Women’s participation in the Olympic movement has always had to struggle with opposition from men. At the ancient Olympic Games in Athens, women were prohibited from participating in competitions or even attending sporting events, an offense that could carry the death penalty. And when Baron Pierre de Coubertin revived these competitions for the world, he too upheld the macho Greek tradition of marginalizing women. “The Games are the solemn and periodic exaltation of men’s sport, with the applause of women as a reward,” was one of the phrases he used to repeat to sweeten his opposition to women’s participation in the Olympics.
But thanks to the feminist movement for sport, led by the Frenchwoman Alice Melliant, founder of the International Women’s Sports Federation, starting with the 1938 Amsterdam Olympics, women began to compete officially and of the 300 who signed up for the Dutch appointment, 10% of the total number of athletes passed in Tokyo 2020 to 5,595 athletes for 49% of the total, which represented a record.
That increase has not been similar when it comes to the Olympic leadership, although there has been progress. In 1990, Flor Isava from Venezuela and Pirjo Häggman from Finland became the first women to serve on the board of the International Olympic Committee. But in the case of the Venezuelan Olympic Committee, it was necessary to wait 87 years, since its foundation in 1935, for a woman to be elected president of the Board of Directors of this entity, the sports glory of softball María Soto.
Venezuela’s flag bearer at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and current president of the Venezuelan Softball Federation, is not only the first woman but also the first national athlete to compete in an Olympics to assume this position. All the men who preceded her in the position, from Roberto Pérez to Eduardo Álvarez, were not distinguished by their sports skills and none came to shine in world championships or Olympic games as Soto did throughout his exceptional sports career.
When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ratifies her in her position in the coming days, Soto will join a small group of women who are at the head of the Olympic committees of their nations. According to the IOC website, of the total of 214 recognized entities, only 19 national committees are directed by women, that is, 8%.
That short list of female presidents is headed by the American Sussane Lyons, who was elected in 2019 after leading the investigation request against doctor Larry Nassar, sentenced to prison for sexually abusing dozens of Team USA gymnasts. In the American continent, the other NOC presidents are Tricia Smith (Canada), Sandra Osborne (Barbados), the ex-clavadista and deputy for the Ecological party, María Alcalá (Mexico), the ex-basketball player Damaris Young (Panama), Sara Rosario Vélez (Puerto Rico), Diane Henderson (Trinidad and Tobago), and Lorette Powell (Cayman Islands). In Europe there are the high jump world record holder Stefka Kostadinova (Bulgaria), Brigitte Henriques (France), Berit Kjøll (Norway), Anneke Van Zanen-Nieberg (Netherlands), Yael Arad (Israel) and Daina Gudzineviciute (Lithuania). .
In Asia: Sengdeuane Lachanthaboun (Laos); in Africa: Aïcha Garad (Djibouti), Beatrice Allen (Gambia) and Filomena Fortes (Cape Verde); and in Oceania, the only woman president is Makarita Loena (Fiji), a teacher and the first indigenous woman from her country to hold the position.
A choir of female voices will make itself felt on the Board of Directors
In the new Board of Directors of the VOC, María Soto will not be the only female with voice and vote to make decisions. The iron that accompanied her has a mixture of renewal and wisdom, which in the latter case is represented by Élida de Álvarez, who knows like few others all the secrets of international Olympism due to her long career in the efforts of Fernando Romero and later Eduardo Álvarez. . As general secretary is the legend of judo and today the leader of that federation, Katiuska Santaella, who restored prestige to that entity, tarnished by allegations of sexual harassment by the former president of Fevejudo. Two other women: Aracelys León, who rescued Fevebeisbol from the swamp, and Alejandra Benítez, with her inexhaustible combativeness, will be at the COV. The sporting challenges of the new COV Board of Directors begin soon with the participation of Venezuela in the Bolivarian Games in Valledupar, Colombia, to be held from July 24 to July 5 next. In institutional matters, a series of no less priority issues must be addressed.
The first is to recover the legitimacy of federations such as boxing, field tennis or karate that have legal problems, but enjoy international recognition. Yet another is to create a transparent mechanism, with rules approved and known by athletes, coaches and federations to award scholarships and financial aid provided by the International Olympic Committee and Panam Sports. The support cannot be given by hand or to benefit related federations, as has been the case. And all that information of interest must appear on the official website of the VOC, which unfortunately has disappeared.
