Winnipeg team promoting ways to get more girls active in sports

Two Winnipeg women are looking to get more young girls to participate in sport and other physical activities.

Andrea Katz and Allison Gervais are former national and international competitive athletes.  Gervais was a synchronized swimmer and Katz competed in Kung Fu.

The pair now run Fit Communications and work with dozens of organizations to showcase different sports and fitness activities available to girls in the city of Winnipeg.

“I think the biggest thing you can learn in sport is how to be confident, we learn how to win, we learn how to lose, we learn how to be a member of a team, we learn time management skills,” Katz explained.

According to a March 2016 report by the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women in Sport and Physical Activity, 41 per cent of girls between the ages of 3 and 17 do not participate in sport.

“I think it’s detrimental.  Sports brings us so many positive things to our lives, and if they’re not playing sports as a child, it then shows once they’re adults, they have a less than 10 per cent chance of being a physically active adult.”

That’s why Katz and Gervais have created the online resource, to show the community what’s out there.

“We want to provide as many opportunities for girls in our city as possible with our FITGirls programming,” Katz said.

With the school year coming to an end, the pair have also put together a list of unique summer camps, from synchronized swimmer to trampoline camps, for parents and girls to choose from.

Katz also stressed the importance of setting the right example for your kids.

“You can’t really tell your child to go and be active, if you’re sitting and watching TV all the time.  That doesn’t mean you need to be running marathons every weekend, but you know, going to gym, taking a yoga class, getting on your bikes together as a family and going for a bike ride, just being active.”