Sport

Orla Chennaoui fears women's sport will lose ground in the aftermath of Covid-19

Eurosport presenter Orla Chennaoui is worried about a lack of support for women's sport. 
Eurosport presenter Orla Chennaoui is worried about a lack of support for women's sport.  Eurosport presenter Orla Chennaoui is worried about a lack of support for women's sport. 

EUROSPORT presenter Orla Chennaoui has expressed concern for the health of women’s sport and questioned the attitude of governing bodies and governments.

In the year when the ‘20 x 20’ campaign was set to expand both coverage of and participation in female sport the Covid-19 crisis put everything on hold and starting up again may be problematic.

Chennaoui, who’s originally from Draperstown, said: “I’m concerned about the will at the top of organisations, and governments, to keep women’s sport high on the agenda.

“I’ve no idea why, if men’s sport can re-start, women’s sport isn’t mentioned in the same breath. That absolutely doesn’t make sense.

“If men’s football [soccer] starts up, why not women’s? It was the same with cycling. Initially they brought out plans for the new calendar – and it was just for the men.

“I’m genuinely baffled at how people making those decisions and announcements can do that without embarrassment, or admitting ‘Well, actually, we haven’t even thought about the women’s side of it.’ I don’t understand that.

“I say I don’t understand it – I do. It exposes attitudes more than ever.”

Chennaoui called for backers to be understanding of the different needs of women’s sport in the near future: “Women’s sport is going to need a lot of love and care over the next couple of years.

“Some investors and sponsors seem to expect women’s sport to be able to bring in revenue and be as developed as men’s sport whenever women were banned from playing certain sports for a long time. They haven’t been at the Olympics in the same sports all the way through.

“Now we’ve got this [Covid-19 crisis] on top of it. I felt we were just getting into our stride a little bit.

“Most women’s sports need some ‘angel investors’ who aren’t going to expect much of an immediate return, because that’s what much sport is, unless you’re the likes of Manchester United or Liverpool…

“I just fear that it’s being forgotten about a little and then that will become a self-fulfilling prophecy, whereby people who say it doesn’t bring in much revenue, or it’s not established enough, and have tried to help it bring in revenue or establish it better, forget about it through this whole crisis and can point to those things as ‘fact’ rather than realising it’s something that should be addressed and helped along the way.”

However, she has glimmers of hope that female participation in sport will continue to increase, saying: “On the flip side, what I am very hopeful for is sport across nations, with anecdotal evidence of more women riding bikes, for example, because they feel safer than when roads were full. Everyone embracing a more sporty way of life, men and women, is a good thing.

“If we can increase participation that would be wonderful – and then that might feed into an appetite for women’s sport…

“I think the Olympic Games are great for women’s sport, absolutely amazing, although unfortunately we have to wait another year to see the female stars there. Females are given the same platform, the same airtime – but I do worry about women’s sport right now.”