The 2011 IOC women and sport report
DURBAN, South Africa — It was at the Summer Games in Los Angeles in 1984 that Joan Benoit ran away with the first women’s Olympic marathon and smashed stereotypes. Now, 27 years later, only three of the more than 200 national Olympic committees taking part in the opening ceremony of the Summer Games have not yet sent female competitors, the head of the International Olympic Committee’s women and sport commission said Friday.
The Middle Eastern states of Brunei, Saudi Arabia and Qatar remain the holdouts, a dramatic improvement from as recently as 1996 and Atlanta, when 26 nations sent no women, Anita DeFrantz told the IOC’s session, its annual general assembly. “I do believe in the name and shame strategy,” IOC president Jacques Rogge said, adding a moment later, “I think it’s very effective.”
With female boxers in the ring, every one of the 26 sports on the program at the 2012 London Games will see women competing, DeFrantz, the senior American representative to the IOC, also said.
That’s the good news.
And a little bit more:
Just 23 percent of the athletes at the 1984 Los Angeles Games were women. In Beijing in 2008: 43 percent.
At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games: 40 percent. At the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games: 46 percent.
Now for the challenges off the field, which remain considerable:
The numbers of women on decision-making boards in some significant cases have not changed much, and for that reason DeFrantz and other commission leaders — amid planning for a major conference on women-in-sport issues next February in Los Angeles — remain “deeply concerned.”
Such concerns extend to the IOC itself as well as to boards of both national Olympic committees and international sports federations, DeFrantz said.
The 15-member IOC executive board now lists only one woman: Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco. A vote Saturday will see the election of a second, Gunilla Lindberg of Sweden.
Only 16 percent of the more than 100 IOC members are female. The IOC management team includes no women, according to a report presented by DeFrantz’s commission to the session.
National Olympic committees in Bermuda, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea and the United States report their boards include women at participation levels of 40 percent or more.
Such information, DeFrantz said, comes from a survey the commission sent out, adding that only 81 of the NOCs filled it out. That means roughly two-thirds of the committees in the world didn’t even bother.
The Australian Olympic Committee issued a release that noted it sent a team to Vancouver made up of 20 male athletes and 20 female athletes but its executive committee includes only two women, AOC president John Coates calling that a “long way short of ideal” and urging his member governing bodies to propose electable female board members at the next AOC board vote, in 2013.
As for the international federations: soccer, boxing, weightlifting, canoe/kayak, handball, archery, shooting, rugby, cycling and bobsled have no women on their executive boards, DeFrantz said.
That’s nine summer and one winter sport federations — and soccer, of course, is the sport that carries the farthest global reach.
In some cases, the reasons for no women at the board level may be fairly clear-cut.
In others, it may be more nuanced, as C.K. Wu, the head of the international boxing federation, which goes by the acronym AIBA, told the assembly.
Wu, who is an innovative and progressive Olympic administrator, said AIBA has been trying since 2007 to recruit qualified women to its board.
It all starts, he said, at the grass-roots. Women’s referees and judges now officiate at bouts. Women are being appointed as technical delegates.
Even so, he cautioned, the issue ought not be reduced to simply a numbers game.
It’s not enough, he said, to just put a woman on the board — she must be qualified, and while any and all qualified candidates would be welcomed, they must be identified and nominated by their home country federations and the elections conducted appropriately.
“To build up [female] leadership takes time,” Wu said. “It also takes a lot of effort.”
About the Author
Alan Abrahamson Award-winning sportswriter, best-selling author, expert on the Olympic movement. Contact Alan at alan.abrahamson@gmail.com.
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Women Sports in Qatar … Continuous Achievements
Actually, Qatar would like to see its female athletes compete in Olympic Games. With tremendous development in women sport here, I am sure that Qatari female athletes will qualify to the Olympic Games.
I am leaving my comments here, not because I am Head of Media in Qatar Olympic Committee, but to make the picture of women sport in my country very clear to you all and to share with you my experience and knowledge of our female athletes achievements.
In general, the Qatar women’s sport continued its tremendous progress in the regional and international levels and was the attraction in various sport events. The participation of Qatari female athletes extended to a variety of disciplines and sports such as Basketball, Volleyball, Handball, Swimming, Shooting, Football, Gymnastics, Golf, Equestrianism, Fencing, Sailing, Athletics, Tennis, etc.
