Kildare Village - Official Supporter of the 20x20 Campaign

Kildare Village are an Official Supporter of the 20x20 Campaign which aims to create a cultural shift in the perception of girls and women in sport. The initiative seeks to change the subliminal bias in the Irish psyche that exists around girls and women when it comes to sport by the end of 2020. To do this the campaign will work to achieve:

• a 20% increase in media coverage of women in sport by the end of 2020.
• a 20% increase in female participation at all levels of sport by the end of 2020.
• a 20% increase in attendance at women’s games and events by the end of 2020.

Kildare Village believes in the power of women and girls seeing women both taking part and achieving in sport. Ireland has never had so many amazing and successful women in sport and Kildare Village is celebrating this in their ongoing work to empower women and give them a bigger platform.

Most recently, Kildare Village has appointed professional jockey Rachael Blackmore as their Sport Ambassador.
Rachael is blazing a trail for women in racing and women in sport. The superstar jockey has had an incredible 90 wins; including her first Cheltenham festival win in March, and big wins in Punchestown and Fairyhouse earlier this year. She has achieved the greatest number of wins for a female jockey ever in Ireland in one season.
Rachael Blackmore was surrounded by horses from a young age having grown up on a farm. She continued to ride throughout school and college at amateur level but when she finished her degree and encouraged by industry leaders like John ‘Shark’ Hanlon, Rachael made the decision to go professional. That was in 2015 and now, just three years into her professional career, she is enjoying immense success.
On the collaboration with Kildare Village, Rachael says;
‘I am delighted and honoured to be appointed the Kildare Village ambassador for women in sport as part of their support for the 20x20 campaign. It is such an important initiative, and I am very proud to play a part in it’

Celebrating Women in Sport Campaign
In January 2019, Kildare Village began their campaign around female athletes. Ireland has never had so many successful women in sport and this campaign gave Kildare Village an amazing opportunity to give these athletes a voice and to empower more women and girls to keep training and playing sports. The campaign featured five Irish female athletes;
• Rhasidat Adeleke; 16 years old student an international sprinter for Ireland. She won gold at the 2018 European Youth Athletics Championships in Hungary last summer and is a 2020 Olympic hopeful.
• Mary-Kate Slattery; Amateur boxer training to turn professional and third year law student in Trinity College Dublin.
• Megan Williams; Winger on the Irish Rugby International women’s team and has 18 caps for Ireland; she also runs her own health and wellness company.
• Niamh Buffini; Holds a 5th Dan Kukkiwon Blackbelt and is Ireland’s only female 5th Dan, and the youngest in the country. Niamh is now the Performance and Operations Manager for Paralympics Ireland.
• Niamh Murphy; Captain of the Irish Netball team since 2012 and lead the team to win the 2018 European Championships; she is also a physiotherapist in the Mater Hospital.

 

   

The campaign launched in Sunday Independent LIFE magazine as the cover story, along with six pages inside the magazine featuring interviews with each of the five athletes, photos of the women from the Kildare Village shoot, and reason’s why Kildare Village saw this as such an amazing campaign.

Local Activity
To continue their commitment to this campaign, Kildare Village will be funding jackets and jersey’s for the Kildare GAA female junior team and are speaking to Horse Racing Ireland about profiling women in the equine industry.

Kildare Village are committed to their role as Official Supporter of the 20x20 Campaign and understand the power and impact that the 20x20 campaign is having, and will have on women and girls in sport. Kildare Village will be working on a variety of events and initiatives this year to empower and give a voice to women and girls in sport.