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Who is Sedona Prince? Oregon Ducks forward posts on 'sexism', forces NCAA to build weight room for women

Her clip went viral alongside images of a fully equipped gym at the men's tournament facilities at Indianapolis and called for equal treatment for men and women

Oregon's Sedona Prince has played a pivotal role in ensuring better workout equipment at the NCAA women's tournament. Earlier, she posted a video on Thursday, March 18, that showed a single set of dumbbells for student-athletes at the San Antonio tournament facilities. The footage went viral alongside images of a fully equipped gym at the men's tournament facilities at Indianapolis and called for equal treatment for men and women.

The results were immediate as the NCAA apologized for the discrepancy the following day and Saturday (March 20) saw a new weight room equipped with benches, free weights, racks, and cardio equipment. The Oregon Ducks player tweeted out a new video in celebration and thanked the NCAA. The video sees her provide a tour saying: "Guess what guys?" Prince said with a big smile on her face. "We got a weight room." She added: "Thank you NCAA for listening to us. We appreciate y'all. Thank you so much, for real."

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Who is Sedona Prince?

The 20-year-old hails from Liberty Hill, Texas, and at 6-foot-7, she is tied with Stefanie Kasperski (1986-90) as the tallest player ever to suit up for the Ducks, according to the official site of the basketball team. Her mother, Tambra, played basketball and volleyball at St. John's College in Kansas, while her father James served in the Marine Corps.

Prince also suffered a career-threatening injury in 2018. ESPN described the injury: "Prince was leaping to block a fast-break layup when her foot came down on her opponent's sneaker. The top 90% of her body continued moving straight down to the floor. The bottom 10% jutted violently to the left, snapping both her tibia and fibula in one swift, stomach-churning crack. She returned to the court this season, registering a 17-point performance.

Her video on social media saw netizens lash out at the NCAA. "No need to thank them because they only did it due to the backslash. Your video and social media forced their hand. You and the rest of the NCAAWBB players are the ones that deserve the credit for having to put up with this," one of the tweets read.

This was seconded by another tweet that read: "Awesome! But the fact that the weight room appeared almost instantly after being called out shows that it's not that they can't treat women equally, it's that they don't bother/don't care."

"Great that they complied but WoW...the guys aren’t thanking @NCAA for their weight room... and while it’s always good to show appreciation, @NCAA had to be “reminded” (shamed) into providing a training space that should have been part of the original plan. #NCAAWomen," one of the comments read. The lambasting continued: "I don’t think @NCAA deserves any love for this, without the public shaming nothing would have changed. They don’t care about. They care about the mighty dollar."