FAME: Don’t let a pandemic stop you from reaching your goals

By Medicine Hat News on September 24, 2020.

This year came with a set of challenges none of us could predict, with many asks necessary for our safety. If you are an athlete, or a coach, volunteer, or a parent of an athlete, you know how much your world has changed. We have lost a part of our identity, our outlet, and our coping mechanism at the time we need it the most. I know this is true for all athletes, but I fear the negative impacts of this pandemic might be even higher for female athletes.

Here are some concerning pre COVID-19 statistics regarding girls and women in sport:

• Only 2 per cent of girls ages 12-17 receive the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity.

• Only 19 per cent of Canadian women participate in sport, compared to 35 percent of Canadian men.

• If a girl doesn’t participate by age 10, there is only a 10 per cent chance she will be physically active at age 25

• By age 14, girls are twice as likely to drop out of sport than boys.

• Only 25 per cent of coaches in Canadian sports are women.

It is safe to predict that the current circumstances will make the above stats even worse, and that is something we all have a responsibility to prevent.

To female athletes out there, I urge you to persevere, keep playing your sport despite all difficulties that we are facing now.

Play for the love of the game, for the love of being active and in hope that all this will end soon and your hard work will pay off.

Play to be a good example, to be a leader, to one day be able to say “not even a pandemic could stop me from following my goals.” Play to stay physically and mentally healthy.

To all coaches, volunteers, devoted parents and other supporters, your role is even more important now than ever before, our female athletes need you, keep being there for them.

Girls who play sport have higher academic achievement, are more resilient and they are set up for success.

To highlight the importance of females in sport, this past March Medicine Hat College hosted two female Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference championships over two consecutive weeks for volleyball and basketball. As a proud member of FAME – Females in Action Moving and Empowering – we were able to support this event and use the opportunity to promote female sport, and celebrate female athletes and coaches.

The championships provided an opportunity to recognize hundreds of local and regional female athletes, from college players to young aspiring players, as well as female alumni who paved the way for all of us. MHC was awarded the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association Community Service Award for its Celebration of Women and Girls in Sport initiative. This is a prestigious national award for which colleges across Canada compete and we have set an example for communities across Canada to follow.

In the spirit of this event and encouraged by the national recognition, lets keep moving forward, keep empowering girls and women to play sports and keep celebrating each other’s achievements, big or small.

Dragana Vukovic is the Coordinator with Alberta Sport Development Centre SE and a member of the Females in Action Moving and Empowering Committee. She can be reached at dvukovic@mhc.ab.ca

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