SPORT BUSINESS OBSERVATORY
-
Souad Soulimani
has been a member of the Sport Business Observatory since 2016. Founder of MediaSpoliS specializing in media education and the production of content dedicated to women's leadership, she is also president of Radio Déclic, which gives the floor residents of working-class neighborhoods on major societal issues.
To discover
DOSSIER - The Sport Business Observatory
This Wednesday, sportswomen were in the spotlight at the National Assembly.
Not exclusively as athletes who perform, but as accomplished young girls and women.
They have a message to convey through the third eye of director Marie Lopez-Vivanco with her film "
Sportswomen: the media journey of combatants
".
Discreet but committed and passionate about the theme she has been pursuing for so many years, first as a photographer and then today as a director.
As close as possible to the inspiring and impactful journeys of our female athletes.
These paths strewn with pitfalls are the active witnesses of a society which has not yet measured all the issues around the practice of female sports and this equality, diversity that we all seek to meet and not to leave as well. both on sports grounds and in federal jurisdictions.
The figures can be worrying and yet since 2012, they have progressed positively.
The CSA recalls that women's sport represents 18% of sports broadcasts on our screens, audiences are there for the exploits of female athletes, particularly in disciplines such as handball, football or rugby.
But once the screens are off, what happens?
How to accompany and perpetuate a sports practice with a rich and varied offer on the
whole territory?
How to respond effectively to the specific challenges of these women's journeys, of these lives of combatants?
The poster of the produced documentary directed by Marie Lopez-Vivanco.
Marie Lopez-Vivanco.
By hosting the screening at the National Assembly, the deputy of Gironde Eric Poulliat wants to move the lines and support the initiatives on the ground for better visibility and consideration of the theme: "
I want to thank the film crew as well as the presence of the Olympic and Sports Committee of Île-de-France and all of you for your presence.
Today, we still have a lot to do to move the lines but we are mobilized and at your disposal to ensure that women's sports practice finds its place in our schools, in the territories and in the various competitions.
There is education and role models.
I know that the athletes who speak out have remarkable journeys through their commitment and the message they carry.
I am at your disposal to move forward together and I thank you for being here this evening to discuss your experiences and move forward together.
".
This message finds an echo in the projection room supported by the testimony of Mrs. Maria Iacob Garibal, substitute for the deputy and former high-level athlete.
She will evoke with a lot of commitment the course of the high level and the question of the retraining of the athletes.
The film crew at the Palais Bourbon.
Orlane Bournois.
Produced by Juvacom medias and promoted by Patrick Chevallier, an associative figure committed to feminization for thirty years, it was a winning intergenerational duo that was the honour: "
when we met Marie-Lopez, we quickly realized that the media coverage of women's sport was an important key to allowing young girls to try out, emancipate themselves and advance in sport in complete equality and diversity.
I am a fervent defender of it and I believe in
it, ” he explained.
Today, the lines are moving with 89 sports federations which have adopted a feminization plan, parity in the governing bodies of sport from 2024 has been voted.
The CNOSF program “
300 women leaders
launched last week at the Maison du Sport Français reinforces this optimism.
Champions and accomplished women
From this observation, women of action and grassroots continue to demand equal treatment and to seize it.
Béatrice Barbusse, who expresses herself in the documentary, encourages us not to wait but to undertake and find our own place in an environment that is still too masculine.
The French Basketball Federation also acts with the bias of fully and mediatically assuming the choice of women.
This is the powerful message delivered by the former European champion and now director of the Women's Basketball League Yannick Souvré who during a recent press conference in Paris declared: "
our champions are first and foremost accomplished women and we are there to support them in managing their sporting life and their family or professional life.
We are proud to have role models and we want to pass the word on to the younger generations with awareness-raising actions and contact in the neighborhoods
”.
Both the basketball Federation and the rugby Federation have also seen an increase in licenses (for the 2021-2022 season respectively + 19.6% and + 22.12%).
As for the question of profitability and the fantasy that surrounds it, it must be desacralized.
Audiences of women's sport appeal.
When France 2 broadcasts the first stage of the new women's Tour de France, there are 3 million viewers or 27.8% of the public watching their television on July 24th.
Same success for TF1 in the quarter-finals of Les Bleues against the Netherlands the day before which thrilled 4.5 million supporters or 28.7% market share.
More and more, media and sponsors have understood what is at stake.
Everywhere in society, women are speaking out boldly and authentically.
Strength and determination.
Values that men's sport no longer knows how to promote, having long relied on virility and pure performance.
The first female President of CROS Ile-de-France, who is also President of the Regional Sports Conference knows this well: “
We must take up the torch and continue to nourish this flame so that, through education from a very young age, transmission and determination, the female sports model seduces and allows other generations of champions to follow and show the way.
We are working on it in our territories and I am happy to be able to allow the film to be broadcast in the departments and throughout the Region with the committed and mobilized sports players.
The question of equipment is essential and we are all working on it together
”.
Together.
If that was the key?
There is still a long way to go, but it will be traveled as it has been since 1928 with the First Women's Olympic Games which would have brought together between 5,000 and 20,000 spectators.
Today, in 2022 in France, only 1% of equipment bears the name of a woman... Paris 2024 is driving an optimistic dynamic that must be followed and accentuated to open the games wide and especially on a daily basis, to open our eyes wide to that our athletes are no longer invisible.
But invincible.
With our support and the enthusiasm around their performance.
This is also the beauty and strength of sport.