On Sunday July 17, Tommy Knockers Pub in Idaho Springs, Colorado, looked like any other sports bar on a weekend afternoon. Many men and some women sat around tables and at the countertop, diving into heaps of nachos and licking buffalo sauce off their fingers. Seventeen televisions playing seventeen different channels decorated the perimeter of the ceiling, and at least five were broadcasting the Rockies game that had begun a few minutes earlier. But at the moment my friends and I walked in, something looked odd. With all of those people in the room, taps being pulled, dishes clanking and children playing, the place was eerily quiet and everyone sat staring at one TV only -- that which was playing the Women's World Cup Final.
We had just missed the finish, and as we entered the bar, looks of shock and bewilderment turned into exclamations of "Can you believe it, we lost!" and "It was down to PKs, amazing!" and "That was one of the best sporting events I have ever seen!" Now, I am no sports fanatic. However, I have spent enough time watching American sports in American bars, and probably even more time watching soccer in bars across the rest of the world, to know that if those walls could talk they would be saying, "Huh? Soccer? Women? What?"
Awesome.
I was born in 1982, ten years after Title IX was amended and enacted, changing the landscape for women's sports forever in the United States (Title IX was not specifically written for athletics, but rather for gender equality across academics. It is most famous, however, for its impact on women's sports). Though I never played competitively beyond high school, sports, both team and individual, were an enormous part of my upbringing and played a tremendous role in building my sense of character, professionalism and self-worth. I always knew that participation in sports taught me life skills far beyond how to throw, catch, defend and shoot. However, it was not until recently that I understood just how privileged I was in this realm, simply because I was born after 1972 and grew up in the United States.
Two weeks ago, I returned from La Paz, Bolivia, where I was helping to launch a dynamic new organization called Level Playing Field (LPF). Based on a "volunteer vacation" model, LPF brings female collegiate soccer players to Bolivia, to teach soccer to adolescent girls as part of a wider, life-skills and gender equality curriculum. The beauty of this program, and what I believe sets it apart from other sport for development models, is that it is designed as a genuine cultural exchange; not only focusing on the Bolivian teenager, but on the personal and professional development of the college athlete as well. Through the sport they love most, athletes taught leadership, teamwork, communication, confidence and perseverance -- attributes that are not often part of girls' education in countries like Bolivia.
These inspirational young women put their own time and money into a brand new program because they understood what I am beginning to understand now -- that equal access to athletics is not only an entitlement that women achieved all those years ago in the U.S., but a vehicle through which we can achieve more and more.
Check out this wonderful program and the impact soccer can have on girls growing up all over the world.