Through their regional and international participations, the Qatar women’s sport could achieve successes and join the list of countries with credits in the domain of women’s sport.
Please llow me here to list some of those achievements in last sport season 2010-2011:
GCC Basketball Championship: In a great achievement for the Qatari Women Sports, the Qatar’s Basketball team claimed the title of the 1st GCC Women Basketball Championship held at the indoor hall of Qatar Women Sports Committee in “Aspire Zone” from 22nd to 27th of April 2011. The Qataris won all their matches to secure the first place ahead of UAE in the second place while Bahrain finished third.
1st GCC Women Sports Games: The stars of Qatar Women Athletics Team won 8 medals ( 2 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze) at the 1st Women Sports Games held in Abu Dhabi, UAE from March 7-12. Qatar occupied the third place in this event.
Youth Olympic Games: 6 Qatari athletes have participated in the First Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. Bahiya Al Hamad (Shooting) and Shaden Wahdan (Gymnastics) have secured their places in the Games through qualifications.
Bahiya Al Hamad was selected as the best women athlete in the 2009-2010 sports season. She settled in the 15th place in shooting event that featured the participation of athletes from Germany, France, India, Singapore, Austria, Croatia, England, Korea, China, Panama, Guatemala, New Zealand, Mexico, Norway, Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, and Qatar.
Girls table tennis achievement: The Qatar girls table tennis team qualified to the finals of Asian Table Tennis Championship to be staged in Delhi, India in July 2011 after leading the West Asian Qualifications for juniors held in Jordan in April 2011.
Guangzhou Asian Games: The Qatari women continued their participation at the Asian Games, as the Qatari women delegation to the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou (Nov. 2010) included 56 athletes which makes it the largest Qatar women delegation participating in the Asian Games editions.
. The Qatari women have participated in seven sports including Handball, Gymnastics, Taekwondo, Chess, Fencing, Shooting and Table Tennis. The participation of handball team was first ever appearance for Qatari women in teams events at Asian Games.
Qatar had sent an eight women athlete delegation in the 14th Asian Games in Bussan 2002, which was the first female participation for Qatar in the Games. The first objective for the Qatar Shooting Federation was achieved, it was to make Qatari female athletes take part in international competitions to acquire experience. Four years later, the Doha Asian Games 2006 witnessed the first medal for a Qatari female athlete in this gathering. A bronze medal was won in Chess by Zhu Chen and another bronze medal went to the Qatar team in the 10m rifle shooting contest.
In addition to relevant sport federations, the Qatari women’s participations are supervised by the Qatar Women’s Sport Committee which was founded in the year 2001 in virtue of a decree issued by His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Heir Apparent, President of the Qatar Olympic Committee and member of the International Olympic Committee.
Founding the Qatar Women’s Sport Committee was a landmark in the Qatar women sport movement. Many sport centers for women have been opened and are contributing in discovering talented women athletes and developing their skills under the supervision of qualified coaches and technical staff in various sports.
I am available to provide you with all information you need about women sport in Qatar. please do not hesitate to contact me.
again, i would like to add something here.
Qatar ladies Tops West Asian Youth Athletics Championship
The West Asian Youth Athletics Championship for males and females was launched in the city of Camille Chamoun in the Lebanese capital Beirut during September 23-25 with the participation of (13) countries; the State of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, Iran and Lebanon.
Qatar ladies placed first in this championship, with 5 gold and 2 silver medals
Gold Medal by Fatima Mudhahir in 100m Hurdles (17:07s)
Gold Medal by Asrar Alamnaie in Shot-Put (11.06m)
Gold Medal by Asrar Almanaie in Discus Throw (30.77 m)
Gold Medal by Noor Al-Maliki in 200m (27.35s)
Gold medal by Rima Tomas in Triple Jump
Silver Medal by Noor Al-Maliki in 100-meter
Silver Medal by Fatima Mudhahir
Mariam Al-Isehaq: We Are Happy to Witness Our Female Champions` Superiority
Ms. Mariam Al Isehaq the QAAF board member expressed her happiness with the super performance and excellence proved by Qatar`s female athletics stars in the West Asian Championship. She stressed that the Qatari female champions have shown in their superiority in a number of competitions..
On the hand, mr. Mohammed Suleiman the QAAF board member (former 1500 runner who won bronze medal in Barcelona Olympic Games 1992) was very happy with these achievements.
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