Soccer pioneers recall the first Women’s World Cup
足球先驱者们的第一届女子世界杯
Female soccer players have made great strides since the quadrennial tournament was first held in 1991. But the fight for equality continues.
自从1991年四年一次的锦标赛开办以来，女性足球运动员取得了极大的发展。但是争取平等的斗争仍在继续。
stride [straɪd] n. 大步，阔步; 步幅; 进展; 一跨（的宽度）; vt. & vi. 大踏步走; 跨过; vi. 跨; vt. 跨坐在…;
quadrennial [kwɒd'renɪəl] adj. 继续四年的，每四年一次的;
发布于2019-07-05 by CLAIRE WOLTERS
Female soccer players are riding a wave of attention and accolades this summer, as fans around the world have been tuning into the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The contest reaches its climax this Sunday, as the top-ranked U.S. Women’s National Team plays the Netherlands for the championship title.
这个夏天女性足球运动员们收获了一大波关注与褒奖，世界各地的球迷们都收看了2019年FIFA女子世界杯。赛事将在这个周日到达顶峰，届时顶级的美国女子国家队将与荷兰队争夺冠军奖杯。
accolade [ˈækəleɪd] n. 嘉奖，表扬; 武士爵位的授予（礼）; [乐]达谱号
But sports historians and players who competed in the first Women’s World Cup, held in China in 1991, say things were very different then.
但是经历过1991年举办于中国的第一次女子世界杯的体育学家和运动员们说：那时的情况（和现在）很不一样。
Millions of American girls have grown up playing soccer to the cheers of parents and peers. But 28 years ago, playing pro soccer wasn't a promising career path for women.
现在，成千上万的美国女孩自小踢足球，在家长和同龄人的欢呼中长大。但是28年前，对于女性来说，职业足球并不是一个有前途的职业路线。
“It wasn't popular; it wasn’t the right thing to do,” says Carin Jennings Gabarra, the 1991 tournament’s Most Valuable Player. “People would always ask, ‘Are you that soccer player?’ and I would say, ‘No, I don't do that,’ and hide the fact that I had this athletic side to me, because that wasn't the cool thing and the acceptable thing.”
1991年锦标赛的最有价值球员Carin Jennings Gabarra说：“足球（在女性中）并不流行，它不是一件正当的工作。人们总是会问：‘你是足球员吗（that 惊讶脸）？’我会回答说：‘不，我不踢足球’，来掩饰我运动员的一面这一事实，因为它在当时不是一件高大上甚至能让人接受的工作。”
Glaring disparities between men's and women's teams were a given, so taken for granted it “wasn’t even a thought,” says 1991 midfielder Shannon Higgins-Cirovski.
1991年的中场Shannon Higgins-Cirovski说：在男队和女队之间明显的不平等是直接存在的，因此人们会不假思索地认为它理所当然。
disparity [dɪˈspærəti] n. 不同; 不等; 不一致; 悬殊;
“I can remember being in France and the youth boys’ team was on this big luxurious bus, staying in a hotel down the road, and we're at a farmhouse with this little tiny bus,” she says. “It was complete and total gender discrimination.”
她说：“我还记得在法国，青年男队乘坐的是一辆豪华大巴，住在路边的一家酒店，而我们坐了一辆小巴，住在一个农场里。”
In those days women players often wore hand-me-down uniforms from the men’s team, slept in cockroach-infested hotel rooms, and were paid as little as $10 a day. The rules required that they play with a smaller, lighter ball than the men’s team.
那时候，女性运动员经常穿男队穿过的球衣，睡在蟑螂遍布的旅馆房间里，拿着少到10美元一天的工资。此外，还有一个规定要求她们使用比男队更小更轻的足球。
hand-me-down [ˈhændmi:ˌdaʊn] adj. 非订作的便宜货，半新的;n. 旧的衣服，成衣;
cockroach [ˈkɒkrəʊtʃ] n. [昆]蟑螂;
infest [ɪnˈfest] vt. 大批出没，成群出现; 在…上寄生，寄生于; 骚扰;
“We supposedly couldn't handle it,” Higgins-Cirovski says. “I think the tail end of it, they didn’t really want it to be the same as the men’s game.”
Higgins-Cirovski说：“我们被认为玩不转正常足球。我认为本质是他们不想我们和男队一样。”
The U.S. women’s team won the 1991 World Cup, beating Norway 2 to 1. But their victory attracted scant attention back home.
美国女队2:1击败挪威队获得了1991年世界杯冠军。但是她们的胜利在美国少有关注。
scant [skænt] adj. 不足的; 缺乏的; 将近的; 吝啬的; vt. 限制; 节省; 吝惜;
“It wasn’t covered in the United States anywhere close to the extent it was internationally,” says Eileen Narcotta-Welp, an associate professor of sports and exercise science at the University of Wisconsin, Lacrosse. “When they came back, there was really no press, no media, there to greet them.”
