A kick for women's sports

- Women’s Soccer is Healthy Fun

28 September 2009

Press conference on 2 October:

New research compares the health benefits of women’s recreational soccer and running.

The City Hall and the University of Copenhagen support women’s sports and present new interesting research results on women and soccer at a press conference on 2 October at the City Hall Square.

The City Hall supports street soccer for women, not only because we want people to use the city actively but also because it is healthy. Now, a new multidisciplinary scientific project shows that women’s soccer causes marked improvement in physical fitness, cardiovascular health profile, accumulates social capital, and that the women find soccer more motivating and easier to stick to than running.

Lord Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard and Prorector of the University of Copenhagen Lykke Friis host a press conference where Associate Professors Peter Krustrup and Laila Ottesen present the new results.

CEO Mårten Hedlund is also invited to present the visions for World Village of Women’s Sport in Malmö. The time has come to give women sports in the world opportunities to develop according to its own merits. Around 200 million Euros will be invested in a completely unique research-, development-, training and inspiration centre for women sports in the world (www.womensportvillage.com)

During the IOC conference the City Hall Square will be packed with sports and concerts. The press conference will be right next to the street soccer tournament at the square close to “Strøget”.

Programme:

16-16.45: TV-host Luna Cristofi, national soccer team player Jesper Grønkjær and other top players lead the teams in a De Calle youth soccer tournament – fun to watch.

16.50: Lykke Friis, Prorector of the University of Copenhagen, will ref the first women’s street game. Then Jakob Binzer from DAD will ref the next while Lykke Friis moderates the press conference.

16.50: Press conference; Ritt Bjerregaard, Peter Krustrup, Laila Ottesen and Mårten Hedlund. Moderator: Lykke Friis

ELLE magazine supports the girls. There will be drinks and chili con carne to keep us warm.

You can find lots more material at www.kk.dk/iocpress. On the day of the press conference, you can download a 2 minutes science lab film that can be used free of charge. Also available are hi-res photos and other material from the research project.