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The three day IOC Women and Sport conference with a theme of Together Stronger the Future of Sport" took place last week in Los Angeles. This conference brought together over 800 delegates from 135 countries to promote the role of women in the Olympic movement. Attendees came from well-known figures from the world of sport, as well as representatives of civil society, government and academia. New Zealand was represented by IOC Member and NZ Olympian Barbara Kendall and NZOC Secretary General Kereyn Smith. Kereyn Smith said that the conferences key outcome was a united call for a dedicated focus on increasing the number of women in decision making roles in sport. The IOC set targets 10 years ago to achieve this aspiration and challenge in the global Olympic movement. Smith says that the New Zealand Olympic Committee is a leader in this field and is very proud to be bucking international norms and have made great progress in this area with 50 percent of the Board members being female, and women play a key role within the organisation and its operation at all levels. New Zealand also has two IOC Members, and one of those being female. Smith calls for progress to be made in New Zealands national sports organisations where the statistics are similar to the rest of the world. The landscape is very similar to other countries while very real progress has been made on the fields of play the New Zealand Olympic Committees research made in 2011 highlighted that 86 percent of boards had less than 50 percent female representation on their boards, just over half have more than 20 percent and 12 percent have no representation at all. She also says this call to action internationally is relevant here in New Zealand and that the New Zealand Olympic Committee will retain a strong commitment to supporting and promoting women into sport leadership roles and are working in partnership with Sport NZ and national sporting organisations to address this issue and to develop strategies to escalate the pace and rate of change as women continue to be under-represented. The conference took place under the leadership of IOC Member and chair of the specific commission, Anita DeFrantz. DeFrantz mentioned that women are urged to take their place in sport and communicated that there is need for everyone to work together. "In the Olympic Movement we desperately need women to take their positions. The Olympic Movement is about mutual respect and fair play and we have to work together because that is how we can be successful. For the first time in the Olympic Movement we are going to have women participating in all sporting disciplines in London which celebrates human excellence," said DeFrantz. Not only is this the first time where are women participating in all sports at the Olympics this year in London, there is also an increased role of women in sport. In 1984 at the Olympics in Los Angeles only 23 percent of the athletes were women. At the games in Beijing 43 percent were women. That number is expected to rise to over 45 percent this summer in London. LOCOG chair Lord Sebastian Coe spoke at the Women in Sport conference about the sisterhood of London 2012 he now oversees. Im proud as chairman of the London 2012 organising committee that I chair 3,000 people currently in the organisation and 50 percent of them are women. In addition to this over 1000 women worked on the Olympic Park and the Olympic Village during the construction phase and the 70,000 strong volunteer workforce is currently tracking at 54 per cent representation. Seb Coe added That it is not a nice-to-have, it is absolutely essential for the proper governance of conduct of an organisation. Lakshmi Puri, the Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, said, The potential for sport to contribute to the social, economic and political empowerment of women and girls is clear and has been recognised by governments, the United Nations system, civil society, the sports movement and others. Now is the time to act on this recognition and bring the benefits of sport to women and girls.
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