European Championships | 25 Sep 2014

Great discussion on ETTU Women Forum

ETTU Women in table tennis Forum held today in MEO Arena during the TMS European Championships hosted by Ronald KRAMER, ETTU President and Beatrice ROMANESCU, Women’s Co-ordinator in ETTU attracted a lot of attention. Women made a great step in sport, but

ETTU Women in table tennis Forum held today in MEO Arena during the TMS European Championships hosted by Ronald KRAMER, ETTU President and Beatrice ROMANESCU, Women’s Co-ordinator in ETTU attracted a lot of attention. Women made a great step in sport, but still there is a long way to go in order to achieve equality.
“Subject of Women in Table Tennis was on our agenda for a long time, but so far we are not aware of progress in that area. The Executive Board made it the priority now. There is still a lot to be done in terms of equality and we are here today to open discussion and to hear the propositions,” said ETTU President KRAMER.

With the reminder that Marie MARVINGT ignored the role that only men can participate at Tour de France, in 1908 finished the rice as only women with 37 male riders, ROMANESCU said that after that things had not changed very much. “Women and girls are still getting a raw deal in the world of sport. Sport governing bodies are still dominated by men. Female coaches earn less then their male counterparts. Girls are more likely than boys to be victims of sexual harassment in sport. Women participate less in sport than men 43% of men play sport at least once a week, compared with 375 of women…” were some of the figures underlined in ROMANESCU’s presentation.

To make a table tennis successful there is a need for balance in consumer, media and commercial appeal. “We need a change of attitude, policy and leadership, communication, networking and project and funding. “

ITTF’s Executive Committee member Petra SORLING of Sweden, involved in the work of ITTF WWG from a very beginning in Paris 2003, underlined the great success in Women sport in Romania as an example, but added that such success at national level is very rare. ‘We did a great work on global level, but there is so much we have to do now on national level. Now we have to focus on progress there,” said SORLING.

Another “veteran” in WWG project ,ETTU Vice President for Finance Dorte DARFELT explain that the movement have to set a new course. “At the very beginning we thought we can change the World, but then we end up spreading our efforts in to many directions. Now we have to focus on certain plans for certain periods,” said DARFELT.
Sandra Deaton, Table Tennis England Chair, proudly said that table tennis has joined the growing band of sports which recognises that women’s events merit the same prize money as the men’s, but..
“We have problems how to attract girls to our sport. We do not have enough women players.”

“In Germany”, sport director Dirk SCHIMMELPFENNIG said, “ we need to make professional structure in order to help female players.”