On the Scene - Olympic Movement Confronts "Last Barrier" for Women and Sport

(ATR) Anita DeFrantz tells Around the Rings gender inequity among leadership positions is the "last barrier" to her work chairing the IOC Women and Sport Commission.

"We've kind of solved the field-of-play problem, but what we haven't come close to solving is sharing the responsibility in sport," says the senior IOC member from the U.S.

DeFrantz is busy in Los Angeles directing this weekend's 5th World Conference on Women and Sport, where she noted during Thursday's opening ceremony FIFA's dubious distinction as the only international federation yet to elect a woman to its executive board.

Every bit as troubling, according to DeFrantz, is that eight other IFs now have no women EB members either.

Asked on Friday about this apparent regression, she suggested that might be just be top-of-mind for Sunday's meeting of her Women and Sport Commission.

"There are many potential answers to that. We're going to take a look at how to get women elected again because it worked and the sports were better for it," she tells ATR.

"It may be people were not being vigilant in making sure that the next generation of women and men were being put forward into positions of responsibility. You have to remember men and women. It's not either/or. It's not a zero sum game."

Ahead of the Pack

One federation DeFrantz cannot fault is the International Triathlon Union, the only to feature women in its top two leadership roles.

"I'm very proud to say that it's not only president and secretary general, but also a vice president and a number on the executive board also," ITU president Marisol Casado tells ATR.

"We were very lucky that the women were brave enough to take the challenge."

According to the IOC member from Spain, triathlon is blessed to be a young federation without a long history of inequity to overcome. She took over in 2008 from Les McDonald of Canada, himself the founding president from 1989.

"We don't have to fight against tradition," says Casado, adding that McDonald was adamant about equal prize money from day one and supportive of female leaders such as herself and secretary general Loreen Barnett.

"Like Riding a Bicycle"

She then cited cycling as an example of a sport still playing catchup after more than 100 years at the Olympics for men and less than 30 for women.

International Cycling Union president Pat McQuaid admitted hours earlier during a panel titled "Partnerships for Progress" that the long road to London 2012 wasn't without its bumps.

Cycling will for the first time feature an equal number of medals for men and women at the upcoming Summer Games. Not all athletes supported the change, according to the IOC member from Ireland, but that didn't stop the UCI from doing what's right when under pressure from the Olympic Movement.

"Life is like riding a bicycle," McQuaid quoted Albert Einstein.

"To keep balance, you must keep moving."

Skirts or Shorts?

One other sport catching up to the curve in London is boxing.

Throughout the conference's first two days, speakers noted right and left that the 2012 Olympics will for the first time feature both sexes competing in every sport on the program now that women's boxing is joining the fold.

"This is a historical moment," International Boxing Association president C.K. Wu tells ATR.

"I can tell you the tickets for the London Olympic Games are completely sold out, so the public is showing a very strong interest to see women's boxing."

The IOC member from Chinese Taipei, who will speak to his sport's progress Saturday, noted that AIBA has actually been developing women's boxing for the past 15 years but that more national federations want to join in now that it's on the Olympic program.

Whether women's boxers will make their Games debut in skirts or in shorts, a hotbed issue for AIBA, Wu would not say.

"For me, number one is to help the performance of the boxers," he tells ATR.

"We know the world is very concerned, we know boxers are concerned. Some boxers are very strong for shorts, some boxers are very strong for skirts. We cannot please everyone," says Wu, adding to expect a decision from AIBA's executive committee by month's end.

Men and Sport

Also spotted in Los Angeles from the federations are basketball secretary general Patrick Baumann, archery president Ugur Erdener, rugby chair Bernard Lapasset, modern pentathlon president Klaus Schormann, golf executive director Antony Scanlon and softball president Don Porter.

"We have a good diversity of representation both in the coaching ranks and among umpires," Porter tells ATR.

"We're increasing the umpires program. We're doing a lot of work there to get more women to umpire. We're doing it administratively with representation on our board of directors and also within our national federations."

Saudi Surprise

Friday's biggest round of applause went to Dalma Rushdi Malhas, who became Saudi Arabia's first female athlete to compete in an Olympics of any sort at Singapore 2010 and brought home an equestrian bronze medal to boot.

Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco, an IOC Executive Board member and fellow Arab sports pioneer, invited Malhas – and then her mother – onto the stage following a question from a Kuwaiti delegate about the struggles female athletes face in their part of the world.

The cameo came a day after Human Rights Watch issued a report calling on the IOC to force Saudi Arabia to end its discrimination of women in sports ahead of London 2012.

Written in Los Angeles by Matthew Grayson.

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