Commonwealth Games will empower women in the West Midlands, say GB Olympians
The Birmingham 2022 Games will be the first event to award more medals to women than men
Last updated 5th Jul 2022
Two Olympic and Paralympic superstars are expected to compete on home soil at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games next year.
Laura Muir and Kadeena Cox, who both won medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, say the event will empower female athletes across the West Midlands.
Laura Muir won a silver medal in the 1500 metres, while Kadeena Cox won two Paralympic gold medals in cycling and athletics, just falling short of the podium in the T38 400 metres.
The Birmingham 2022 Games will be the first ever multi-sport event that hands out more awards to female athletes than it does to male competitors.
Held from 28 July - 8 August 2022, athletes will compete in West Midlands venues across Coventry, Solihull, Royal Leamington Spa to Cannock Chase Forest and Wolverhampton.
Alexander Stadium, which is receiving a multi-million pound redevelopment, will act as the main hub for the Games, hosting the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the athletics and track events.
Kadeena Cox went to visit the re-vamped stadium, and said that she was proud to see the progress that has been made in women's sport:
“I’m here for women in sport. It’s great we're being seen on a level playing field to the guys and the fact that we’re doing it at a multisport games event.
Hopefully that means that within football and other sports women will be seen as on par and hopefully it will help to move things in the right direction."
Laura Muir stressed the importance of women competing at the highest level in keeping young athletes inspired:
"It's so fantastic that women are getting so involved in sport now and I think it's so important to retain those young athletes that we might lose at the late teenage stage.
Women are smashing it right now and the more we can get involved in sport, the bigger the better.”