Women in sport online showcase – a roaring success

The inaugural women in sport social media showcase, organised by the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Students’ Sports Union (SSU), was described as a big hit among UCT’s young sports enthusiasts. And owing to its success, plans are already afoot for a bigger and better programme in 2024.

For the month of August, the SSU called on student sport buffs to share their stories of success and highlight how sport has positively impacted their lives. These inspiring individual stories were posted on SSU's social media platforms during Women’s Month. The aim of the showcase was for women athletes at UCT to share their love of sport with the campus community, inspire other students to join one of UCT’s many sporting codes and grow the university’s women sport ecosystem. The SSU accepted submissions from several sport clubs, including hockey, athletics, fencing, chess, sailing and jiu-jitsu.

According to Jess Worsley, the SSU’s head of transformation, by demonstrating each sports enthusiast’s achievements in their respective sporting codes, the showcase also intended to create a pipeline of women in sport role models, to help attract external media coverage and garner sponsorship opportunities.

“This can all eventually lead to improved opportunities for women in sport. The showcase showed that women in sport at UCT care just as much about sharing their sport with others and getting involved in teamwork and leadership, as they do about winning the game,” Worsley said.