WOMEN IN PARALYMPIC SPORT NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2011

IPC Sport News Letter: PARALYMPIC SPORT NEWSLETTER, 10th JAPHAFGAMES 2011 in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in July The JAPHAF GAMES are organized on annual basis. JAPHAF means “Jeux de l’Avenir des Personnes Handicapées d’Afrique », in English: Future Games of Disabled People of Africa. JAPHAF was created in 1994 and has its headquarters in is Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Due to the geographical location of the Republic of Cameroon and the lack of means of the African Paralympic Committees only the following five NPCs participated: Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Senegal and Niger.

JAPHAF is not yet affiliated to the African Paralympic Committee or to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

The low female participation needs to be tackled by various stakeholders and through different activities. The numbers of athletes licensed under IPC Athletics also reflect the low participation of female athletes from developing and emerging countries: 355 female athletes in comparison to 970 licensed male athletes. The IPC Women in Sport and the IPC Development Committee will have a joint session in this regard.

PARAPAN AMERICAN GAMES 2011 in Guadalajara, Mexico, in November 407 women (30%) compared to 948 men athletes participated. One sport that seems to be particularly popular among women is wheelchair basketball with 94 entries for male and 89 for female teams. As individual sport swimming is most practiced by women athletes (74 vs 106 men athletes). Yunidis Castillo from Cuba, Gold medallist in 100 and 200m (world record) in Guadalajara.

FROM THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATIONS

ITF – Record number of women on the Ranking list.

http://beta.itftennis.com/wheelchair/news/articles/women’s-singles-ranking-tops-200-players.aspx

ITTF – IOC Award for Alejandra Gabaglio

http://www.ittf.com/_front_page/ittf_full_story1.asp?ID=25141&Category=women&Competition_ID

IWG – International working group for women in sport

In the IWG newsletter “The Catalyst” of September 2011 the work of the IPC Women in Sport Committee and the importance of women’s participation in sports is highlighted:

http://www.iwg-gti.org/catalyst/september-2011/

EU funded leadership development programme for women – WILD Women International Leadership Development – a joint programme between 7 European countries.

Find more information here: http://www.wildsports.eu/

CONFERENCES

European Paralympic Committee (EPC) conference, September 2011 Tine Rindum Teilmann was invited to speak about Women in Paralympic sport at the European Paralympic conference in Moscow in September prior to the EPC GA. The presentation was called “European sport also for women?”

Europe has a very low percentage of women in leadership and also a lack of high level coaches. The delegates were very interested in how to get more women involved in leadership and in sport, and the EPC Board was also keen to work on an action plan and seek funding to take action in this area. The presentation can be downloaded at the EPC website:

http://www.europaralympic.org/images/stories/GA2011_moscow/IPC_WISC_pre_EPC_2011_2.pdf

European Women and Sport, London, September 2011

At the high profile conference about women in high performance sport leading up to Olympic and Paralympic Games in London next year, Sir Philip Craven was a key-note speaker with the presentation title: “Disability sport in the 21.st century”. http://en.ews2011.com/conference-programme/

Play the Game, Cologne, September 2011

At Play the Games conference called “Bringing change to the heart of sport” this September in Cologne, several sessions were related to Paralympic sport. Tine Rindum Teilmann spoke about women in sport leadership during the session “Little Difference, Huge Impact: The Gender Challenge to Sport”.

Watch the presentation on-demand streaming:

http://www.livestream.com/playthegame_dshs/video?clipId=pla_7962b128-a2bc-44a7-b136-5aeb29fa6581&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb

CALENDER AND NETWORK OPPORTUNITIES

5th World Conference on Women and Sport, Los Angeles, February 16th -18th, 2012

The IOC’s commitment to gender equality extends well beyond its efforts to increase women’s participation in the Olympic Games. It also recognizes that it is a critical component of effective sports administration and it continues to support the promotion of women and girls in sport at all levels and in all structures.

http://www.2012womenandsport.uemeetings.com/index.html

IPC Women in Sport Committee meeting in Beijing December 5th and 6th 2011.

IPC Conference and General Assembly in Beijing December 8th -11th 2011

COUNTRY SPECIALS

Korean Paralympic Committee

The KPC Women in Sports Committee organized a seminar from 11th to 13th November 2011. Visit their newsletter website for further information:

http://www.kosad.or.kr/english/bulletin/what_new.asp

I.R. Iran National Paralympic Committee.

A”Women Commission” was created by the NPC with Miss Dr. Batool Moshrejavadi as the chair of it. The NPC conducted a Sister Cities’ competition with four countries involved (Malaysia, Romania, Pakistan, Iraq and I.R.Iran) in September

2011, in Esfahan, Iran. This included Table Tennis, Sitting Volleyball and Shooting. A Women Sport Festival was also held at the end of September 2011, with 1900 girls and women with a disability participating.