We are delighted to announce that Donore Harriers has recently been successful in our application to become part of the 20×20 Women in Sport Campaign.
The 20×20 campaign aims to create a cultural shift in our perception of girls and women in sport. As part of the campaign, three main targets for the end of 2020 were identified. They are:
- 20% more media coverage of women in sport
- 20% more female participation at player, coach, referee & administrative level
- 20% more attendance at women’s games and events.
Donore Harriers AC recognises and acknowledges the key role that those targets play in ensuring long-term participation in sport for female athletes, and as a club, we endeavour to support those targets in all that we do – as athletes, as parents, as coaches. In addition to those targets, we have set our own targets for the female athletes in Donore Harriers AC, as part of this hugely important 20×20 campaign.
Donore Harriers is a club with a long, proud culture of female athletics, through our juvenile, junior, senior and masters ranks. Our aims for the female athletes in Donore Harriers AC as part of the 20×20 campaign have been identified as follows:
- That all young female athletes will be provided with early opportunities to educate themselves in relation to nutrition, women’s health and injury prevention
- That all young female athletes are provided with female mentors who they can trust and seek support from in relation to their health and well-being
- To recognise and highlight positive female athletes in Donore Harriers AC who have demonstrated life-time participation in the sport
Our first 20×20 Women in Sport campaign event will take place this Wednesday 02.12.20 at 7pm, via Zoom, when we will welcome Katie Kirk, International 800m athlete and sports nutritionist. Katie will be speaking on a number of key issues including nutrition, injury prevention, women’s health and how to stay in the sport during periods of physical change in the body. Her recent talk for Athletics Ireland on disordered eating and exercise is a must watch.
We would like to invite all of our female athletes and all of our coaches, to join us for this hugely relevant talk and are excited by the potential educational benefits that it offers to us all in terms of our training and our coaching. The parents of younger female athletes will also find this session to be of great benefit. We look forward to seeing you there and we look forward to building a generation of female athletes who enjoy a life-time of sport.
To oversee the club’s involvement in the 20×20 campaign and all other issues relating to female athlete recruitment, participation and retention, a 20X20 sub-committee is to be formed, drawn from all ranks in the club, including Little Athletics/juvenile squad (parent), LTAD squad, juvenile sprints squad, Academy, juniors, seniors and masters. The group will be chaired by our 20X20 Champion, Sinead Lambe, will meet quarterly and make its recommendations to the committee of the club. Interested members are invited to apply to participate in this group by email.
Our goal is that sport and athletics becomes a way of life for our female athletes, whatever level that may be at. That sport and athletics enables our young female athletes, that it does not inhibit them. We believe that sport and athletics as a way of life, builds confidence, endurance and resilience that are lifelong tools for success. And we hope that sport and athletics as a way of life, will be a gift to all of the young people who arrive at the gates of Donore Harriers AC.
