European Athletics (EA) – News – France celebrates 24 hours of women’s sport

This Saturday 1 February, France will celebrate the ‘24 hours of Women Sport’, an initiative undertaken by the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA) to better represent women in sports across the various French media channels.

This event is being supported by most major media distributors who have agreed to place women’s sports at the forefront of their programmes for the day.

These values are shared by European Athletics and its Member Federations who reaffirmed their commitment to gender equity by signing the Brighton Declaration on Women and Sport during the 23^rd European Athletics Congress held in Skopje in April 2013.

"The signing of the Brighton Declaration underlines our continued commitment to increase the involvement of women in our sport and celebrate the important contributions made by women to athletics," said European Athletics President Hansjörg Wirz at the time.

France Télévisions, a leader in broadcasting women’s sports, will be highly involved throughout the day, showing in-depth documentaries of great women athletes, one of which will feature 100m European champion and European record holder Christine Arron.

They will also offer a top women’s first division football match opposing Paris Saint Germain and Montpellier, and the Women’s VI Nations confrontation between France and England.

Most of the major sporting events which France Télévisions broadcasts are ‘mixed’ and are distributed fairly between both genders. This is the case with the Olympic Games, World and European Athletics Champions.

The intentions of the CSA are to promote awareness of women’s sport and provide women with the opportunity to practice sports by joining a local club.  

Christine Kelly, President of Sports Missions at CSA, said: “There is a lack of financial support with regards to women sports; we hope this '24 hours of Women Sport' day will help change mentalities and shorten the gap with male athletes.”

European Athletics' commitment to the development of women leaders and gender equity is also embodied by its biennial Women's Leadership Awards, which recognise and celebrate the important contributions made by women throughout Europe to the sport of athletics.

European Athletics (EA) – News