Women's basketball was developed in the US in the late 1800's along with Men's basketball. Women's sports largely became popular through collegiate play. Women's basketball began at Smith college and was the first Women's team sport.
Although Women's basketball started in 1892, due to thoughts regarding femininity and health concerns of strenuous activity for women during that time, the sport was exclusively intramural. The first college game was played between Stanford University and University of California, Berkley in 1896. Women's basketball however, still had a long way to go as the WNBA wasn't announced until 1996, 50 years after the NBA began in 1946 under the moniker Basketball Association of America. Women's basketball has come a long way since it's inception, and has become very competitive.
Today there are over 400,000 high school basketball female athletes, 1,800 college women's basketball programs, and 12 teams in the WNBA consisting of the best women's basketball players in the world.
Female athletes have pushed the sport forward by setting and breaking records such as Elizabeth Cambage's scoring record of 53 points in one game, Diana Taurasi's 3-point shooting record of 1164 3-point shots made, and Tamika Catching's 1074 steals. One favorite record however, is the dunk record, which belongs to Brittney Griner. As a high school senior, she dunked 52 times in 32 games and set a single-game record of seven dunks.
NGWSD is a time to reflect and celebrate with all girl's and women athletes around the world. Girls and women getting to compete and break records in sports is a major victory in showing female strength, helping to build confidence among young girls and create equality among girl's and women everywhere.
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