Olympian Candace Parker Is Tough Act To Beat

It has been quite a year for the former University of Tennessee athlete – historic. While that description has become over used in the hyperbole of the sports media, it is fitting.Los Angeles Sparks forward Candace Parker won a national championship, along the way helping lead the U.S. women’s basketball team to the gold medal in Beijing.

She is also only the second woman to dunk in an official match, and the first to repeat it, throwing down again in the next game.

It’s not surprising that she recently collected the AP female athlete of the year award to go along with earning WNBA Rookie of the Year and the MVP honors in the same year, making her the first player to win the three awards in the same year.

“Wow, that’s amazing,” the 22-year-old Parker said. “It’s been a great year from so many standpoints. I haven’t really had a chance to sit back and let it all sink in.”

Greatest of all time? We still have to wait. But Parker is on her way. The more appropriate question is whether she is the one to champion women’s sports in the modern era?

As the top draft choice, Parker’s Candace Parker base basketball salary of $44,064 – was less than a Nashville Police Officer with a college degree.

Compare that with what the first player selected in this year’s NBA draft will make: more than $4 million in the first year. And the difference in endorsement income is even wider.

The reasons for the gap are obvious in that support for male sports is more larger.

The remaining question is whether Candace is able to attract the level of attention and corporate sponsorships to add some zeroes to the paychecks of the world’s top female athletes.

The sky is the limit for Parker. In her first season, the Sparks did not make it to the finals but she is left to dream of titles, awards, and possibly a career that could go down as the best of all time.

Jay Hicks is a freelance writer, found primarily at PreRaceJitters.com, a popular online track & field magazine.