Women in sport clubs increasing

WOMEN across Scotland are benefiting from increased participation in sports – with 10,000 more people involved in sports clubs this year compared to 2016.

In 2015/16, there were 197,691 female participants in sport, according to SportScotland figures.

This rose to 208,602 in 2016/17 – with sports such as football seeing a significant rise to nearly 9000 amongst girls, who will be further inspired by seeing the Scottish national team at this summer’s European Championships.

There were also nearly 6000 more girls participating in gymnastics this year, and nearly 2000 more adult women playing tennis.

The news comes after Scotland hosted a range of high profile sporting events in recent years, including the Commonwealth Games, Ryder Cup, regular golf tournaments and Davis Cup tennis.

Glasgow is set to play host to the European Championships next year and in 2020 the national stadium Hampden is hosting games at the UEFA European Championships.

Commenting, SNP MSP Maree Todd, who is a member of the Scottish Parliament’s rugby union team, said sport was encouraging healthy living and good habits among young people.

She said: “The increase in the number of girls playing football is a great positive.

“And we can only expect this to increase even more, following the Scottish national teams’ appearance at the European Championships this summer – the first senior Scottish football side to play in a major tournament since 1998.

“And it’s not just more children participating in sports, as more adult women are getting involved in athletics, hockey, rugby and more.”