Sports fans have remarked that ESPN’s Christine Williamson seems to glow like soft dinner candles when she’s hosting shows, as if she is emitting a powerful light from within.
Williamson’s incandescent personality is on full display whenever she takes charge of the afternoon editions of “SportsCenter,” and when she fills in as the host of the sports network’s marquee show, “First Take.”
The former volleyball star and broadcast journalism graduate from the University of Miami is on an uninterrupted upward trajectory in her career at ESPN, which began in 2019. Coincidentally, Williamson’s national stature parallels the rise in popularity of the WNBA that resuscitated itself starting that same year and experienced explosive growth in 2024.
Williamson, who also obtained her master’s degree at Clemson, is obviously pleased with the greatly amplified interest and investments in women’s sports in recent years.
“It’s so interesting because, before, there was the idea that people didn’t want to watch women’s sports,” Williamson told rolling out about the erroneous notion that was proven false. “When you think about women’s college basketball versus men’s basketball, a lot of people don’t really know a lot of the players. But we know the top women’s players. So I think it’s been great.”
She’s got a point there. Collegiate superstars such as JuJu Watkins, Paige Bueckers, Hannah Hildalgo, Flau’jae Johnson and Lauren Betts have become household names. And last season, the national championship basketball game between Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks and Caitlin Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes broke TV viewership records, far outdistancing the men in the Nielsen ratings.
Williamson’s versatility and vivacity have catapulted her to national fame as an authority on multiple sports, which is why she also hosts ESPN digital platforms including “SC on Snap,” “Countdown to GameDay,” “Hoop Streams,” “Rankings Reaction,” “The Wrap-Up,” “The Heisman Show” and more.
Williamson, who adorned herself with the moniker “the bald girl” on her Instagram page, knew that female athletes only needed an opportunity to display their talents in order to shine. Much like Williamson does on camera.
“The one thing that we’ve always said is that we just need a platform and then people will come,” she said, adding, “and so it’s been able to find its way” and thrive.
