ONOC Women in Sport Commission chief hails number of females with top roles in the region

Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) Women in Sport Commission chairwoman Helen Brownlee praised the women currently in leading positions in the region and called for unity among its members at a special breakfast held here today.

The meeting brought together various women who here for the Pacific Games and was attended by ONOC and Pacific Games Council (PGC) Presidents Robin Mitchell and Vidhya Lakhan.

“Each one of you can make a difference,” Brownlee told the audience.

“If we work together we can make a difference in our communities, in our villages, in our countries and totally in the Pacific.

“What we try to encourage is that every Women in Sport Commission in the respective countries has an athletes rep on their commission and we have started that by having Cook Island athlete who makes a very valuable contribution to our work.

“We are about the athletes, we are about empowering the women and girls through sports.”

Speaking during Port Moresby 2015, Brownlee also hailed the “huge steps” they have made in getting women into high-ranking sporting roles in the Oceania region.

Robyn Joyce Kaho is the current President of the Tonga Association of Sport and National Olympic Committee and there are also six women working as secretary generals for various NOCs in the area.

A total of seven women have been nominated on International Olympic Committee Commissions recently in another positive development for the region.

The breakfast was attended by the majority of the sporting powerbrokers in the Oceania region ©ONOC

“We're better than any other region in the world and there are 45 Executive Board members on their NOCs across the Pacific out of the 142 positions so that gives us something like 30 percent which is much higher than any other region,” Brownlee said.

“A lot of the others are under 20 percent.

“So we are punching above our weight so to speak.

“A lot of that is due to the work that you ladies have done in your respective islands but also to the support that the men who’ve been in position of leadership have provided as well.

“That’s a huge step and they’ll make a good contribution.

“A very good result, but we can’t rest on our laurels we can always improve.”