All girls can (not just this one!)

Last week was Women's Sport Week 2017 and it has been inspiring! Women's Sports Week and This Girl Can have been brilliant drivers in challenging the way women think and feel about sports. Their aims? To engage women and girls in the UK to get involved with sport. Even with inspiration from the 2012 London Olympics, the gender gap between the number of male and female athletes persisted.

It was great to see so many dedicated women encouraging others to get out of their comfort zones and trying new sports. They were really stepling up their game and showing the world what women can do. 

I grew up in an all-girls school, and we were wholeheartedly encouraged to be the best you can be and that no goal was out of reach. However, when it came to sport, I was nervous, awkward and always right in-between the best and worst athletes. It wasn’t until I went to University that I really started to love exercise. I have never been good at team sports (netball, tennis, hockey- none of them), so I assumed that I wasn’t sporty. But it just hadn’t quite clicked with me that I didn’t have to be playing in a sports match to get the same benefits out of sport. I discovered that I loved going to gym classes, then I decided to start running- firstly short runs, and running to the gym. I started to set myself milestones to work towards and took up trying new activities like pole dancing to get fit. I realised how much fun sports could actually be!

This Girl Can resonated with women all over the world

It has helped more than 1 in 3 women increase their activity levels. “Almost all who have viewed the campaign talk of a shift in feeling – an increase in motivation to participate in sport and exercise.” (SPA Future Thinking Qualitative Tracking). One reason for its success was that Sport England gathered an important insight; they identified that women have an overwhelming fear of judgement for taking part in sport. We worry we’re not good enough, that we'll look ridiculous and that we'll be judged for being too competitive. 

It has even helped triathlons

British Triathlon released statistics for Women's Sport Week revealing that since 2012, there's been a staggering 86% increase in female members joining. Not only that, my own tri club, Manchester Triathlon Club almost has a 50/50 split of females and males. Not bad for a club with over 400 members!

With the help of Women in Sport and This Girl Can, I have realised that the only obstacles we face are the ones we create for ourselves. Their most important goal is to get more women trying their damn hardest. I couldn’t agree more.

The manifesto from This Girl Can sums it up perfectly: 

“Women come in all shapes and sizes and all levels of ability. It doesn’t matter if you’re rubbish or an expert. The point is you’re a woman and you’re doing something.”