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Equality Of Women In Sports

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Women have also become more involved in the IOC. The first two women, Flor Isava Fonseca of Venezuela and Pirjo Haeggman of Norway, were co-opted as IOC members in 1981. As of May 2014, 24 women are active IOC members out of the 106 total members. Every four years, the IOC organizes a world conference on women and sport, where the primary objective is to analyze the progress made in gender equality within the Olympic Movement. The most recent meeting took place in February 2012 with over 700 delegates from 121 countries. The most notable objective that took place at this meeting was the passing of the unanimously approved “The Los Angeles Declaration”. “The Los Angeles Declaration” is a series of recommendations aimed at promoting gender equality …show more content…

Passed in 1972 by Richard Nixon, Title IX states that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” It is somewhat humorous that “the document that changed sports in America didn’t mention the word “sports”” (Barra, 2015). Title IX was originally created to eliminate the discrimination of women at the high school and collegiate levels, but Title IX created an explosion of women’s athletics. This document gave young women across the nation the chance to pursue their dreams of becoming an Olympic athlete. In 1994, the University of Florida started its women’s soccer program in order to comply with Title IX. A few years later, this college program produced a World Cup and Olympic champion Abby Wambach. With her chance on the Olympic stage, Abby and team U.S.A inspired millions across the world. The 2012 women’s soccer team that won the gold medal was later nicknamed “Team Title IX” in honor of the document that gave all women equal opportunity to participate in high school and college sporting …show more content…

There were also more than 80,000 events and competitions in 2014 alone. Every year the number of athletes and the number of events increase as the awareness for the Special Olympics continues to grow. Many athletes and celebrities such as Jamaal Charles, Joe Haden, Michael Phelps, Brooklyn Decker, Apolo Anton Ohno, Damian Lillard, Yao Ming, Dikembe Mutombo, and Vanessa Williams are actively involved with Special Olympics. There are also many companies that have partnered up with Special Olympics in order to promote Special Olympics involvement. Some of the companies are The Coca-Cola Company, Entertaining and Sports Programming Network (ESPN), Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), General Mills, Mattel, Microsoft, National Basketball Association (NBA), National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III, Sony, TD Bank, and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). All of these companies and supporters want to promote the Special Olympics’ goal of creating a world where every person is welcomed and accepted, regardless of ability and

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