Eileen Narcotta-Welp，Lacrosse威斯康星大学的一位运动与运动科学的副教授，说到：“对于一个国际事件来说，它没有在美国的任何地方有相关报道。当她们回来的时候，没有新闻媒体祝贺她们。”
Tennis greats lead the way
网球巨星是她们的榜样
In their struggle to gain recognition and equal treatment, the trailblazers in women’s soccer drew inspiration from tennis great Billie Jean King, whose famous “Battle of the Sexes” match in 1973 set a new precedent for women in sports.
在她们争取认可和平等对待的斗争中，女性足球的先驱者们从网球巨星Billie Jean King身上得到了激励，1973年她著名的“为性别而战”比赛开创了女性体育的一个先例。
trailblazer [ˈtreɪlbleɪzə(r)] n. 开路的人，先驱者，开拓者;
In the early 1970s, King and a group of eight other women tennis players called the Houston Nine split from the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) to protest unequal prize money. At the time, women tennis players received 20 to 50 percent of the men’s prize money for tournament victories.
在20世纪70年代早期，King和另外八位女网球运动员，被称为休斯顿九人，退出了美国草地网球协会以抗议不平等奖金。那时候，女性网球运动员获得锦标赛胜利后仅可获得男性运动员奖金的20-50%。
protest [ˈprəʊtest] n. 抗议; 反对; 申明;
Rather than boycott the game, the Houston Nine formed their own tour. The start-up was less stable than the USLTA, but it gained media attention and sponsorship from Virginia Slims, a cigarette brand marketed to women. The group formed the Women’s Tennis Association in 1973. Threatened by this rival group, the USLTA invited the women back—this time offering them equal prize money.
不是选择罢赛，休斯顿九人选择自行参加比赛。尽管初始不是很稳定，但是它获得了媒体的关注和一个针对女性市场叫Virginia Slims的香烟品牌资助。在1973年，她们成立了女性网球协会。因为受到这个对立协会的影响，美国草地网球协会以提供平等奖金的条件邀请她们重返协会。
boycott [ˈbɔɪkɒt] vt. 联合抵制; 抵制（货物等）; 拒绝参加; n. 联合抵制; 联合拒绝购买; 拒绝参加;
But the gains made by female tennis players wouldn’t transfer to women’s soccer anytime soon. While girls who aspire to soccer stardom now have plenty of role models in players like Alex Morgan, the third-youngest player to score more than 100 goals in her career, the financial field has yet to be leveled.
但是女性网球运动员们的收获并不能很快地转移到女子足球上。尽管目前渴望成为足球巨星的女性拥有很多运动员榜样，像职业生涯攻进100球的第三年轻运动员Alex Morgan，但是（男女运动员的）经济层面尚未达到同一水平
aspire [əˈspaɪə(r)] vi. 渴望，立志，追求; 〈诗，古〉登，升，高耸;
stardom [ˈstɑ:dəm] n. 演员们; 明星界; 明星地位; 群星;
Today tennis superstar Serena Williams is the only woman who appears on Forbes’ top 100 list of The World’s Highest-Paid Athletes. The list includes a dozen male soccer players (including the top three earners), but not a single female soccer star. This despite the fact that U.S. women players today are often outperforming men on the field and at the ticket booth.
网球巨星Serena Williams是目前唯一一位出现在福布斯高薪运动员排行前一百位的女性运动员。这个榜单包含12个足球运动员（包括榜单前三位），但是并没有一个女性足球明星。尽管目前美国女子运动员经常比男性在赛场上表现的更出色，赛事售票更为火爆。
booth [bu:ð] n. 售货棚，摊位; 公用电话亭; 隔开的小间; （选举）投票站;
In the 28 years since the inception of the Women’s World Cup, the U.S. women’s soccer team has won three of seven world championships—including the most recent contest in 2015. In contrast, throughout the tournament’s entire 89-year existence, the U.S. men’s team has yet to win a World Cup.
在女子世界杯开始以来的28年间，美国女子足球队共赢得了3次冠军（共7届），包括最近的2015年女子世界杯。与之相比，在锦标赛存在的89年历史中，美国男子足球队并没有获得过一次冠军。
inception [ɪnˈsepʃn] n. 开始，开端，初期; 获得学位;
Moreover, while U.S. men’s games used to generate much more in ticket sales than women’s, the gap has all but disappeared in recent years. “From 2016 to 2018, women’s games generated about 49.9 million for the men,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
除此之外，尽管美国男队比赛过去常常比女队比赛售票更多，但是近年来其中的差距几乎消失了。华尔街杂志报道说：“自2016-2018年，相较于男队比赛的4990万美元收入，女队为5080万美元。”
The earning power of women players is also seen in product sales. Sports gear maker Nike reports that the U.S. women’s jersey is now “the No. 1 soccer jersey, men’s or women’s, ever sold on Nike.com in one season.”
