Madrid, March 7. On the pitch and in the offices, women’s sport has been the protagonist in the last twelve months of important advances that were unthinkable until recently, such as the equal pay of some teams with their male counterparts, the appointment of a woman to referee a Qatar Cup World Cup match or the return to the women’s Tour de France cycling calendar.
From March 8, 2022 to March 8, 2023, here are some of the achievements made by women in sport:
March 9
Conchita Martínez receives the Best Coach of 2021 award, the first time this WTA award has been given to a woman. Martínez, winner of Wimbledon in 1994, is the coach of Garbiñe Muguruza.
March 14
The Board of Directors of the Higher Sports Council (CSD) approves the statutes that allow the start of the first professional women’s football league in Spain.
March 20th
The Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas is proclaimed in Belgrade for the third time world champion in the triple jump on indoor track, an unprecedented feat, and destroys her world record with a mark of 15.74 meters.
April 30
After eleven months of absence from the field due to a tear in the anterior cruciate ligament and the two menisci of the left knee, Carolina Marín is proclaimed European champion for the sixth consecutive time in Madrid.
May 18
The United States Soccer Federation (USSF) and national team players’ associations reach a historic agreement for a new collective bargaining agreement that achieves equal pay for men and women in the nation’s professional soccer.
June 16
Former Australian player Katie Ruth Allen, an Olympic gold medalist in Sydney in 2000, becomes the first female coach to coach RC Polo’s first men’s team in the MGS Field Hockey League.
June 27
Tunisian tennis player Ons Jabeur reached number 2 in the world rankings, the highest position ever reached by a player from Africa and by an Arab.
July 15th
Kimberly García, world champion in the 20 km walk, won Peru’s first gold medal in the history of the world athletics championships. A week later, he also won the 35 km.
July 24
The women’s Tour de France returns to the road 33 years after the last edition.
July 31
The women’s Eurocup final, where England beat Germany 2-1, became the biggest-attended game in tournament history, for both men and women, with 87,192 spectators at Wembley .
August 28
The Spanish football team were proclaimed world under-20 champions for the first time after beating Japan with two goals from Salma Paralluelo and one from Inma Gabarro (3-1) in the Cup final of the world in Costa Rica.
September 7
FC Barcelona announces the most expensive signing in the history of women’s football, that of English midfielder Keira Walsh, from Manchester City, for 400,000 euros.
September 9
Martina Terré, 20, was voted best goalkeeper at the European Water Polo Championship held in Split (Croatia), during which the Spanish team won gold. She was also the best goalkeeper and a member of the ideal Super League water polo team that Spain won in Tenerife.
September 16
The rhythmic gymnastics group obtains the first Spanish place for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024 by being third in the world championships in Sofia. Twelve days later, shooter Fátima Gálvez secured another berth by winning silver in the pit at the Croatia World Cups.
September 17
Spain’s first professional women’s football league, the Liga F, is launched, three days after the referees called off the strike they made effective on the first day to demand better economic compensation; They then charge 300 to 1,666 euros per match for the main referee, 166 to 1,066 for the assistants and 84 to 250 for the fourth referee.
September 25
Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten wins the world long-distance road championship, a title which is added to the Giro, the Tour and the Vuelta in the season in which she celebrates her 40th birthday.
October 17
Spanish footballer Alexia Putellas wins her second Ballon d’Or, the first woman to win it in two consecutive editions.
October 17
Iranian mountaineer Elnaz Rekabi takes part without a veil in a competition in Seoul, in a show of support for protests in his country over the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, after she was arrested by moral police for not getting along covered the hair
November 3
Rebeca Andrade becomes the first Brazilian and the first South American artistic gymnastics world champion.
1st December
France’s Stéphanie Frappart, the first woman to referee a match in the Men’s Football World Cup during the management of Costa Rica-Germany in Qatar 2022.
1st December
The birth of the women’s Vuelta a España is announced, in seven stages, the first edition of which will take place in May 2023. It will replace a five-stage race that coincided with the men’s Vuelta.
December 15
The 2022 survey on sports habits is published, revealing that 51.8% of Spanish women practice some type of sport, the first time that more than half of the female population practice physical activity.
December 16
FIFA announces the creation of the Women’s Futsal World Cup, an old request from players.
December 22
The Congress approves the new law on sport, which introduces measures in favor of equality and against any type of discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, race or disability.
January 24
American skier Mikaela Shiffrin becomes the woman with the most World Cup victories, 83, by winning the women’s giant at Kronplatz (Italy).
February 1st
Former water polo player Jennifer Pareja, 2012 Olympic vice-champion, 2013 world champion and 2014 European champion, has been appointed chief executive of ADO, the scholarship plan for the preparation of the team Spanish Olympic.
February 27
Alexia Putellas also wins a double with the second consecutive FIFA award “The Best” for the best player in the world. EFE
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