ASOIF’s 2023 ‘Women Lead Sports’ programme hailed a success

Earlier this month, ASOIF’s third edition of the ‘Women Lead Sports’ online programme wrapped up successfully. Over the last few weeks, the course provided more than 35 women representing over 20 sports and coming from more than 20 different countries across all continents with customised training to advance their leadership skills.

Professional coach Gabriela Mueller, who ran the programme, said:

I'm incredibly proud to announce that 38 women have recently graduated from the Women Lead Sports Master Programme, organised by ASOIF, which I had the chance and pleasure to lead. This live weekly online experience expands women's leadership in sports, with a focus on self-awareness, skill building for a changing world, and creating concrete action plans for personal development. Our programme aims to accelerate the number of women in relevant leadership positions that shape the present and future of sports. The results of this programme were outstanding, and I am honoured to have coached these amazing women. Congratulations to all of the graduates!

The aim of the course is to empower potential female leaders to serve in elective positions of their respective International Federation (IF), Continental Association or National Federation (NF), thereby increasing systematically the number of women in leadership positions across the Olympic Movement. This year’s participants covered a wide spectrum of profiles, including Presidents, Board members and Secretaries General of NFs, Athletes’ Commission members and safeguarding officers of IFs.

One of the participants, Oluwaseun Nariwoh, Secretary of the Africa Women’s Committee of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), highlighted her key takeaway as follows:

As women, we rise by lifting others, particularly young girls and women, to radiate positive energy across the globe. Inspire women to pursue their dreams while standing for something humane and positive. Mastering the two currency of authority and relationship is expedient because I want to lead, I can lead, I WILL LEAD!

To date more than 140 participants were selected by ASOIF member federations and graduated from the programme - with some tangible positive impact. Following the training, many of them were promoted or elected Presidents or Board members of NFs. Some also won elections for positions on IF Executive Boards or Councils. The latest example is Lisa Allan who was unanimously elected to the role of General Secretary of the International Judo Federation (IJF) at the IJF Congress in Doha in early May this year.