In the hall of the Lixenbuhl complex, around twenty girls, aged 9 to 13, take part in handball training based on fun exercises. A dozen of them are not licensed at the club. At least, not yet… They come to discover the practice after having been taken away by a friend or having consulted the information disseminated in schools.
An event that will be perpetuated
This first edition of Women’s Sports Week in Illkirch-Graffenstaden takes place in parallel with Women’s Sports Day, scheduled every January 24, and Olympic and Paralympic Week which usually takes place at the beginning of February – it has been brought forward, this year, due to the opening of the Beijing Winter Games. This Illkirch week will be made permanent over time, according to Yvon Richard, deputy mayor in charge of sports.
Initiations in disciplines other than handball have been scheduled during the week: basketball, rugby, archery, football, boxing, stick twirling, tennis. “We want to encourage girls to cross the door of clubs to come and practice”, explains Davina Dabysing, delegate municipal councilor, in charge of gender equality. “This week allows you to discover certain sports that the girls do not even think about, they tell themselves that it is not for them”, adds the chosen one.
Develop the feminization of the practice
Of the 280 members of the handball club (HAIG), 90 are girls. This is equivalent, more or less, to the average across the department (30%). “Each month, we organize an activity in a club in Bas-Rhin to develop the feminization of the practice”, reveals Agnès Michalik, federal technical framework within the departmental handball committee.
“Our goal is to have at least one women’s team in each age category,” says Patricia Tabellion, president of the Illkirch-Graffenstaden club. In the southern basin of Strasbourg, we are one of the rare clubs to have women”. “Ultimately, Illkirch could thus be at the base of the dynamic, by creating an agreement”, suggests Yvon Richard.
