NCAA Improves Weight Room For Women's March Madness Tournament After Backlash

The NCAA has made improvements to the weight training facilities for its womens basketball tournament in San Antonio, Texas days after players and fans expressed outrage at the inequities between the womens and mens March Madness tournaments, both of which kicked off this week.

The womens basketball teams awoke Saturday to find a bigger and more amply stocked weight room at the convention center where they practice. The facility now has heavier weights, six squat racks, benches, resistance bands and exercise balls, as well as exercise bikes, rowing machines, treadmills and yoga mats, among other equipment, ESPN reported .

Guess what, guys? We got a weight room, yeah, a thrilled Sedona Prince, forward for the University of Oregon, said in a video posted to Twitter.

Social media is powerful, she wrote. Thank you for all of yalls support.

Social media is powerful. Thank you for all of yalls support pic.twitter.com/YR5ZNwywv6

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Social media is powerful. Thank you for all of yalls support pic.twitter.com/YR5ZNwywv6
Sedona Prince (@sedonaprince_) March 20, 2021

The additions to the womens weight room were made after players and coaches at the tournament lambasted the NCAA for providing vastly inferior facilities for the womens tournament compared to the mens competition, which is happening in Indiana.

Ali Kershner, a Stanford University sports performance coach, posted a photo on Instagram on Thursday which offered a side-by-side comparison of the two facilities. The mens weight room was large and well-stocked with power racks and Olympic bars and weights, while the womens setup appeared to consist of a single set of dumbbells and a stack of yoga mats.

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