Whoopi Goldberg and George Chung
Whoopi Goldberg—famend TV host, actress, activist and the primary Black EGOT winner—has at all times been a trailblazer and influential voice throughout many fields and industries. Now she is boldly pioneering a brand new enterprise: All Women’s Sports Network (AWSN), the primary ever world community devoted completely to ladies’s sports activities.
“I’m an enormous sports activities fan and a supporter of girls’s sports activities and ladies in sports activities and have by no means felt ladies and women have had the identical alternatives and assist that male athletes have,” Goldberg advised me. “I’ve at all times appeared to media to offer equal time and alternative to observe ladies’s basketball, soccer, volleyball—past the Olympics. I knew that if I couldn’t discover these sports activities and watch the wonderful feminine athletes taking part in them, others weren’t discovering them both.”
With curiosity in ladies’s sports activities at an all-time excessive—evidenced by record-setting viewership in 2024—but protection nonetheless being vastly disproportionate to males’s sports activities, Goldberg acknowledged the lengthy overdue must stage the taking part in discipline. She partnered with media govt and lifelong martial artist George Chung, AWSN’s cofounder and CEO. “I met George and each of us agreed that there was a chance not solely to create a enterprise however present a much-needed service to male and feminine sports activities followers, ladies and types that wished to assist the wonderful athletes in ladies’s sports activities throughout the globe,” she stated. “I actually hope shining a lightweight on ladies’s sports activities will assist elevate feminine athletes around the globe.”
Goldberg and Chung teamed up with streaming service Jungo TV and launched AWSN in November. The community affords reside ladies’s sports activities matches, that includes a few of the largest leagues on the planet similar to UEFA, FIBA, WTA and WNBL, reaching over 2 billion folks in 65 international locations.
“As somebody who has at all times been passionate in regards to the intersection of sports activities and media, I noticed a chance with AWSN to create a platform that amplifies the tales of unimaginable feminine athletes and offers them with the protection they deserve,” Chung defined. “Ladies’s sports activities have traditionally been underrepresented in conventional media, and that should change. Whoopi’s dream is to have fun the expertise, willpower and distinctive narratives in ladies’s sports activities and to construct a devoted group for followers who need to be a part of that journey.”
Once I requested Goldberg what she hopes to realize with the community, she stated, “We would like AWSN to be a media community for everybody who’s a fan of girls’s sports activities from throughout the globe. Ladies are wonderful athletes and compete with as a lot focus and depth as males. It’s our likelihood to offer a extra even taking part in discipline for followers to look at and assist the artwork of sports activities and competitors.” She went on to say that she hopes the community will present viewers with “inspiration, aspiration, nice athletic performances, attention-grabbing sports activities you won’t pay attention to and distinctive tales from everywhere in the world.”
Chung added, “Our purpose is to raise ladies’s sports activities to new heights by giving them a platform that’s completely centered on showcasing their achievements. We’re not simply making a community; we’re constructing a motion. By way of AWSN, we need to drive better visibility, generate extra alternatives for feminine athletes and encourage the following era to see that the sky’s the restrict for them in sports activities. Finally, we hope to vary the way in which ladies’s sports activities are perceived and valued within the broader sports activities and leisure ecosystem.”
The purpose of inspiring the following era of girls athletes is a vital one, particularly since sports activities have been proven to supply numerous benefits—together with rising vanity, lowering melancholy and anxiousness and creating stronger peer relationships—but women are two to three times more likely to drop out of sports activities than boys.
As Goldberg advised me, AWSN offers women “a chance to see themselves. To dream. To know that in the event that they dream it, they will do it. Sports activities is the nice leveler—it offers a chance to compete, to dream and carry out. Sports activities teaches and encourages self-discipline, teamwork and the pursuit of private excellence. And it’s enjoyable!”
Analysis reveals that participation in sports activities additionally correlates to future management roles, with a recent study from the Ladies’s Sports activities Basis stating, “There’s a clear and constructive relationship between years spent in youth sports activities and holding formal management titles in maturity, with better years of involvement rendering better probability of management.”
The broader alternative of AWSN is to make significant strides towards closing gaps of girls’s sports activities protection and ladies athletes’ pay. As Chung described it, “AWSN is uniquely positioned to problem the inequities in ladies’s sports activities by making a devoted house for protection, illustration and storytelling. Visibility is a important first step towards fairness—if folks can see the expertise and pleasure in ladies’s sports activities, they’ll be extra more likely to make investments, attend video games and assist these athletes. Past visibility, we purpose to offer a platform for advocacy and dialogue, pushing for systemic adjustments like equal pay, higher sponsorship alternatives and expanded assets for feminine athletes.”
Aptly, AWSN’s motto is, “When She Wins, We All Win.” Once I requested Goldberg to elaborate, she stated, “It’s so simple as that: when ladies are proven on the pitch, within the enviornment, the pool, the stadium—it’s not about one individual’s victory however everybody’s. We need to showcase and have fun the victory of girls excelling within the stunning athletic competitions we collectively name sports activities.”
Finally, the far-reaching nature of this world community has the potential to form the way forward for the ladies’s sports activities trade. “Ladies’s sports activities are usually not simply an rising market—they’re a robust drive,” Chung advised me. “At AWSN, we consider that the way forward for sports activities is inclusive, equitable and provoking, and we’re honored to play a component in shaping that future. That is only the start, and we’re excited to proceed amplifying the voices of girls in sports activities and celebrating their success on and off the sector. Thanks to everybody who has supported this imaginative and prescient—we’re constructing one thing really particular, collectively.”
For extra info and to start out watching, go to AWSN or stream the AWSN channel on Vizio.
See Whoopi Goldberg’s announcement video under.
