Mguni to attend Women and Sport conference

organised by the IOC, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games.
The event will cover a range of subjects in both plenary and dialogue sessions, associated with the efforts to strengthen women’s representation both on the sport field and in leadership positions.
The conference is being held under the theme “Together Stronger: the Future of Sport” and will bring together high level speakers from different backgrounds.
Among the speakers will be IOC president Jacques Rogge and IOC’s Women and Sport Commission chairperson, Anita DeFrantz.
Mguni received a special invitation to attend the conference from the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (Anoca) president, Lassana Palenfo, in recognition of the good work ZOC have done in hosting the Anoca-IOC Senior Women Administrators Forum last month.
Mguni said the invitation is an opportunity to learn and share the experiences with other women.
“I was given a special invitation by the Anoca president in appreciation of the work we had done organising the forum and our representation at the forum was extremely overwhelming.
“I did a presentation on perspectives on women in sport and I took it from the Zimbabwean perspective. It’s a huge honour to represent Zimbabwe.
“I have been very fortunate that I went to the women conference held in Morocco in 2004. The thing is the networking and the experiences you share with other women.
“It’s really amazing to interact with women at that level,” said Mguni.
Mguni said the conference does not only present opportunities for women but for the Olympic family as well.
“There may be a general prescription but its always important to always apply it in the correct context of the environment you work in.
“I think we will get a lot of ideas and I am hoping from African perspective we can come together and share.
“Whenever you go to these conferences you have to keep your eyes and ears alert because you can get a lot of information and opportunities that apply to the general Olympic movement. It’s important to identify any opportunities that are there for women to be able to further their experience in sport,” said Mguni.
Meanwhile, ZOC are running a 12-week adapted sport administration course for athletics officials and sports directors at the Olympic Sports Centre at Prince Edward School.
The course, which started last week, was officially opened yesterday by the Principal Director in Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Paul Damasane and will be conducted every Wednesday until April.
Olympic Sports Centre co-ordinator, Chiedza Mafunga said the course was aimed at developing sports directors in schools on ethical sport administration as well athletics in line with the 13-15 Fun ‘n Fresh athletics explosion programme.