Courtesy of Aimee Sanders
Sports Illustrated and Empower Onyx are putting the spotlight on the diverse journeys of Black women across sports—from the veteran athletes, to up-and-coming stars, coaches, executives and more—in the series, Elle-evate: 100 Influential Black Women in Sports.
In the spring of 2020, sports as we knew them were forever changed. As the pandemic brought the competition calendar to a screeching halt, the unjust killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and more unarmed Black Americans had athletes demonstrating against institutionalized racism like never before. The louder LeBron James, Eric Reid, Bubba Wallace and others became about acknowledging the racial reckoning taking place outside the painted lines, the more it became impossible for the media that follow these stars to simply “stick to sports.