NEW MEMBERS OF AIMS WOMEN’S COMMISSION CONFIRMED – AIMS: seeking to empower women around the world through the sport of running

The Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) is proud to confirm the
founding members of the ‘AIMS Women’s Commission’, a world women’s running movement
which was launched by AIMS Vice President Martha Morales and President Paco Borao on
International Women’s Day 8 March 2019 in Nagoya Japan to coincide with the AIMS
member race and the world’s largest marathon for women with 22,000 runners, the Nagoya
Women’s Marathon (10 March 2019).

The members of the ‘AIMS Women’s Commission’ bring decades of experience in the sport of
running and in working to promote female participation and empowerment around the world.
The Commission is led by AIMS Vice President Martha Morales.

The new members of the AIMS Women´s Commission are:
Charlotte Brookes, National Event Director of the Canada Running Series. With 15 years of
event experience Charlotte manages the planning and production of seven races in four cities
for 70,000 participants annually, including the World Athletics Gold Label Scotiabank Toronto
Waterfront Marathon. She has been in charge of Emergency Management and Crisis
Communication, and also leads a team of Event Dispatchers as they work with staff, volunteers
and vendors to ensure a smooth event. In 2017 Charlotte received an Industry Leader Under
40 Award from the National Center for Spectator Sports, Safety and Security and in 2019 was
part of a Safety and Security Task Force facilitated by the Office of Emergency Management
with 10 other major events in the City of Toronto.

Paz Beccar Varela is from Argentina where she is a TV producer for the Pegsa Group.
She is a runner, specialist in Marketing and Communications from different sports brands, and
producer of ESPN RUN Latinoamerica, in which role she has been involved in the production
and transmission of the Maraton Internacional de Mar de Plata (2016-2017) and the Maraton
de Buenos Aires (2018-2019).

Li Xiang replaces Shirley Yang who changed Jobs to work in a different area of the Chinese Athletics Association. Li works as Manager of the Social Activation Dept (including Road
events) of the CAA. She was born in China and studied Hotel Management at the University of
Beijing, Li is responsible for the organisation and marketing of the Marathon movement in
China.

Lacie Flannery from the United States, is President of Veteran Race Management. She is
responsible for all aspects of event production and business development. Events with which
the company Works include the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Advocate International
Chicago 5K, Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle and Girls on the Run Chicago (4 events
totalling over 21,000 participants). Lacie has over 15 years’ experience within the running
industry, specialising in women’s running. She studied at the Northwestern University, BSJ in
Evanston, Illinois.

The founding members of the ‘AIMS Women’s Commission are’:

Martha Morales – AIMS Vice President
Paco Borao – AIMS President
Dagmawit Amare – Strategic & Innovations Manager, Great Ethiopian Run
Inna Chernoblavskaya – Head of International Department, Moscow Marathon.
Stacey Conley – Athlete, Advocate, Past-President, Conley Sports Productions.
Renna Nelis – AIMS PR Manager for Estonia & General Manager & Competitons Organiser,
Tallinn Marathon.
Tetsuya ‘Teddy’ Okamura – AIMS Board Member. Race Director of the Nagoya Women’s
Marathon in Japan, the largest women’s marathon in the world.
Alessandra Ramella Pairin – AIMS Continental PR Manager for Europe.
Maria Polyzou – legendary athlete, author and speaker. Maria was the first female Greek
runner to have competed in an Olympic Marathon, in Atlanta (1996).
Václav Skřivánek – AIMS Board Member. Race Director of RunCzech Running League events
(7 IAAF Road Race Gold Labels) including the Volkswagen Prague Marathon in Czechia.

AIMS Launches AIMS Instagram account
The AIMS Women’s Commission has been created in support of goal 5 in the United Nation’s
2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development:
“Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”

The AIMS Women’s Commission has been founded with the following objectives:
• To give women the biggest health platform through the sport of running
• To empower women through the sport of running
• To improve women´s participation in distance running events throughout the world
• To create the largest women´s world running movement
• To link female runners all around the world
• To create & action women´s social projects

AIMS Women´s Commission wants to increase women´s participation in running events around the globe, by creating the biggest international running network integrated by women, it is a special place for women to enjoy and get inspired by the sport of running, a network just forwomen, our goal is to make it possible that
“ALL WOMEN CAN RUN” all over the world.

AIMS races will be promoted through this network not only as distance races but as the best
sports venues to run a race, with the aim of increasing women´s participation in distance races.
We invite every woman of the world to begin to run and to share their experience through our
hashtag #ALLWOMENCANRUN.

Visit our website and follow our Instagram account @aims_allwomencanrun

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN´S DAY
The AIMS Women´s commission invites all members to join the “International Women´s Day
Running Week” during the 7th. of march to the 14th. of march

OBJECTIVES.
1. To encourage women to run all around to conmemorate the Women´s International
Day
2. To create the biggest women´s running community of the world
3. To encourage AIMS events to promote women´s participation on running events
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Invite women to run “INTERNATIONAL WOMEN´S DAY RUNNING WEEK” through
each event´s social media account INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK OR TWITTER.
2. Invite runners to run during this week, to take a photo and post the photo on Instagram
using the following hashtag: #allwomencanrun #womeninternationalday #YOUR
OWN HASHTAG

About AIMS
AIMS is a member-based organisation and since being established in 1982 has grown to a
membership of more than 460 of the world’s leading distance races, from over 117 countries
and territories. AIMS Members come from every continent on the planet and include the Athens
Marathon, The Authentic formed on the legend of Pheidippides, the Greek soldier-runner who
ran from the town of Marathon to Athens in 490 BC to announce the Persians had been
defeated in the ‘Battle of Marathon’.

Other AIMS members include many of the world’s greatest distance races in history such as the Beijing, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, Comrades, New York, Paris & Tokyo Marathons.

The three key objectives of AIMS are:
1. To foster and promote distance running throughout the world
2. To work with World Athletics on all matters relating to international road races.
3. To exchange information, knowledge and expertise among members of the association
For further information on AIMS please visit: www.AIMS-worldrunning.org AIMS Women´s
commission section.

Theo Livitsanos
AIMS Headquarters Administrator
Spyros Louis Avenue, OACA, Olympic Aquatics Center
Maroussi-Athens 15123, Greece
aimshq@aims-worldrunning.org