EUROPEAN BRIDGE LEAGUE

Anna Maria Torlontano
EBL Women Committee Chairman

March 2000

This is the report sent to Mrs Katia Mascagni
The participants at the Congress were all officials
from the NBOs (women and men) or their designates

European Congress, Bellaria , Italy
Report from Anna Maria Torlontano
Chairman of EBL and WBF Women's Committee
Concerning the participation of Women in IF administration

Dear friends,

I would like to start by pointing out that if I wish to talk to you about Women's Bridge, it is not, believe me, to praise what we have done and what we are doing for it.

The most important purpose of this report is to speak to you about the Women's Bridge activities, but also to give you precise news about the development of the Women's Bridge in the context of the Olympic Movement.

WOMEN'S BRIDGE ACTIVITIES

Women's Pairs Championship (European – World)

Women's Teams Championship (European – World)

European Women's Bridge Festival

BRIDGE IS A SPORT

The International Olympic Committee recognised the World Bridge Federation as an International Sports Federation on 20 th June 1999. This momentous step realises the dream of José Damiani, President of the World Bridge Federation, who worked for many years with the co-operation of our good friend Marc Hodler, Vice President of the IOC and the Vice President of the World Bridge Federation, Mazhar Jafri, to attain this recognition –

“Bridge is a sport, and as such, your place is here, like other sports” disclosed the President of the International Olympic Committee, Mr Juan Antonio Samaranch, at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne –

Please, let me also mention here a phrase written in the Olympic Charter:

“Olympics is a philosophy of life, exacting and continuing in a balanced whole to the qualities of body and mind ”.

It is at this stage of my report that I would like to point out a principle on which is based the future of Women's Bridge .

Within the Olympic Movement all sports are divided into separate events for men and women. Therefore it is very important that the ‘women' in all sports develop in their own field, and so it should be within our Bridge Family.

Jose Damiani, participated in March 6 th 2000 in the 2 nd World Conference on “ Women and Sports ” in Paris .

This edition has offered a unique occasion to analyse the results achieved to date, and to consider the future challenge for the women in the Olympic Movement and in sport in general, taking into consideration the sociological, historical, cultural, political and health aspects, celebrating the century of the participation of the Women in the Olympic Games.

This World Conference on “Women and Sports” will be held every 4 years and the aim is, as I told you above, to analyse the progress achieved in this field in the Olympic Movement and consequently to define a line of priority actions to improve more and better this development.

I was very proud when José Damiani and the Executive of the World Bridge Federation, appointed me, in Bermuda , Chairman of “The World Women's Committee”, which will take care of the promotion of Women's Bridge all over the world, in all the countries affiliated to the WBF.

But the policy of the International Olympic Committee is not based only on the practise of the sports – The IOC is very interested in promoting the integration of women into the decision-making process, in the field of public relations, in the administration of the sport organisations exactly at the same level as men.

In the IOC, there are at present 14 active women members, one of whom, Mrs Anita De Franz, is Vice President of the IOC and Chairman of the “Women and Sports” working group.

In the Congress, the “Olympic Charter” was amended (Article 2, paragraph 5) to include a precise reference to the promotion of Women in the disciplines at all levels, in all the structures and also in the Executive Bodies of the National and International organisations seeking particularly to avoid any element of sex discrimination.

Just as interesting is the news that in Sydney 2000 the women will participate in 25 sports and 132 disciplines or competitions (44% of the total of the number of disciplines and competitions, mixed included). For the first time the women will take part with the same number of team-sports as the men.

In the Salt Lake City Winter Games 2001 the women will participate in the 45, 6% of the disciplines or competitions - the programme will be nearly the same for women and men.

Coming back specifically to Bridge it is up to the Federations to define a policy which takes into account the need to make bridge more accessible to women, and possibly to increase the budget allocated to the development of this aspect of the sport, maybe by transferring some of the funds assigned to the participation of men in the Open Pairs/Team Championships to the Women's Pairs and Teams. Also the lady players must have the opportunity to participate in their own Championships!

At this point, I would like to make some very strong recommendations to you:

• Concentrate all your efforts to increase the number of teams in the European Championships: Women deserve to participate!
• Try to organise more competitions specifically for the women – teams and pairs, maybe individual events
• Give them, also, the satisfaction of a very good teacher, who can run special training sessions to improve the quality of their bridge.
• Give them the opportunity to follow courses as Tournament Directors and courses for teaching bridge

Furthermore, I am sure that among your players and ladies who are involved in bridge in your country, some of them are well known for their organisational skills, their talents, their attitude and their management skills. Please take these values into consideration and give these women the right role in the administration and management of your NBO. They may be just the right people to develop Women's Bridge for you.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Anna Maria Torlontano