Female Sport in NI #Underrated

As I flicked through the Sunday Life today, starting with the Sports section at the back.. I read countless articles on the boring male species and their so called fantastic achievements at the weekend, being bigged up by fellow male reporters. Something I did come across though which took me by surprise was a small corner article on Belfast Harlequins misfortune defeat in women's hockey in the IHL. I then thought to myself why have we such a small section, and then I thought why do we rarely get any acknowledgement in sport in NI at all?

Women's sport is totally ignored and is a much bigger world in NI than anticipated. From Gaelic, to Soccer, Rugby to my beloved hockey, hundreds and thousands of gals are playing sport at all levels across the country and its never given the platform its deserved. Even the mens games on after ours have many supporters down to cheer them on, as we could count ours on one hand. Media coverage is at a shocking 5% for women's sport and rarely would we even have a picture in the paper.

Funding is hard to come by, sponsorship even more difficult, and many males are disregarding it as a hobby or social thing for us ladies. It's actually extremely important to us to be either part of a team or being a solo competitor doing what we love. Even when I visit my grandparents they always ask about the boys football matches and somewhat forget about the hockey, it's just the norm. I think the last women's sport I seen on TV was the Olympics final and holy cow weren't our GB Gold Medal winners outstanding. But the buzz has been and gone. I was however happy to see the Captain Kate Richardson Walsh (unfortunately no she's not my cousin but all Richardsons must be good at hockey) appear on Sports Personality of the year this year but we all knew that one of the male figures would win the award. And fair play to Andy Murray but honestly? You won it last year.

Women are just as competitive and skilled as many of those males out there and it wasn't until I did some research that I realised the boost that is being given to women's sport in 2017 by Sport NI that I hadn't even heard about and how they feel this year could be the year potentially women's sport kicks off. We know that taking part in sport is good for our physical and mental health; the benefits associated with sport and physical activity are well documented and many female celebs are channeling their inner beast mode and are regulars at keeping fit.

Look at women's football in NI for instance. The male Irish premier and some of the lower leagues pay their players to play or even sit on the bench, many women's clubs have to actually pay to play their sport,for their kits, travel to games themselves all down to the funding not being there. But the two sports are exactly the same! Yes, men are faster and stronger but us girls are better to look at, why go watch a bunch of men when you can watch a bunch of gorgeous girls instead!?

There has been a small growth in women's sport coverage since 2014, and hopefully the message of the importance and opportunities in women's sport is becoming more and more publicised. In the UK as a whole, women's Cricket in the Ashes was televised and on BBC radio, but locally in NI, local teams are rarely documented or even acknowledged. Even RTE cover Southern teams achievements. It would be great for girls in their teens to have great role models to read about in the sport world rather than looking at Kylie and Charlotte Crosby with their bits out and watching make up tutorials to help them look in their 20s.

I am always buzzing before our hockey games and having a bond with a great bunch of girls is great for self esteem. Winning together and losing together teaches you a lot of life lessons and keeps you grounded and positive. It's a fantastic way to channel any anxiety or pressures in the outside world for sure. *Plug Alert.. Like us on Facebook - Instonians Ladies Hockey Club ;)

So hopefully if you are like me and very interested in sport, you want to join a team, or simply like watching sport, get onto Sport NI and there are various links there hopefully going forward can help with the awareness of women's sport.

Also if anyone knows of any local writers looking a bit of sports journalism experience please feel free to get down to some games and give us a write up! We all have to start somewhere.

To all you other sports girls out there.. Keep killing it.. When Beyonce has these twins we will have to all run the world together!

LanaDelRich xo