As a young athlete my female role model was Mia Hamm.
Hamm competed on the U.S women’s national soccer team for 17 years. Many would agree that she was the best female soccer player of all time. She won the Women’s World Cup in 1991 and 1999, and took home Olympic gold medals in 1996 and 2004.
Until 2013, Hamm held the record for the most international goals scored. She started to play soccer at a national level at the age of 15. Her work ethic, positive attitude and determination set the foundation for her phenomenal career. Her story of success is an example to all aspiring, young female athletes that your dreams can come true if you have the right attitude and put in the work required to succeed.
The Alberta Sport Development Centre is proud to be a partner of FAME (Females in Action Moving and Empowering). FAME is a community collaboration bringing people together to share, learn, build capacity and develop a support network to enhance and develop opportunities and to advocate for women and girls in sport and physical activity in Medicine Hat and Southeastern Alberta. As a female athlete, I absolutely love this community collaboration that ensures that young female athletes are given the opportunity to succeed in sport and develop a passion for physical activity.
Currently only 33 per cent of executive director or CEO roles within national sport organizations are women, and the number is only 40 per cent in multi-sport organizations. Programs such as FAME develop female leaders and will help to continually increase the number of women in leadership roles to achieve a balanced equality of leadership positions within sporting organizations.
FAME currently offers a program called Girls on the Move! This program runs every Wednesday night from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Family Leisure Centre and is free for girls ages seven and up. A different activity will be featured each week and will be run by athletic female role models. This program is fantastic and I would highly recommend it! Watch social media for the upcoming dates for the Get Benched program! The Get Benched program is where young female athletes can win a chance to become an honorary Rattler and sit on the bench with the Rattlers volleyball and basketball teams at Medicine Hat College.
Kristina Segall is the coordinator of the Alberta Sport Development Centre- Southeast and she would love to hear from you and chat with you about the ASDC-SE programs and services that are offered in Brooks, Bow Island and Medicine Hat. She can be reached via email at ksegall@mhc.ab.ca and via phone at 403-504-3547.
