The UCAM has hosted the closing ceremony of the International Congress 'Women-Up: Women in Sport', an event that brings the European project 'Women-Up: Working for equity and equality in sport’ to an end. The congress was attended by prestigious universities and organisations from countries such as Greece, Italy, Norway, Bulgaria, Turkey and Portugal, in an international alliance that seeks to promote equality between men and women in the field of sport. 

During the meeting, presentations and round tables addressed different approaches to the inclusion and promotion of women in sport. Lucía Aguado, content director of the Master's in Women's Training, Nutrition and Health, highlighted the importance of specific research into women's sporting performance, stressing that ‘pregnancy and menopause are times when women should not stop training’. She added that it is essential that they are ‘always properly guided’ in their training. Her intervention highlighted the need for specific studies for women in this field. 

Visibility and experiences of women athletes 

The Congress was attended by Luci Pascua, professor at UCAM and former player of the Spanish Basketball National Team, who spoke about the promotion and visibility of women in sport, contributing her experience as an Olympic runner-up. The panel discussion 'Experiences of women athletes' included Maria Perez, Olympic champion in race walking, who urged reflection on how body stereotypes affect women's sport: ‘It is crucial that we focus physical activity on a healthy lifestyle, not just on pursuing a normative body’. 

For her part, Sonia Ruiz, captain of the Spanish Wheelchair Basketball Team, stressed the importance of making women visible at all levels of sport: ‘The focus should not remain on the elite athletes, but reach all women’. 

International impact and interdisciplinary collaboration 

The EU-funded 'Women-Up' project has demonstrated the importance of international and interdisciplinary collaboration, involving institutions such as the University of Thessaly (Greece), UISP Pisa and Associazione Istituto CO.RI. (Italy), Collective Innovation (Norway), Champions Factory (Bulgaria), Pamukkale University (Turkey) and Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (Portugal). Lourdes Meroño, UCAM dean of the Faculty of Sports, underlined that the Congress ‘has addressed management, health, performance, physical education and leisure from a critical perspective, seeking to promote women's sport and overcome current challenges’. 

For Mario Albaladejo, President of the Organising Committee, ‘this Congress has been a starting point to continue generating awareness and solutions based on the evidence gathered during these two years of work, creating a forum for discussion on the challenges of women's sport from the grassroots level’. 

UCAM thus reaffirms its commitment to equality and equity in sport, showing the way forward through knowledge and joint action between institutions from different countries.