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WNT, the acronym for "Women's National Team," applies to all sports and is used by a number of English speaking countries (e.g.: Canada, England, New Zealand, USA). The term is used within a sport's community when there is only reference to that specific sport (e.g.: "We got tickets for the WNT's next home game!"). When clarifying which sport or which country's team, the reference might be, "the US Basketball WNT" or "the Soccer Germany WNT." Not all WNTs are paid (professional) or have a women's national league from which to draw new players. When women professional athletes are able to dedicate themselves full-time to developing their skills, they raise the level of play in a sport and provide much higher caliber Women's National Team players. Most top women athletes must work full-time jobs, in addition to their training, practice and competition schedules. In the United States, women's pro sports teams and leagues are still relatively new and athletes under-paid as of 2005. In America for instance, 51 years after inception of the men's NBA, the WNBA began its first season in 1997. Salaries are surprisingly low for such highly skilled athletes. The 2005 WNBA team salary cap was ($0.673 million ). The men's NBA cap was over 60 times higher, at ($43.87 million ). The WUSA became the first American women's pro soccer league in 2001. Fans enjoyed women's pro soccer for three seasons before executives (announced ) suspension of the league for lack of financial sponsorship and in spite of the fact that the US Soccer WNT was (rated ) one of the world's top teams. Absence of a women's pro soccer league in the United States makes it difficult for the Soccer WNT to find new players who are (ready for international competition ). A 2004 effort to (revive the WUSA ) was launched. In 2008, an organization called Women's Professional Soccer was formed and began playing pro soccer in 2009. The WNBA enjoys financial backing via the NBA and supplies a stream of professional players to the (US Basketball WNT ). ==Gender Discrimination at the 2015 FIFA World Cup== At the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup held in Canada, a group of international players filed a lawsuit over the issues of discrimination. The women were forced to play on artificial turf, rather than real grass that the men played on in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Sydney Leroux, a member of the United States women's national soccer team stated "It is a gender equality issue. No chance men will ever play a World Cup on turf. I think the women are being treated as guinea pigs."〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/fifa-women-s-world-cup-gender-discrimation-allegations-dog-promotional-efforts-1.2756465 )〕 Her teammate, Alex Morgan, is one of forty plus international players who have filed a lawsuit against FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association, claiming gender discrimination since men's games are always played on grass. Turf is often believed to cause more injuries than grass-playing surfaces. Dr. Michael Freitas, associate professor of clinical orthopedics and team doctor for the Western New York Flash, says it's difficult to determine if injuries are more prominent on grass or on turf. In 2014, he treated three players who suffered from major injuries on different types of playing surfaces. "This illustrates the fact that we don't really know if one is better than the other," he says. "But from a lot of players I've talked to, artificial surfaces can be harder, less cushioning, and they may get more aches and pains as opposed to a true catastrophic ligament rupture. I don't know if those symptoms are captured in the studies we see." 〔 Women at the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup were also subjected to gender testing before they were allowed to join their respective international team. In the past, verification of gender has been verified through physical exams, hormone, and chromosome testing. According to FIFA, "It lies with each participating member association to ... ensure the correct gender of all players by actively investigating any perceived deviation in secondary sex characteristic." Players subjected to the testing were amused by this testing, however some found it humiliating. Gender testing also prevents those who do not identify as cisgender from participating. FIFA rules do call for gender verification of all players, although there is no record of male players ever being tested.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Women's National Team」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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