IT’S GAME ON FOR WOMEN IN SPORT
Women first competed in the Olympic Games in Paris in 1900.* At the 2024 Games – also in Paris – women made up 50% of all Olympians.
That’s the first time an Olympic Games has achieved gender parity** in its 120+ year history (modern Olympics). Around five billion people followed The Games globally with BBC Sport recording 218 million streams.***
This is a massive positive step for women’s sport – both in terms of athlete participation and spectator engagement.
Demand for women’s sport is on the rise and 2024 was the most-watched year ever for women’s domestic sport in the UK.****
This is great news for women’s sport. And the timing couldn’t be better for women’s rugby: later this year, the biggest Women’s Rugby World Cup to date***** is coming town.
WOMEN’S RUGBY WORLD CUP IS COMING TO NORTHAMPTON
Excitingly, one of the host venues for the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup is the place I call home: Northampton.
Six of the matches will be played at Franklin’s Gardens including one England game.
The Cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens is home to Northampton Saints. And in 2021, The Saints formed a partnership with Loughborough Lightning to form a Lightning / Saints elite women’s team, who now play some of their fixtures at Franklin’s Gardens every season.
So to have the Women’s Rugby World Cup in town this is a big thing for rugby locally.
And for women’s sport it is massive.
A GLOBAL EVENT FOR THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
This morning I was at an event hosted by Northampton Saints, where we heard from people at the local authority, tourism, culture and business sectors about the opportunities the Women’s World Cup will provide for the local community, for leisure and tourism and local businesses.
It was good to hear of all the exciting things that are being planned to champion the Women’s Rugby World Cup before and during its time in Northampton.
It’s a great chance for our local community to engage in this once-in-a-lifetime sporting event. It’s a shot in the arm for our civic pride as the world’s eyes turn towards us later this year.
And it’s a fantastic opportunity for women and girls to be inspired to be more active and to learn more about the positive experiences that come from sports participation.
WHY DOES ANY OF THIS MATTER?
Because women have been, and continue to be, under-represented and unseen in many areas of sport. This has a huge impact on drop-out rates among young girls and transfers into adult life with many women not being physically active enough. According to Sport England, 39% of women aged 16 and over are not active enough to get the full health benefits of sport and physical activity.
So imagine what improving both the accessibility and visibility of women’s sport could do to these percentages?
As an example, a Women in Sport survey found that 59% of girls felt inspired to play more sport as a result of the 2023 Women’s FIFA World Cup. But inspiration only translates into action when there are adequate, attractive and accessible opportunities for women and girls to participate in sport.
The 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup will be the biggest and most accessible to date, with most people being within two hours of a host venue. And rather than just being a moment in time, a date on the calendar, there is a four-year legacy programme (Impact ’25) in place to significantly grow and transform the game of rugby for both women and girls across the country.
So for those of us who wish that women’s sport had had more voice and visibility when we were younger, and who want it for our children, our grandchildren, our nieces and for the women and girls of the future…
GAME ON!
FOOTNOTES
SOURCES OF DATA ON WOMEN IN SPORT
* olympics.com. ** womeninsport.org *** bbc,.co.uk **** womensporttrust.com ***** rugbyworldcup.com
USEFUL LINKS
