in 2019, she faced criticism for being “too cocky” as she wore a leotard with her last name bedazzled on the back. In response, she added a goat to her leotard, representing her “Greatest of All Time”  status. Biles said, “It’s not out of cockiness. I’ve won five world titles and if I say, ‘I’m the best gymnast there is,’ (the reaction is) ‘Oh, she’s cocky. Look at her now.’ No, the facts are literally on the paper.” Biles hoped to teach young girls that they have the same right as men to be confident in themselves.

The United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) holds four World Cup titles, more than any other women’s national soccer team. They hold four Olympic gold medals. During the last World Cup, they scored more goals in one game than their male counterparts scored in three World Cups. They also scored the most goals in a single tournament by a team in a World Cup ever, men’s or women’s.

At the 2019 World Cup in France, the USWNT eviscerated Thailand 13-0. As the game unfolded, the team celebrated each and every goal, treating each with equal exuberance. And predictably, critics assailed the team, suggesting that the team should have stopped scoring or at least stopped celebrating their goals. When Alex Morgan scored against the English and famously mimed sipping tea, she again was attacked for the “disrespectful” manner in which she celebrated. “Wah wah wah” said Megan Rapinoe, “We work hard, we like to play hard.”

Despite being unquestionably the best in their sports, these women are criticized repeatedly and wrongfully for owning their greatness in ways that men are not.

They have redefined their respective games and become some of the greatest to ever play, but more often than not, their accomplishments are not regarded as equivalent to male accomplishments. Like women in almost every professional field, female athletes must demand recognition for her accomplishments in ways that are constantly labeled as “aggressive” where similar actions of her male counterparts go unquestioned. 

Women in sports are routinely disparaged with claims that their efforts are less exciting, less challenging, and generate less revenue than male sports. These allegations fly in the face of reality and instead stem directly from disrespect for women’s sports altogether. In many cases, women are asked not to be just as good as her male counterpart, but unequivocally better. And even when she is superior, her greatness is minimized to comfort traditional perceptions of women in sports.

For these reasons, the female athlete must talk louder and more often about her accomplishments because if she does not, there are few that will. She must be showier than even her showiest male counterpart. Male athletes can trash talk, outwardly display their frustration and openly brag about their talent and the world swoons. But the same respect that gives men that right falls short when it comes to female athletes.

So, until the world is ready to make room for women in the sports spotlight, stop asking female athletes to be humble. Credit them for fighting for their recognition in the same way they’ve fought for the accomplishments that make them worthy. And thank Serena Williams, Simone Biles and the women of the USWNT for paving the way.

No, they’re not humble. Female athletes do not have the luxury of humility.