As I find myself committing to more projects utilising sport as a positive influencer in children’s lives, I am becoming more and more interested in athletes who are using their position and achievements to inspire and motivate young aspirational athletes who are working their way through the ranks. British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith, currently one of our athletics stars and a triple European gold medallist, is doing just this. It’s important that as a woman in sport, she is focusing on trying to convince the media to give more column inches and air time to the voice of sportswoman who are positioned to influence young girls who are finding a life in sport. She argues that the media tends to focus more on the achievements of males in sport, under representing women and their successes.
Dina holds a number of British records, including 100- and 200-meters sprint disciplines, she also won European gold in these distances. She said “I was very fortunate to be able to go into track and field because I could see that as a woman, I could make it to the top, I could be in the Olympics”. She found a sporting stage and opportunity for her life’s internal inspiration and motivation, and she wants to use her experience to affect the lives of other young women, and hopes others in her position in sport will do the same.
As a sporting professional, I am well aware of the challenges of retaining young girls in sport for a longer period of time, for me, this is very important as it is becoming very evident, that they have much to gain from a sporting life. During the last three months I have been heavily involved in creating development programmes within sport for young people, and what is becoming very apparent to me, is that the skills young female athletes are developing through their sport, will become very valuable at critical points later in their lives.
This week I had the privilege of meeting Tim Lawler, the CEO from the National SportsAid charity, the discussions we had only reinforced my thinking in this area. The more we discussed how young people can benefit from being involved in sport, the more his words validated the fact that skills learnt within sporting environments and culture can be a very positive experience and can add to the richness of personal development. The more I researched this area, the more it has validated what I have always believed, sport for young growing girls, can be a very powerful environment in terms of self-development.
Study’s that have been conducted around the world seem to support this thinking, I came across one that indicated that 96% of female executives, women who have achieved positions as CEO’s, CFO’s and COO’s, were heavily involved in sport as young girls and women. They listed some very powerful examples, for Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, it was synchronised swimming, for the first female editor-in-chief of ESPN The Magazine, it was gymnastics, swimming, and football, and for the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, it was Soccer, tennis, basketball, and softball.
Figures provided by Gatorade through a “Girls In Sport” study shows that by the age of 17 a staggering 50% of girls will stop playing sport completely. These statistics are very depressing, and why Dina, has a very powerful message, lets ensure our British women stars in sport have a loud and proud voice, in terms of their sporting achievements and messaging, and give them the opportunity to reduce the fall out rate by inspiring and motivating girls to stay in sport and gain the advantages of doing so.
Dina believes that many of the young girls in sport do not get the chance to see these outstanding achievements, she believes that women in sport deserve an equal opportunity to tell their story through the media, I for one think she has a very valid point. There is much for us all to be proud of in British women’s sport, rugby, netball, football, tennis and cricket to name but a few, all achieving on the world stage, but as Dina Asher-Smith quite righty states, the influence that these achievements have, can only be delivered if young girls are actually being exposed to the stories through a heightened media focus.
I’m extremely fortunate that The EATD provides me with a platform to write about the positivity of sport, health and fitness, and I have often used this opportunity to highlight the sporting achievements of the women athletes who form part of my local life, women such as Jasmin Taylor World performing Telemark Skier, Helen Davies Great Britain ranked Marathon Runner, Ramla Ali Nike sponsored boxer, Justice Hall, young aspiring tennis player, Amy Wilson-Hardy, England International Rugby star and Georgie Lawson, British International Karate fighter. All these female athletes and many more have been featured in my EADT column, because of Dina, I am focused now, more than ever to ensure I do my bit to highlight the power and influence the achievements of women in sport can have on those taking their early steps in the world of female sport!
