The recent IOC Leadership & Talent Development Seminar “Women in Sport for Europe” was attended by Sarah Keane on behalf of Olympic Council of Ireland Executive Board.
The event was held in Warsaw, Poland over 3 days and included representation from over 35 countries. The Olympic Movement has as one of its central beliefs and written into its charter that sport should be available to all regardless of gender, race, ethnicity or any other form of discrimination including sexual orientation.
Keane said “I was delighted to attend the recent International Olympic Committee’s Leadership & Talent Development Seminar for Women and Sport in Europe as the OCI’s delegate. The Seminar focused on encouraging and supporting women as leaders and was both empowering and enjoyable.”
Full gender equality within the Olympic movement is one of the key recommendations of the Olympic Agenda 2020 led by IOC President Thomas Bach. There is almost equality at the Olympic Games in terms of participation at the Games, with women accounting for 44% of the participants at the 2012 Games and the Olympic agenda 2020 has set a goal of reaching complete equality (50%). The Olympic Movement’s commitment to gender equality however extends well beyond efforts to increase women’s participation at the Games and seeks to encourage the promotion of women in sport at all levels.
The primary purpose of this event was to consider this agenda and how all present could contribute to it. It was noted at the Seminar that further work needs to be done in relation to ensuring women are in leadership positions within the Olympic movement and those present were both encouraged to consider how they and their National Olympic Committees and nations can contribute to this.
Call to action
The theme of the event was ‘I want to, I can, I will’ and was a very successful event leaving the participants motivated and focused on making their contribution to the Olympic movement and Women in Sport in particular.
Delegates taking part in the seminar were informed about the current situation of women and sport in the European Union through presentations from the Chair of the European Olympic Committees (EOC) Gender Equality in Sport Commission, Daina Gudzineviciute, and member of the EOC Athletes’ Commission Tatiana Lebedeva. Helen Brownlee, Chair of the ONOC Women and Sport Commission, shared some of the best practices developed by Oceania NOCs for promoting women’s sport in the region.
During her speech, Lydia Nsekera reiterated the need for action: “On the field of play, we have almost reached our objective of parity. Off the field of play, it’s another story, another match that we have not yet won”, she said, before calling on the delegates to take responsibility and act so that more women can access positions of responsibility, either by standing as candidates themselves or supporting other women’s candidatures.
