The significance of Scottish Women in Sport Week
This month, Glasgow University Sports Association (GUSA) celebrated Scottish Women in Sport Week: an important week in the calendar, especially for Uni students. Women in sport is as relevant a topic as ever throughout the four years of higher education, since many girls drop out of sport when coming into adulthood. To commemorate this event, throughout the evening of Sunday 5th October, GUSA provided a wide range of sporting activities, including access to their two-floor gym facilities and swimming lanes for a massive Girls’ takeover inside the Stevenson building. Activities ranged from taster sessions, to workshops, to Yoga, to Bolly X Dance, providing opportunities for beginners and coaches alike to support and empower fellow sporting stars in whatever keeps them active.
Why is Women in Sport week so significant, even at a time when girls have a platform in sport? One of the more obvious reasons why these seven days are so crucial is that they provide a time in which women can discuss and openly express factors and circumstances that may affect their sporting performance outside of the play itself, and give them a chance to relate to one another in a situation that is usually exhausted with pressure. Many women go through similar sporting struggles without mentioning it to their peers, and Scottish Women in Sport Week makes sure that, from walking groups to national team players, every woman has a place to talk.
With the Glasgow Commonwealth Games taking place next summer, it is important to relate these important issues to major sporting events. With the Games announcing Eilish McColgan, Olympian and Commonwealth Gold medalist, as the first of their ambassadors, it provides a prominent and uplifting role model for young women to follow in the lead-up to the Games and throughout the two-week event. McColgan has had her fair share of sporting success over the years as a national athlete, on screen for millions of young people to admire, however she became the icon that she is today at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, where she took first place in the 10,000 metre race. McColgan plays a noteworthy role in Scottish Sport and, as a result, can pride herself on providing the women of Scotland with an inspirational figure, even more so in the upcoming year as the record holder uses her own success to promote the upcoming games.
Sporting events and athletes alike must ensure that they are persistently allowing women around the country to feel as though they belong in any sport, at any level, that they take up. This constant reminder shouldn’t just be at a young age, but instead at all the times when young women feel they are not adequate enough for a sports club, workout, or competition.
With such a large sporting event hitting the Glaswegian calendar, we hope to see additional Scottish female athletes using their voice and motivating women not just for a week, but all year round.
Image credits: University of Glasgow