How to push for gender equity, on and off the field of play
When the guys want in on the cool programme that an NOC is putting on for girls and women, you know something good is going on in the name of gender equity. Indeed, that was the scene in Mongolia.
At a workshop designed for female athletes and girls in primary and high school, two of the country’s most acclaimed male freestyle wrestlers showed up just before the opening remarks: Tokyo 2020 Olympic Solidarity scholarship-holder Tumur-Ochir Tulga, a bronze medallist at the 2021 World Championships in the 65-kilo class, and Munkhturin Lkhagvagerei, who not only finished fifth at Tokyo 2020 in the 125-kilo class but served at the Closing Ceremony as the Mongolian team’s flagbearer.
Why, they wanted to know to a warm welcome, was this key event aimed at girls and young women? Simple. Because, over the course of about a month, it proved one of a number of events put on by the NOC, with the support of its Continental Association, the Olympic Council of Asia, to vividly promote the promise and potential of gender equity — on and off the field of play.
At Tokyo 2020, Mongolia sent a team of 43: 18 men, 25 women. Those 25 included a first-ever Mongolian entry in a team sport: a women’s 3x3 basketball team, one of only eight nations that qualified for Tokyo.
All the same, as Bayartuya Bayarsaikhan, Head of International Relations at the NOC made plain, the string of programmes offered a “great opportunity to implement our strategic planning.”
First up: a one-day leadership and management seminar for 20 women, ages 25 to 55, from 11 different National Federations. A pre-meeting survey discovered that 40 percent had never received any such training.
Next: another one-day seminar, this one focusing on during- and post-playing career planning for 25 athletes, ages 18 to 27, including Olympians, from eight different sports. The objective: to “boldly design” life during one’s playing career, and after.
Next: a first-of-its kind event, “You can be the next Olympian,” that ranged over five different days at schools in five districts around the capital, Ulaanbaatar. It directly reached 380 students ages 12 to 18 and, via the NOC’s social media pages, saw a reach of 206,000 with 895 likes, 263 comments and 537 shares.
The goals: to inspire girls and young women “to believe in themselves” and “to increase their interest in physical activity and sports.” Various Olympic federations joined in: shooting, dance sport, boxing, wrestling, archery and basketball.
Standout athletes took part: All four players on that 3x3 team. Wrestlers Bat-Ochiryn Bolortuyaa, winner of bronze in the women’s freestyle 53-kilo category in Tokyo, and Soronzonbold Battsetseg, Olympic Solidarity scholarship-holder for London 2012 and Rio 2016, whose London 2012 bronze in the 63-kilo class marked Mongolia’s first Olympic medal in freestyle wrestling since the Olympic Games Moscow 1980.
Also: Otryadyn Gundegmaa, a shooter who was also supported by an Olympic Solidarity scholarship for Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Tokyo 2020 and whose Tokyo appearance marked her seventh Olympic Games; a Beijing 2008 shooting silver medallist, she carried the Mongolian flag at the Athens 2004 Closing Ceremony.
Gundegmaa brought her rifle to the event and allowed the students to touch it. They “were so excited and interested,” Bayarsaikhan said.
The month brought one last push. The Women in Sport Committee at the Mongolian NOC created a video, featuring 20 Olympians and athletes from eight National Federations, aiming to raise awareness about climate change. Through the NOC’s social pages, it drew, all in, an engagement of about 7,000.