女性运动员的商业价值在商品销量上也有体现。运动装备制造商Nike报道说在一个赛季里，Nike官网上售出的男女性足球球衣中，销量第一位是美国女队球衣。（这句话比较奇怪，感觉应该如上翻译，问题出在引号上。应该是倒装了，正常语序为Now the No. 1 soccer jersey, men’s or women’s, ever sold on Nike.com in one season is the U.S. women’s jersey。）
gear [gɪə(r)] n. 齿轮; 排挡; 传动装置; 衣服 ; vi. 接上; 调和; vt. 使适应; 装上齿轮; 用齿轮连接;
jersey [ˈdʒɜ:zi] n. 毛织运动衫，毛线衫; 泽西岛; 泽西种乳牛;
Yet financial restrictions by FIFA have disadvantaged the women’s game. Until recently, women played for 30 million in October 2018, but the number is still a far cry from the men’s prize of $400 million.
然而，由FIFA制定的经济规则限制了女队比赛。之前，女性奖金为1500万美元，2018年翻倍为3000万美元，但是这个数目距离男队4亿美元奖金相去甚远。
Other ongoing disparities include media coverage and an imbalance between male and female coaches.
此外还有一些其他的不平等，包括媒体报道和男女教练（数目）不平衡。
Women’s sports receive only four percent of all sports media coverage, despite female athletes accounting for 40 percent of all sports participants, according to the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. And while a third of the 24 teams competing in the Women’s World Cup are coached by women, none of the 32 men’s teams have a female coach.
在Tucker Center关于体育女性的调查中得出：尽管女性运动员合计达到所有体育运动参与者的40%，女子赛事仅能得到所有体育报道的4%。并且尽管女子世界杯中三分之一的球队（共24支）由女性执教，但是32支男队中没有一个女子教练。
The battle for equality now shifts from the soccer pitch to the District Court of Central California, where the U.S. women are suing the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) for violating the Equal Pay Act.
目前争取平等的斗争从足球场转移到了加州中部地区法院。美国女子（运动员）起诉美国足球联盟违反同酬法。
The suit asks the USSF for damages and to implement equal pay between the men’s and women’s teams going forward. It also addresses inequalities in travel accommodations and playing conditions, such as whether a field is grass or artificial turf, says Jeffrey L. Kessler, co-executive chairman of Winston & Strawn, who will be representing the women.
将代表女子运动员的Winston & Strawn联合执行主席Jeffrey L. Kessler说：这个诉讼要求美国足球联盟赔偿损失，并在男女队之间实行平等的酬劳。它同时也强调旅行住宿与比赛环境的不平等问题，例如赛场是草地还是人造草皮。
implement [ˈɪmplɪment] vt. 实施，执行; 使生效，实现; 落实（政策）; 把…填满; n. 工具，器械; 家具; 手段; [法]履行（契约等）;
turf [tɜ:f] n. 草皮; 泥炭;赛马场，跑马场; vt. 用草皮覆盖; 扔掉; 赶走;
USSF currently negotiates separate wages with the men’s and women’s teams through collective bargaining agreements. The USSF pays male players based on their success throughout the season, while giving the women a flat starting rate. Thus, the men’s salaries can reach greater heights, while the women have a smaller, guaranteed pay. Because those agreements are not made public, it can be difficult to tally up exactly what the pay discrepancy is.
目前美国足球联盟通过集体谈判协议与男队女队协商不同工资问题。美国足球联盟基于男性球员一个赛季的表现给予酬劳，但却给女性运动员一个起始工资点。因此，男性运动员的薪水可以达到较高的水平，而女性可以收获一个较少的保障薪水。因为这些协议并不公开，很难计算出薪水差异有多大。
tally [ˈtæli] n. 计数器; 标签; 记账; vt. 测量，计数; 通过做记号记录; 加标签于; 使符合，使吻合; vi. 符合，吻合; 记录，计分;
discrepancy [dɪsˈkrepənsi] n. 差异，不符合，不一致
Kessler has worked on groundbreaking sports cases in the past. In 2007, he helped the Women’s Tennis Benefit Association access equal prize money for Grand Slam tournaments. He says his latest clients are optimistic about their chances in court.
过去Kessler一直专注于开创性的体育案件。在2007年，他帮助女子网球权益协会获得了大满贯锦标赛的同额奖金。他说他最近的客户都对法庭结果表示乐观
“If the women win, it will be a great day for everyone,” Kessler says. “I think they expect to win the lawsuit—just like they expect to win the World Cup.”
Kessler说：“如果女性（运动员）胜诉，它将是所有人的胜利。我想她们像希望赢得世界杯一样期待着胜诉。”
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