Gold Coast Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games Federation has revealed that for the first time in the history of the competition there would be equal number of medals for women and men at this year’s event scheduled to hold in Gold Coast, Australia.
The decision, it said is a core part of the CGF’s far-reaching gender equality strategy, which has given birth to seven additional women’s event categories to the Gold Coast 2018 sports programme. This, it added, would ensure that men and women compete for an equal number of medals (133 women’s events; 133 men’s events; 9 mixed/open events).
“The strategy, launched at the 2016 CGF General Assembly in Edmonton, Canada, strives to ensure that women and girls are equally represented, recognised and served across all areas of the Commonwealth Sports Movement. It also sets the benchmark for gender equality standards seen anywhere in international sport,” president of the CGF, Louise Martin said.
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Martin argued, “International Women’s Day is the right time to reflect on how far we have come with gender equality and how far we still have to go to ensure real balance and fairness in both sport and society.
“The Commonwealth Sports Movement is proud to be setting the pace for equal gender representation and opportunity in sport, by ensuring that an equal number of medals will be up for grabs at Gold Coast 2018 for women and med.
With significant steps forward like this, we believe our unwavering commitment to gender equality is a core value that differentiates the Commonwealth Games from any other international sports movement.
Indeed, it is our committed work in areas such as gender equality that make the Commonwealth and Commonwealth Sports Movement more relevant than ever before.”
Part of CGF strategy is ensuring gender parity of technical officials, which means that international federations for Basketball, Hockey and Swimming have confirmed that at least 50 per cent of their technical officials presiding over the sporting action will be women.
The announcement supports the collective mission of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), the Gold Coast 2018 Organising Corporation (GOLDOC) and its international sporting stakeholders to ensure the that the Games set an international benchmark as the most gender-equal multi-sports event ever seen.
Source: G Sport
