PANAM SPORTS WOMEN REPRESENT THE AMERICAS ON GENDER EQUALITY AT THE IWG’S “WOMEN IN SPORT” WORLD SUMMIT

Share

Alongside other leaders of the Americas, Panam Sports Secretary General Jimena Saldaña represented the Olympic Movement of the Americas this week at the IWG Women in Sport Global Summit in Birmingham, England, taking part in the Continental Session – Americas: “The Challenges and Critical Pathways for Gender Equality in the Continental Sports Ecosystem,” held on the final day of the three-day summit.

Saldaña joined Alicia Masoni de Morea, First Vice President of the Argentine Olympic Committee and President of the Panam Sports Women and Sport Commission, alongside representatives from Brazil 2030 — contributors to the upcoming IWG World Conference — for a session moderated by Dr. Rosaura Méndez Gamboa, IWG Women & Sport’s Regional Representative for the Americas, and Sarita Morales Brenes. The panel formed part of a full day of continental sessions running alongside parallel discussions from Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania, each examining the state of gender equality within their respective sport ecosystems.

“Participating in the IWG Women & Sport conference in Birmingham was a powerful reminder of both how far we’ve come and how much work remains — the podiums have changed faster than the boardrooms,” said Saldaña. “What struck me most is the power women have when they work together on the benefit of Sports, especially focusing on women and girls. These kinds of gatherings bring so much enthusiasm and good ideas after exchanging different experiences.”

Progress on the Podium, a Longer Road in the Boardroom

Saldaña’s presentation, titled “Women’s Leadership in Sports Organizations of the Continent,” traced the trajectory of women in Olympic sport across four decades — from a 1984 landscape in which women made up just 24% of Olympic athletes worldwide and rarely held leadership positions, to today’s Panam Sports region, where women now account for more than 40% of athletes.

But Saldaña was direct about where progress has stalled: women currently hold 27% of leadership positions across the Americas’ 41 National Olympic Committees. “In forty years we moved from near-zero to twenty-seven percent,” her presentation noted. “That is real. That matters. But twenty-seven is not fifty” — a benchmark tied to the IOC’s Gender Equality, Diversity & Inclusion recommendation on governance representation.

The presentation also named gaps that remain within the region’s own institutions, including national federations where equal pay for women’s competitions is still treated as exceptional rather than standard, and reporting systems where athletes who raise harassment concerns risk more professional fallout than the individuals they report.

A Call to Action Ahead of Brazil 2030

Saldaña closed her remarks with a direct challenge to the room, asking sport leaders to leave with three concrete commitments: a clear number — their organization’s current percentage of women in executive leadership; a deadline — a specific, accountable date for a policy on representation and safe sport, rather than an open-ended goal; and a name — identifying a woman within their organization ready to lead, and investing in her.

The session also looked ahead to the IWG World Summit in Brazil in 2030, which Saldaña described as closer than it appears: “The IWG World Summit is not a distant horizon. It is four years away — and the commitments we make today will shape it or embarrass it.” Brazil’s hosting role was further underscored elsewhere in the summit’s programme with the IWG Secretariat Handover Ceremony, formally passing leadership of the IWG Secretariat from the United Kingdom to Brazil for the 2026–2030 cycle.

Panam Sports’ participation in the summit reflects the organization’s ongoing commitment to gender equity across the Americas, building on the work of its Women and Sport Commission and its 41 member National Olympic Committees to close the gap between representation on the field of play and representation in the boardroom.