Covid effects being felt at the grassroots level
WOMEN IN SPORT
AUCKLAND: New Zealand became a refuge for toplevel women's sports teams during Covid19, hosting international netball and cricket matches when other countries could not or would not.
But not every women's competition survived unscathed and there was still work to be done, participants in Women in Sport Aotearoa Captains Lunch in Auckland were told yesterday.
New Zealand was the envy of the netball world last year with domestic games and international matches going ahead as Covid19 ravaged other countries.
But keeping netball's biggest moneymakers — the Silver Ferns and six ANZ Premiership teams — on court last year came at a cost. Netball New Zealand chief executive Jennie Wyllie said the grassroots felt the impact of that cost.
‘‘Last year we cut massively. We made some really big decisions around things that we couldn't proceed with and that is cutting into the muscle of our game,’’ Wyllie said.
‘‘Our under21s programme was stalled, our investment in the development of young people was reduced, our staff made choices across all parts of the business because we just didn't know if we'd get those games played.’’
Wyllie said financial support from the government and the allocation of MIQ spots for the England Roses and Australian Diamonds was a huge relief.
However, she said with an uncertain international calendar this year, netball was not out of the woods yet, and players were still suffering.
‘‘We were well supported last year but it does not change the systemic inequities in how women and girls at a grassroots level have experienced sport for a long time and how they are funded and able to participate equitably,’’ Wyllie said.
This year was to be a bumper year for women's sport globally. Instead, many female athletes' world cup dreams are on hold.
The women's Cricket World Cup and Rugby World Cup, to be hosted in New Zealand, have been postponed.
Sport New Zealand chief executive Raelene Castle said elite female athletes were worse off than their male counterparts when it came to opportunities for international competition over the past year.
But she said putting the World Cups on ice was the right call.
However, the former Rugby Australia boss said women's sevens was a good example of what was possible when investment was made into developing female athletes.
‘‘From where the athletes started 10 years ago to now playing on a world circuit, they're fulltime professional athletes, their game is equally watched in sevens events all over the world by men and women in the same vein as the men, so the men play and then the women play and there is equal enthusiasm to watch both,’’ Castle said.
Research released yesterday by Women in Sport Aotearoa showed more than half of adult New Zealanders now considered gender equity in sport to be an important social cause.
Millennials were the biggest supporters, and of all of those who are pushing for gender equity 43% were men.
For guest speaker Emma Gilmour, being a minority in motorsport had opened doors.
Gilmour joined a select few in the revolutionary Extreme E rally series which pits nine men and nine women drivers against each other in an event that is as much about racing as it is the environment.
Although Covid19 had stopped her from joining the opening rounds in Saudi Arabia and Senegal, she knew the importance of such a series for equality.
‘‘It's never been done before in motorsport and it's a really good move because it's giving us as women something that we can compete at on a world stage alongside world champions like Sebastien Loeb and Carlos Sainz. It's pinch yourself kind of material. It's amazing.’’ — RNZ