The European University Sports Association hosted an inspiring and empowering webinar, on the topic of Women Leaders and Role Models, on Wednesday 1st of March.

The webinar saw more than a hundred people registered for the online event, which gathered three remarkable guest speakers, sharing personal experiences and stories of Women leaders, how they can act as role models and encourage women and young girls to take part in sports, both as a leisure activity and as a potential professional career.

Following the welcoming address given by the President of EUSA Mr Adam Roczek, indicating the importance of gender equality and the measures EUSA is taking to achieve this at various levels, the moderator of the webinar Mr Lorenz Ursprung gave a short introduction of the panellists and officially opened the event with an insightful story. 

The keynote speech was delivered by Professor Dame Sarah Springman, Principal at St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford, presenting her career path, as well as challenges she had to overcome during her successful career as a high-performance athlete, academic and a sport administrator. Professor Springman gave examples of the importance of equal treatment for women both in the sports industry and in the academic world. 

Professor Springman shared with the participants personal stories of how important the combination of great spirit and leadership is to make a change. She pointed out that you can elevate the performance of women, if you give them the safe space and equal opportunities to show their potential and great work.

The second speaker taking the virtual floor was Ms Andreja Leskovšek McQuarrie, President of Women’s Football Club Radomlje and multi-sports event organizer. Ms McQuarrie, presented her rich and insightful career path, pointing out why taking steps, regardless of how uncomfortable they might be, is of key importance when taking leadership positions and building a career in the sport industry. She presented several examples from her professional career as an athlete and later as organizer of multi-sport events, showing the fruitful results of empowerment of other women to perform on their best abilities, as well as Olympic examples of improvement when it comes to gender equality. 

She considers her presidency of the Women’s Football Club Radomlje as one of her greatest achievements, having a great number of women involved in the decision making positions in the club, representing one more step in the creating better opportunities for women in sport.

Ms Ágnes Ančić-Valkai, Director of International Relations at the Hungarian University Sports Federation (MEFS) presented her insightful sporting career, starting from early ages, giving example on how persistence, effort and overcoming challenges as a women athlete can be extremely beneficial. She discussed the challenges that women athletes face after they end their sporting careers, as well as how that can reflect into empowering them to become leaders and to continue building their professional careers.

Ms Valkai presented her personal acts of empowerment of young women through her Water Polo Academy, stating that sport governance is a group work and that hard work, giving different inputs and approaches in the decision making is a mutual task for all leaders and role models.

An engaging question and answer session followed, allowing meeting attendees to further probe the topic and receive astute answers from the expert speakers. The speaker’s answers gave additional insights to multiple types of leadership styles, tools that can help in changing the stereotypes and even more examples of personal acts, that build them as women leaders and role models they are today.

The webinar was wrapped up with an address from the moderator, Mr Lorenz Ursprung, giving a thank you note to the excellent speakers, to all the attendees and to the EUSA Inclusion & Diversity Commission who organized the event.