Gabriela Sabatini, winner of the world women’s and sports podium at the International Olympic Committees, is a fearsome athlete.

Gabriela Sabatini, an Argentine tennis player, was presented with the world Women and Sport Trophy for 2006 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today, which is International Women’s Day. The award was presented at an official ceremony that took place at the headquarters of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland. Albertine Barbosa Andrade (representing Senegal/Africa), Charmaine Crooks (representing Canada/America), Elisa Lee (representing Korea/Asia), Dominique Petit (representing France/Europe), and Lorraine Mar (representing Fiji/Oceania) were each awarded a continental trophy in addition to the global trophy. The International Olympic Committee Women and Sport Commission, which was chaired by international Olympic Committee member Anita L. DeFrantz, chose the winners of the 2006 competition from among the dozens of nominations that were submitted by the National Olympic Committees and International Federations of Olympic sports.

It is my way of giving back to tennis what it has gifted me.

In 2006, the Women and Sport Commission selected Gabriela Sabatini, an Argentine tennis player who has achieved the position of world number three three times, to be the recipient of the World Trophy championship. Despite the fact that her numerous successes are well known (she won 27 singles titles, 12 doubles titles, and a silver medal at the 1988 Olympics), her efforts to promote and develop tennis in her country, particularly among young people and girls, have not frequently been featured in the news. Following her retirement from an active sports career in 1996, Gabriela Sabatini devoted the same amount of strength and energy to her support job. She did this with the intention of “giving back to sport something of the many things that sport gave to me,” as she put it. She is the driving force behind a program that is being operated by the national tennis association for young players, and she has donated all of the funds for the initiative. In addition, she provides funding for several women’s tennis competitions as well as free tennis clinics for young children, all of which are conducted in private.

She was the first woman of African descent to lead a sports body.

The winner of the trophy for Africa is Albertine Goncalves, a prominent person in Senegalese sport who comes from a cycling family with a long history (three of her brothers have won national championships). In 1983, Albertine Goncalves made history by becoming the first African woman to hold the position of president of a sports federation (specializing in cycling). In the same year, she also joined the Executive Committee of the International Amateur Cycling Federation (FIAC). Her position as president of a Senegalese sports association (gymnastics) dates back to 1988, and she continues to hold the distinction of being the only woman to hold this position. As a result of her dogged efforts, Albertine Goncalves was successful in persuading the Senegalese National Organization for Civilization (NOC), of which she serves as Assistant General Treasurer, to set aside at least two seats on the NOC Executive Committee for women. At the present time, she is considered to be one of the most influential leaders of the Women and Sport Commission of the NOC. Within the realm of the media, Albertine Goncalves was a key figure in the formation of the Senegalese Association of Female Reporters.

A model to emulate both inside and outside of the realm of sports

Over the course of nearly twenty years, Charmaine Crooks, who was the recipient of the award for the Americas, competed on the athletics track for her country, Canada. As a result of her participation in five Olympic Games and her achievement of a silver medal in Los Angeles in 1984, she was chosen to the International Olympic Committee Athletes’ Commission in 1996 and continued to serve as a member of the IOC until 2004. Charmaine Crooks is not only an active member of the International Olympic Committee Press Commission, the World Olympians Association, the Canadian National Olympic Committee, and the Vancouver Organising Committee for the XXI Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2010, but she also holds other important positions within many sports organisations on a national, regional, and international level. Over the course of more than 10 years, Charmaine Crooks has been a constant presence on television. She is known for her enthusiasm for athletics and her strong advocacy for athletes, young people, women in sports, and the principles of Olympic ideals.

From sports competition to the management of a training facility

Elisa Lee, the winner representing Asia, has made a name for herself in her home nation of Korea, first as an athlete, then as a coach, and now today as a prominent figure in the world of athletics. When she was ten years old, the young lady who would later be referred to as “the Ping Pong Queen” experienced a profound transformation in her life. This occurred when she came across a 2.7-gram table tennis ball, which immediately fascinated her. Elisa Lee and these balls have won a number of medals over the course of the past 35 years. Between the years 1984 and 2004, Elisa Lee continued her competitive athletic career by serving as the coach of the women’s Olympic squad at the Games. Additionally, she was a proponent of the establishment of the Korean Women’s Sports Association (WSA) in the year 1981. She began her career in sports administration in 2002, when she was appointed Director of the Korean Physical Education Association for Girls and Women. She was armed with a doctoral degree at the time. In March of 2005, Elisa Lee became the first female Chief of the NOC’s Athletes Training Centre since the center’s inception in 1966. She had previously been limited to training women in table tennis, but she decided to expand her responsibilities to include high-performance sports in Korea without any restrictions.

The significance of formal education and close supervision

Dominique Petit, who is the first woman to hold the position of technical director of a French national federation for an Olympic sport, volleyball, has been awarded the title of winner for Europe. Dominique Petit was the driving force behind the establishment of the combined “Women and Sport” group within the French National Olympic Committee (NOC). In 2004, she was the organizer of the European Women and Sport Conference, which was associated with the European Women and Sport (EWAS) network. Throughout his professional life and work, Dominique Petit has always adhered to the notion that training and supervision are of utmost significance, and this applies to both the technical and managerial parts of his job. She made significant contributions to the development of the training for female coaches who are currently working at the highest level while she was serving as the National Technical Director for volleyball. Dominique Petit is the sole female director of the National Organization for Culture (NOC), and she is currently in charge of the “Making the most of human resources” area. She is also actively involved in a variety of awareness-raising and training programs across the entirety of France.