When the Women’s National Basketball Association came together for a candlelight vigil on Wednesday night, after boycotting the day’s three scheduled games to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake and other instances of police violence against Black men and women, a couple of the league’s male coaches spoke up.

“(They) spoke about how we as women have been inspirations to them. How we, with the courage that we show every day, with the fight that we show, with our dedication to our communities, are inspirations to them,” recalled Natalie Achonwa, a Canadian forward with the Indiana Fever.

The next day they inspired many: All 144 WNBA players stood together in their pandemic-induced bubble in Bradenton, Fla., masks on, arms linked, wearing the same black T-shirts with the same bright lettering.

“Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor,” the shirts read.

It will be one of the lasting visuals of a historic week in sport, as professional athletes across North America left the courts, the fields and the ice to protest anti-Black racism and police brutality after Blake, a Black man, was shot seven times in the back by Kenosha, Wis. police officer Rusten Sheskey.

The WNBA’s unification is long-standing. Female athletes, with the WNBA as a main driver in recent years, have long been at the forefront of sport’s push for social change, setting new standards for activism despite a risk of professional and financial backlash that could rock the foundation of women’s games. That includes the likes of tennis great Billie Jean King, the U.S. women’s soccer and hockey teams, and Ada Hegerberg, one of the world’s best soccer players, who have pushed for racial equity or gender equity or equity for the LGBTQ community, among other issues.

“(Advocating for social change) is what they’ve always had to do. They’ve always had to be brave and courageous just to be able to have the right to compete in the sport that they love,” said Katie Lebel, a marketing professor at Ryerson University and a founding member of Canada’s new Gender Equity in Sport research hub.

Wednesday, the first day of this week’s professional sports walkout, marked the four-year anniversary of the first time former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s drew attention to police brutality against Black victims by kneeling during the U.S. national anthem. His demonstration came more than a month after the WNBA began a co-ordinated Black Lives Matter protest in the wake of the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, two Black men killed by police. The protest, which began with players from the Minnesota Lynx wearing warm-up shirts bearing phrases such as “Change Starts With Us” and “Justice and Accountability,” earned players fines for dress code violations. They fought for the right to speak up with media blackouts and social media stands. The league rescinded the fines by month’s end.

“It’s kind of like nothing new, let’s fight even harder,” Achonwa said of the WNBA’s latest push against racial injustices. “That’s kind of the sentiment across the league.”

Seattle Storm guard Sue Bird — whose girlfriend, U.S. soccer midfielder Megan Rapinoe, has joined Kaepernick in kneeling and led the charge on pay equity in soccer — recently told The Old Man and the Three podcast that standing up for themselves has become natural.

“As female athletes we are judged based on everything except the game we’re playing. We’re being judged because we’re women. We’re being judged because we’re gay. We’re being judged because we’re Black,” Bird said. “All of these political things are being brought to us and that’s how we’ve had to find our way in this life, in this WNBA-trying-to-be-a-business life. We’ve had to battle that. It’s never just been about basketball for us.”

But putting a ball through a hoop or winning a game, set or match — like Serena and Venus Williams, Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff, who have all been outspoken about social injustices — is what gives these athletes the platform to demand changes, said Achonwa. So the WNBA returned on Friday, as did Osaka, who initially pulled out of her Western and Southern Open semifinal on Thursday as a personal protest.

“If we take away the basketball, we don’t get the mic,” Achonwa said. “We don’t get the opportunity to speak for women that don’t have this chance.”

Female athletes know there are risks to making political statements, but they want to stand for something, said Canadian Kia Nurse, who plays for the New York Liberty. But Lebel, of the Gender Equity in Sport research hub, said fans are embracing activism in general. A recent Nielsen U.S. study on promoting racial equality in sports found 69 per cent of sports fans expect athletes to be involved in the Black Lives Matter movement and 64 per cent of fans have an increased interest in brands that join the fight against racial inequality.

“(Female athletes are) starting to be able to use their social justice to actually build value around their brands, too, which I think is fantastic, but they’re also risking it all,” Lebel said. “They don’t have the same financial security that their male counterparts have but they never really faltered in using their platforms for good.”

Cheri Bradish, the founder and director of the Future of Sport Lab, a joint initiative between Ryerson university and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, believes female athletes can be better at navigating fan engagement and corralling support, in part because privilege isn’t as prevalent in their game as it is in male sports.

“Female athletes were built for this,” Bradish said. “They’ve always had to be more entrepreneurial, more innovative. They’ve had to champion themselves. I think that’s another emotional, intrinsic personal characteristic.”

The long-standing fight for change will continue for female athletes. The WNBA players have recommitted to the justice movement and will double down on previous calls for action, like demanding reform, registering to vote and showing up on election day, Nurse said. They will also try to bring in league owners and people with power, money and influence to help push the movement forward.

“This isn’t going to change overnight,” Nurse said. “We didn’t do this to say, ‘OK, tomorrow all the problems that we have with social justice are done.’ No. This is to continue the conversation … because it hasn’t created enough change.”