Is the world ready for a woman coaching a top male athlete? Analysis of online reactions to Mauresmo's appointment as Murray's coach

After becoming one of the first tennis players (male or female) to come out as gay, Amélie Mauresmo once again broke down barriers when in retirement she started coaching men. This paper explores the public's reaction to the announcement of Mauresmo as Andy Murray's coach by using a thematic qualitative content analysis to study online comments made on Yahoo! in the US, France (Mauresmo's country), and the UK (where Scotsman Murray is from). Its purpose is to investigate the public's reaction to Mauresmo's appointment, and how her biological sex, gender and sexuality came into play, if at all. Results indicated that hegemonic masculinity is still omnipresent in the sport culture, and the disparaging humor toward both women and gay people is sometimes used as an attempt to make that hegemonic masculinity more acceptable.