The various speakers who made up the panel of “queens” had previously addressed the difficulties but also the opportunities that the future offers to sportswomen.
A future which for them is already the present, given the extraordinary success of their sports and professional careers.
What an emotion it was to rewatch the film of Nadia Comaneci’s sports feats, barely a teenager (it was 1976 at the Montreal Olympics) whose subsequent personal difficulties in her native Romania during the Ceausescu regime are well known, and to see before us a radiant woman in her mature beauty, accomplished through her many charitable and professional activities.
And what about Anita DeFrantz, one of the most influential leaders in the Olympic movement, or other former athletes such as Sarah Lewis, a former skier for the British team and current Secretary of the International Ski Federation? Or even Barbara Slater, director of sports at the BBC and former Olympic gymnast, leading to Isabelle Severino, also a gymnast, and now president of the Commission of Athletes (of course, both men and women) at the CNOSF.
So many examples that demonstrate that while we cannot yet speak of total and effective parity and there remains a long way to go, it is also true that a good part of that same journey is behind us.
Some figures to support this optimism:
Moscow Olympics 1972: 18% participants were women
Beijing Olympics 2008: 43%
and… Youth Olympics 2010 in Singapore: 46%
This means the goal is not far from being reached!
To conclude, all the champion participants unanimously stated that “passion & commitment” are the key words to success, and nothing happens on its own. Showing they are true champions both on the fields and in life, they know well that success must be sought after, often with guts! And that’s what they did!
List of panel speakers coordinated by Patrick Chêne and Richard Bunn:
– Anita DeFrantz, president of the IOC Women and Sport Commission
– Nadia Comaneci, Olympic gymnastics champion
– Lucie Decosse, world judo champion
– Ingrid Delterne, director general of EBU (European Broadcasting Union)
– Carol Isherwood, member of IRB (International Rugby Board)
– Sarah Lewis, General Secretary of FIS (International Ski Federation)
– Barbara Slater, director of sports at the BBC
– Bibiana Steinhaus, referee in the Bundesliga
Other women contributed: Marie Boselli-Berenguer, director of the Nice School of Journalism, Oksana Kossatchenko, agent of Formula 1 driver Vitaly Petrov, Isabelle Severino, president of the CNOSF Commission of Athletes, Catherine Louveau, sociologist, University of Paris-Sud, and Anny Courtade, president of the Racing Club de Cannes volleyball team.
And a few… men as well:
Daniel Bilalian, director of sports at France Télévision,
Olivier Krumbholz, national handball coach (FFH),
François Moriniere, general director of l’Equipe Group GPE Amaury.
To conclude with a few remarks:
Denis Masseglia: “The endless conquest of the sports space by women is akin to the progress against racism: exhausting, painful, and constantly challenged.
Where women have managed to practice certain sports despite prohibitions—such as equestrian sports, motor sports, aviation, or maritime sports—their results have shattered all myths and prejudices… They compete on an equal footing with men and sometimes snatch victory from them.”
Catherine Louveau: The issue of gender difference represents the main theme of research activities. The studies conducted aim to show that practices are gendered through a historical and contemporary process of differential distribution of the two sexes in activities, supervisory roles, and responsibilities, a distribution that maintains a relationship of homology with the distribution of professional and domestic work.
Sports practices constitute a particularly pertinent cultural fact for analyzing gender social relations, the process of segregation and hierarchy between men and women, the forms of male dominance as well as the social construction of the categories
If women mostly invest in “graceful” disciplines and avoid virile sports, it’s because that is their choice. Men are expected to “do,” while women are expected to “please.”
