13 December 2007
Posted to the web 13 December 2007

Grace Chingoma
Harare

THE Women And Sport Foundation believe harassment and traditional norms are some of the big challenges female athletes still face when participating in various sporting disciplines.

Various speakers at the Women And Sport Foundation in Zimbabwe conference, held last weekend in Gweru in conjunction with the Sport and Recreation Commission, agreed that they faced a number of challenges in the sporting environment.

After Zimbabwe Netball Association president Leticia Chipandu introduced the topic, the women were split in various discussion groups to try and find some solutions to some of the problems female athletes faced when they try to participate in sport.

The women also noted with concern that that some female athletes were verbally or sexually harassed by spectators as some traditional norms still viewed with suspicion women's participation in sport.

But for all the challenges they faced, the indaba in Gweru also admitted that women were failing to support each other with the participants revealing that "the pull her down syndrome" characterised the attitudes of many women in sport.