…AND SO THE MESSAGE THAT I, AND MILLIONS OF GIRLS AND WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD
GET EVERY MORNING, IS THAT SPORT DOES NOT BELONG TO US…..
CAROLINE CRIADO PEREIZ
author – how sports science is failing women
Who we are
Shepower Sport is funded and fully owned by Dr. Katharina Grimm and Yoko Dozono.
Both are strong advocates for clean sports and female athletes’ health and rights. We have ourselves experienced inequality in sports and increasingly recognized the frustration among female athletes and their unrealized potential.
Yoko
Dozono
Yoko’s education is in the field of pharmacy, public health epidemiology, and sport management. Currently, she is the Medical Consultant with the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA’s) Science and Medicine department. Yoko works closely with clinical specialists to help develop guidelines and other tools to assist athletes and their doctors understand the use of medications in sport and when to seek Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE). She facilitates reviews and appeals and ultimately monitors TUEs globally to ensure harmonization across all sports and countries. She believes that athletes who have medical conditions should have the right to participate in sport, which is a fundamental public health issue.
Yoko was the COVID Liaison Officer for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well, part of the Executive Office during the Olympic Games. She successfully completed the Independent Observer (IO) mission for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games along with her team that was composed of international experts. The IO team formalizes recommendations for the IOC, the IPC, accredited laboratories and the Tokyo 2020 organising committee.
Due to the global nature of her position mixed with her enthusiastic personality, she has curated a network of sports experts and creative talent in a multitude of specialties and athletes to collaborate in shared learning.
Yoko is a former athlete who has competed extensively in the sport of karate at an international level. After retirement from competition, Yoko was a high performance coach. She has led and motivated female coaches in different sports to connect, support, develop, and inspire the next generation of athletes. Her father, a Sports Hall of Fame and Queens Diamond Jubilee award recipient for commitment to sports in Canada, was an influential figure to inspire her to dedicate her life to sport and health. They currently co-own a karate dojo.
Yoko has explored over 80 countries around the world, favouring to visit developing countries and remote areas where people were underserved by frail healthcare systems and received either delayed or no care at all. With her global health background, she continues to work clinically, for the past 16 years, to provide medical consults remotely to rural hospitals in Canada. She is currently the hospital Site Lead for a group of 9 Canadian hospitals. Telemedicine, with its innovative technology, enables her to provide hospital patients with access to care and overcome geographical barriers in all comprehensive clinical programs.
Dr. Katharina grimm
Dr. Katharina Grimm is a surgeon with a master of science degree in sports medicine and over 15-year leadership experience in international sports, anti-doping, medicine, and research organizations. She headed the FIFA Medical Office for six years, where she oversaw and coordinated the medical services at about 30 World Cups, supervised and initiated research projects, wrote and edited numerous publications for professionals and laypersons including a booklet on the female player. In her first year at FIFA, she went from a whole country being entirely enthralled by the men’s World Cup to virtually empty stadia at the U-20 Women’s World Cup. She is currently the Medical Lead at FIFA.
Katharina worked as Director of Medical Affairs at a Sports Medicine Hospital in Qatar with a team of international physicians, physiotherapists, and scientists and was involved in the organization of medical services for several World Championships in different sports. She emigrated to her home country of choice, South Africa, in 2012.
Katharina is a member of the WADA Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) Expert Group for 12 years and chairs the TUE Committee of the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport. She is a member of the Medical Commission of the International Cycling Federation, UCI.
Possessing a deep understanding of multicultural settings and effective interpersonal skills to engage others, she has nurtured a broad international network in sports medicine, clean sports, and lately athlete welfare. Her professional and personal ambitions are driven by a deep passion for and the belief in the power of sports to grow individuals and communities.
Who we are
ShePower Sport’s goal is to grow female athletes’ confidence within a global community of athletes, experts, and professionals.
The ShePower Sport platform provides a safe space to ask questions and tell one’s story to like-minded athletes across the globe, share success models, peer advice, information, and skills.
TOO OFTEN WOMEN ARE NOT SUPPORTED ENOUGH
OR ARE DISCOURAGED FROM CHOOSING THEIR PATH.
I HOPE TOGETHER WE CAN CHANGE THAT.
SERENA WILLIAMS, professional tennis player
I HAVE STRUGGLED TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY AS A FEMALE ATHLETE.
I HAVE STRUGGLED TO FIND MY WORTH OUTSIDE OF WINNING. I HAVE STRUGGLED TO ACCEPT PARTS OF MYSELF. NOW I’M RECOGNIZING THE BEAUTY IN THOSE PARTS AS WELL AS BEAUTY IN THE TIMES WHEN THINGS DIDN’T GO MY WAY.
LYNSEY DYER, freestyle skiing
OUR VISION
Strong, resilient sportswomen who embrace their authenticself and excel through high performance, vibrant health, and determination.
OUR MISSION
We provide an interactive, user-centered platform to female athletes without and with impairments at all levels of performance worldwide. Here, they find the answers to all of their questions about health, performance, training, mental preparation, anti-doping, positive embodiment, and self-determination, but they can also tell their stories, exchange ideas, and share their experiences with the community.
They can benefit from carefully selected ShePower Sport experts’ knowledge, skills, and expertise in evidence-based sports and exercise medicine, sports science, sports psychology, training theory, anti-doping rules, and regulations. They can also learn how to protect themselves from and deal with abuse of any kind, and nurture their leadership and team spirit skills. Engaging these end-users in an emphatic partnership with the ShePower Sport experts and with each other lies at the heart of the community and provides another level of support.
WHY WE ARE HERE
Sport has always been a male domain. No women were allowed at the ancient Olympic Games. More than two and a half thousand years later, in 1896, Baron de Coubertin, founder of the IOC, said: “No matter how toughened a sportswoman may be, her organism is not cut out to sustain certain shocks.”
Today, female athletes at all levels of performance still receive less attention, less appreciation, less support, less care, and less compensation than male athletes, while being more often exploited, harassed, and abused.
Men are overrepresented in sports science and medicine. Sports media’s coverage worldwide is 90% on male sports. On the Forbes 100 best-paid athletes list 2017 was one woman. In 2018, there was none.
We believe that the rise of women in sport is about confidence.Confidence that their success makes sport more exciting, inspiring, convincing, colourful, and powerful. Confidence that women are bound to transform sports.
THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN TELL YOU “YOU CAN’T WIN” IS YOU AND
YOU DON’T HAVE TO LISTEN.
JESSICA ENNIS-HILL, track & field
