More support for women in sports - Grange

The Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Olivia Grange has called for more support for the women involved in sports in Jamaica.

Making the appeal, Grange, who also has responsibility for women's and gender affairs - pointed to the outstanding performances of Jamaica's female basketball players for whom support did not come as readily as it did for their male counterparts.

Said Grange, "In recent time Jamaica's senior female basketball team won a bronze medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games and so qualified for the 2011 Tournament of the Americas, which is the last qualifying tournament for the 2012 Olympics."

"The senior women's team also qualified for the major events next year," Grange added. "Three of the young ladies received scholarships and are now studying in the United States. The three being Christina Solomon, Sherisha Richards and Yanique Brown."

The team currently ranks 49th which means it is among the top 50 female basketball teams of the approximately 2000 female basketball teams in the world.

Minister Grange pointed out that the team deserved greater support from the nation. She said this Inter-American Year of Women provided an opportunity for the nation, including sports fans and supporters reflect on attitudes towards gender in sports.

Exciting times

Grange was speaking at the University of Technology where a memorandum of understanding was signed between the university and the Jamaica Basketball Association.

The Minister said it was a particularly exciting time for Jamaica's basketball given what is happening in the sport and what is on the horizon for the sport.

"Support has been offered to our female basketball players by an overseas entity connected to Jamaica but more will be said about that at a later date. As well, there are plans to market the players as models," said Grange.

She said it was equally exciting times for UTech because of the university's deepening of its offerings in sports education and its increasing collaboration with sports organisations.

"Today we witness the signing of a memorandum of understanding which ultimately will result in the establishment of a comfortable, high-tech academy here at UTech for the training of Jamaica's basketball players," Miss Grange said.