European Athletics has invited its 50 Member Federations to name the winners of the second edition of the European Athletics Women’s Leadership Awards.
Each federation has the right to select a winner and thereby recognise accomplishments that are a significant contribution to athletics in areas other than competitive success and serve as an example of leadership and other values of the sport.
All the national winners will receive a commissioned art work prize and an awards certificate from European Athletics. They will also have their personal story highlighted on the European Athletics website.
The national winners will also take part in a vote to select a representative who will be the first to receive her prize, which will be given during the European Athletics Awards Dinner, presented by Mondo, in Arona, Spain, on 15 October 2011. The other winners will receive their awards at ceremonies organised by their federations.
Alongside the awards, European Athletics will give three scholarships to a special training programme for young women identified as future leaders in the sport.
“These awards and the scholarships are great ways to recognise and promote women leaders in our sport,” said European Athletics Council member Dr Sylvia Barlag (NED), who will lead the awards process. “They are also important for increasing awareness about the issues faced by women in athletics.”
For the inaugural awards given in 2009, 24 national winners were named by their federations and Thórdís Gísladóttir from Iceland was selected as the overall representative.
In January, Gísladóttir and 38 other women, including national winners Sirje Lippe (EST), Odile Diagana (FRA) and Simone Richardson (NED), took part in a European Athletics Women’s Leadership Seminar in Evian, France, which was funded with a grant from the European Union. They were joined by the three scholarship winners Anna Linner (SWE), Ingrid Ness Rolland (NOR) and Ay…Ÿegül Baklaci (TUR).
Speaking of what the 2009 award meant to her, Diagana said, “it made me realised that the work I was doing had actually added value to the sport and it gave me more confidence”.
As in 2009, ERACOM, the Ecole Romande d’Art et de Communication, a highly ranked design school in Lausanne, Switzerland, will provide the artwork prize for the winners.
For further information see http://www.european-athletics.org/womens-leadership-awards.html or contact Marie-Anne Midy at marie-anne.midy@european-athletics.org.