INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN THE NICARAGUAN
OLYMPIC MOVEMENT
Introduction
Ms María Esperanza SOLORZANO (NCA)
The women’s participation in the Nicaraguan Olympic Movement
has changed over the years since the foundation of the Nicaraguan
Olympic Committee in the year 1958. On the basis of IOC´s
recommendation, Mr Julio Rocha López, current President of the
Nicaraguan Olympic Committee, is encouraging inside the frontiers of
its territory, the promotion of women in sports, following the
command of the Olympic Charter. Mr Rocha is aware of the
importance of the role women play in the development of sports
considering that women represent 50.2% of the total population of the
country 1 .
As woman and Executive Assistant to the current President of the
Nicaragua’s NOC, I thought it was necessary to write on the topic
mentioned above because, besides the fact that this is an issue of
interest to my NOC, the information sources are extremely poor and
rare. So, the main purpose of this paper is to generate basic
information about the state of the gender in the Nicaraguan Olympic
Movement at two important levels: athlete and sports leader. In
addition, I would like to honor with this document the work of many
Nicaraguan Women that have opened new spaces of participation in
different social areas of my country. I really want to thank my
research tutor, Mr Julio Rocha Lopez, President of the Nicaraguan
Olympic Committee, my co-workers, my family and friends for their
contributions to this paper, patience, advice and suggestions. This
work wouldn’t have been possible without you. My gratitude as well
to the IOC and the International Olympic Academy for the valuable
opportunity of being in Olympia and sharing with you part of my
research work.
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