The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

FORTY Bahamian women will be lauded by a local governing body for their contributions in local sports.

The Women and Sports Commission of the Bahamas Olympic Committee will award the outstanding sportswomen in a gala banquet under the theme “Celebrating the Success of Women in Sports.”

While a date has not been set for the event, BOC Women and Sports Commission chairman Cora Hepburn said the highly anticipated recognition will be held under the patronage of Betty Cole, swimming icon and sports philanthropist , and Cynthia “Mother” Pratt, former deputy prime minister, outstanding athlete, coach and mentor.

The list of honourees will also be announced at a later date.

“The BOC, through the mandate of the president, Wellington Miller, has set the example for women’s involvement in sports,” she said.

Hepburn made history in 2012 when she became the first female elected to the post of BOC vice president in over 60 years.

“Since my election to office as vice president of the BOC, I have been tasked by the president to chair the Women and Sports Commission. Having played sports and elevating to administration, I know and have experienced first hand some of the challenges that we as women have to confront in sports,” she said. “The role of the Woman And Sports Commission is to advise the BOC executive board on the policy to deploy in the area of women in sports. “

The BOC has always had a close connection with the issue of women in sports, as the Oympic Games has always been a major platform for the women of the Bahamas to make an impact on the local and international sporting landscape.

It was the Bahamas’ “Golden Girls” 4x100m relay team of Pauline Davis-Thompson, Chandra Sturrup, Savetheda Fynes and Eldece Clark-Lewis that won the country’s first Olympic medal in athletics at the 1996 Atlanta Games with a silver in their signature event.

The addition of Debbie Ferguson-MeKenzie saw the team follow with a gold medal in 2000 in Greece.

Additionally, the Bahamas’ only individual gold medals in athletics were won by women when Davis-Thompson won gold in the 200m in Greece and Tonique-Williams Darling followed in the 400m in Athens 2004.

Hepburn said she hopes that placing a greater focus on women in sports and support from the BOC will influence its member federation to place more women in leadership roles.

“In 1896, the beginning of the modern era of the first Olympic Games, women were not allowed to compete at all. Over the years, the participation of women in the BOC has changed considerably for the better. The BOC has enshrined in its constitution that women should comprise at least 20 per cent of the executive committee.

“As chairman, I encourage national federations to adopt these changes into their own constitutions as a matter of priority,” she said. “As leaders of the Olympic Movement in the Bahamas, our first objective is to promote and develop sports throughout the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. The BOC has constantly played a complimentary role to establish a positive trend to increase women’s participation at all levels of sport, but more so as sports administrators and leaders.”

According to Hepburn, an important role of women in sports, both on and off the field, has been the deconstruction of gender stereotypes.

“Sports and physical activities have been recognised as having a positive impact on health and as being a tool to eliminate socially constructed gender stereotypes. The Bahamas Olympic Committee has encouraged the sporting community at large to follow this movement progressively, undertaking initiatives to allow broader participation of women in leadership roles in sports in general,” she said.

“Over the last 20 years, the International Olympic Committee has pressed for the women’s programmes at the Olympic Games to be enlarged in co-operation with the respective international sports federations and national Olympic committees.”