Edited by: TJVNews.com
Now that women’s professional sports has once again dominated the headlines because of the challenges that it would face with the inclusion of transgendered athletes, it appears that a new company that is comprised of US Olympic athletes has been formed.
According to a CNN report, Chloe Kim, Simone Manuel, Alex Morgan and Sue Bird, (all former US Olympians) have joined forces in the formation of TOGETHXR, a media and commerce company aimed at Gen Z and young millennial women, according to the CNN report.
Speaking to CNN, chief content officer Jessica Robertson said, “This brand is certainly for this generation, it’s for our co-founders and their teammates, and this collective women’s sports landscape, but it’s really for the next generation. It’s so young girls can see themselves reflected in the stories that we tell, that they have a place to go that feels like they’re bigger than themselves, gives them something to aspire to, and to be seen and heard and recognized.”
CNN reported that Robertson came to TOGETHXR after working at The Players’ Tribune, which was founded by legendary New York Yankees’ shortstop Derek Jeter.
Despite the fact that the number of professional female athletes has significantly increased over the years, she said that what still persists is that men’s sports are given the lion’s share of coverage on the media.
In an e-mail to CNN, Nicole M. LaVoi, the director of the The Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota said that, “The paradox is coverage has gone down while more and more girls and women are playing sports And now high profile women athletes, like those in TOGETHXR, are taking this lack of coverage into their own hands and disrupting the existing landscape of media coverage that has benefited and overrepresented men.”
She added that many of their best stories came from female athletes, but women’s sports get only a fraction of the coverage of men’s sports.
“When you have low visibility, it’s really hard to grow your fan base and grow interest. Less people are buying tickets, literally, there aren’t people in the seats,” Robertson said. “If there’s not a lot of fandom and a want to see the stories or watch these games, then there’s a lack of investment from corporations and big brand partners.”
The company will create short-form content for Instagram, TikTok and other social media channels, according to Robertson. They will also create original content for their YouTube channel and other streaming services, according to the CNN report.
Supplying financing for this venture is a private equity-backed holding company known as Magnet Companies. They are both funding and operating TOGETHXR.
Manuel, who won four medals at the 2016 Olympics and became the first Black American woman to win an individual gold medal in swimming, shared her excitement on Twitter, according to the CNN report.
“I can’t wait to share everything we have in store,” she wrote. “There has never been a place for women that exist like this. It’s about damn time.”
Morgan plays for the Orlando Pride professional woman’s soccer team and has won two World Cup championships and an Olympic gold medal with the US Women’s National Soccer team.
