"BT Equal"
Enhancing gender equality in sports through Beach Tennis

Description

The notion of sports in Cyprus is strictly associated with mainstream sports, such as football, with the majority of boys to enthusiastically join football academies at early age. Once the dream to chase a professional football career fades away for most of the boys at the beginning of adolescence, the majority of them drops out completely from sports while reducing their physical activity time. On the other hand, girls in Cyprus have limited opportunities to engage in sports while stereotypical views and prejudices still in place in the local society give no alternative to girls but to follow "non male-dominated" sports, such as athletic and rhythmic gymnastics. However, this type of sports are not in favor of all girls. Aiming at encouraging healthy physical activity for both men and women, the BT Equal project focuses on the promotion of beach tennis as a successful example of a social sport.

Objectives

BT Equal has set out the following objectives:

To promote beach tennis to young people as a means to socialize
To engage in sports within a healthy context in a way that the distinction between sports and professional sports is drawn
Participation of both men and women in beach tennis training activities in order to tackle stereotypes and sexism in sports
To increase the participation of women in sports
To facilitate the enhancement of the physical and mental health of youth through their engagement in an amusing and
social sport

Activities

For the successful implementation of the project, the following activities will take place:

Beach Tennis training sessions;
Workshops on physical activity, sports and gender equality
Beach Tennis Tournaments

The project has received funding from the European Solidarity Corps Programme of the European Commission and will be implemented between 2022 and 2023.