Celebrating inspiring female role models in sport on International Women’s Day

Mar 4, 2021

The SPAR Lancashire School Games is calling for girls and women across the county to take part in a motivational programme of activities for International Women’s Day 2021.

Running between the 8-14th March, there will be a host of free resources, case studies and activities to celebrate inspirational female role models and encourage girls to engage with regular physical activity.

Inspirational women taking part include 

  • Holly Woods (British Olympic Pole Vaulter and former Runshaw College student)  
  • Shelly Woods (British Paralympian from Fleetwood)
  • And Zuleikha Chikh, an undergraduate student at UCLAN who was named on the Muslim Women in Sports Powerlist 2019.

Dominic Holroyd, Children and Young People Development Officer at Active Lancashire said, “Girls have shown great resilience during COVID-19, adapting well to online and alternative physical activities during the summer.

“In fact, there has been an increase of 100,000 more girls across England who are regularly active during 2020, compared with 2019. This is a fantastic statistic when you think of all the challenges COVID-19 has created, and we want to encourage mothers, grandmothers, aunties, teachers and friends to get active and reap the benefits that regular sport can bring.

Traditionally, boys are more likely to be active than girls. Dominic added, “Sport England has found that children from areas of deprivation and from BAME communities are less likely to be active, and especially girls. However, if we ensure sport and physical activity is fun, then children are more likely to sustain activity in the future. Our main goal for the games is for it to be a fun way to be active and to ensure we are making the games inclusive for all young people, especially girls.

“Exercising as a family can be a fantastic way of strengthening relationships, motivating each other and forming healthy, long-term habits that encourage children to remain active during their adult life.”

To access the free resources and take part in the International Women’s Day event, visit www.lancashireschoolgames.co.uk