Basketball coach Julie Kremer (36) was part of the « Women in Sports » Symposium that was organized in September by INAPS. Kremer coached the women’s team in Heffingen for 2 years before becoming the assistant coach for T71’s women’s team for 3 seasons. At the moment, she is taking a little break from coaching.
Kremer shares her experience of the Symposium:
„On Saturday 23rd September 2023 the former ENEPS, now INAPS, organized a Symposium entitled “Women in Sports” in collaboration with the minister of sports as well as the minister of gender equality. The symposium was open to anyone interested in the topic.
The symposium opened with a talk from the keynote speaker, Dr Fraser Carson, Assistant Professor in Coaching and Sport Psychology at LUNEX University, on “Promoting Women in Sports”. He discussed different methods that could and should be applied to the modern world we are living in and explained how countries are managing to overcome the gender gap and heading in the right direction. He closed his lecture by summarizing where we stand, saying it should rather be a question of equity for women in terms of opportunities and resources rather than equality in sport. I totally agree with his conclusion.
After this lecture, a so called “table ronde” with the theme “Gläichstellung vun Fraen a Männer am Sport. Wou sti mir zu Lëtzebuerg a wou wëlle mir hin?” was moderated by Joëlle Letsch, former president an now member of the executive board of CNFL. I had the honour of speaking of my experience as a female coach in Luxembourg, together with the President of the Luxembourgish Volleyball federation, Norma Zambon and Luxembourgish Olympic athlete Charline Mathias. We were able to highlight the gender differences we have personally experienced in sports as women, for example: sexist sportswear for females, smaller trophies for women compared to men, the organisation of sports halls on a women’s gameday compared to a men’s gameday and so on.
Former high jumper, now director of COAL, Raymond Conzemius, the Minister of Sports, Georges Engel as well as Dan Ley, the former handball player and coordinator of INAPS were also represented in the “table ronde” giving feedback on specific topics that are improving but also acknowledging problems and rooting for better solutions. We had a very interesting discussion and came to the conclusion that even though we are heading in baby steps in the right direction, a lot of work lies ahead of us and everyone needs to take responsibility.
In the afternoon we participated in two workshops “Coachen von Athletinnen. Gleich, und doch anders! » and “Empowerment – Kommunikation. Was ist zu beachten, wenn ich Frauen trainiere oder betreue“.
These workshops were very informative and mainly directed at coaches, nevertheless contained essential information for everyone involved in female sports, whatever their role. One major issue that still needs to be addressed is the fact that there is a huge dropout rate of female athletes around the world between the ages of 12 and 17. We need to prevent this from happening.
My conclusion after this day, is that we cannot be satisfied with the current situation in Luxembourg regarding women in sport. Everyone involved needs to make more of an effort, take responsibility and in my opinion, our media plays a crucial role. We need to start seeing and hearing more of Luxembourgish female athletes, coaches, referees, board members etc, on TV, in the press, on the radio and on social media.
Everyone, whatever their age, needs a role model because “Seeing is believing”. »
