ADVANTAGE LADIES FE&MALE Sports Conference

Tournament Director Sandra Reichel: "The FE&MALE Sports Conference has become an integral part of our tournament program. We are more than just a tennis tournament! After the upgrade to 500 status, we have even more appeal and want to offer an even bigger stage and platform for important social issues. Last year's premiere event was a complete success and attracted attention beyond Austria's borders. Once again, the city of Linz and the province of Upper Austria provided an important impetus for women's sport! Now it is time to build on this and initiate lasting change. The fact that our premium partner ADMIRAL has entered into an additional partnership with the FE&MALE Sports Conference shows just how topical and relevant the subject is."

Prof. Dr. Markus Hengstschläger: "I had the pleasure of attending the first Advantage Ladies - FE&MALE Sports Conference in 2023. It was a highly inspiring and exciting event. I am delighted to be able to contribute to this important event again in 2024. Talents and gifts are genetically determined human potentials that can only blossom through support, knowledge acquisition and training. The importance of gender and genetic predispositions is still too often overestimated. Genes are just pencil and paper, everyone writes their own story. However, current studies show that girls are less convinced of their own talent than boys."

Sport Austria President Hans Niessl: "In all my previous functions, I have always found that in those areas where the number of women and men was balanced, the results were also better in the end. I have been aware of this from the very beginning of my Sport Austria presidency and therefore initiated the Sport Austria Women's Advisory Board, which is dedicated to the fundamental question of what needs to be done to improve the position of women in sport. The next important step was the FE&MALE Sports Conference ADVANTAGE LADIES. This joint initiative of the federal sports organization Sport Austria, the Upper Austria Ladies Linz and the ÖTV has the format to give wings to this so important socio-political topic of sport. The first edition has already shown this and the second will confirm it!"

ÖTV President Martin Ohneberg: "We are looking forward to organizing the FE&MALE Sports Conference together with Upper Austria Ladies Linz and Sport Austria for the second time. We consider this to be a very important impulse for women's tennis. As the claim 'Better Together' says, equality between men and women in sport must be achieved together and mutual support is necessary. With the Ladies in Tennis project, supported by the Ministry of Sport, the ÖTV has been campaigning even more strongly for women's tennis and for more women in tennis for almost two years now. Since then, we have been offering regular workshops for female coaches, officials and referees, which are enjoying increasing popularity and demand. We even recently received an ITF Gender Equality Award for our commitment to women's sport."

Barbara Schett, tournament ambassador of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz and former number 7 in the tennis world rankings: "The kick-off last year was a great success, the response was overwhelming and exceeded our expectations. It was the very first conference in Austria to focus on women's sport. That's actually incredible! There is still a lot to be done in the German-speaking world when it comes to the recognition and equality of women's sport. It's important that Advantage Ladies continues now and I'm really looking forward to the second edition. We will have great participants again!"

ADVANTAGE LADIES ambassador Teresa Pellegrini, coxswain in the men's eight: "I am very happy to take on this ambassador role, as I am a woman in a men's sport, in a position where it doesn't matter whether I am a woman or a man: Only my skills count. As a helmswoman, I'm in a boat with eight men who are all older, taller and heavier than me - and yet I'm in command. The helm position is a very important position in the rowing boat and is often occupied by both genders internationally. Our sport can be taken as a role model; we are a positive example of how men and women can be united in sport. It's just a start, not yet the solution, but I want to initiate discussions on how to create more equality in sport."

You can see video impressions of the first "Advantage Ladies" event HERE.