A month of big wins for women’s sport

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Welcome back to another edition of LTF! It’s safe to say that there have been some major wins in the women’s sports space - and we hope they just keep on coming.

One thing you’ll notice about this edition, and that we think is SO important in the current climate right now, is that this edition is full of GOOD news. We’re seeing new studies announced into issues faced by female athletes, an under 12’s girls team in the UK dominating a boys’ league, and massive new targets set for women’s cricket here in Australia.

First up, ACLs. A major development this week - FIFPro, the global players’ union, has launched a new program titled ‘Project ACL’ that aims to address the many intersecting factors that put female soccer players at a higher risk of tearing their ACLs.

The study, which will last three years, will review existing academic research into female athletes who have torn ACLs, and conduct assessments of the resources and structures provided by clubs in the Women’s Super League. Here’s to issues facing female athletes getting the attention they deserve - and we hope it leads to better health outcomes.

Keep reading for a profile of former motocross (yes, it’s motocross not motorcross - we learn something new every day!) rider Christina Vithoulkas who is challenging taboos around spinal cord injuries and disability. It’s a really important article that is not to be missed - and we’re so excited to get this incredible young woman on your radar if she isn’t already.

In a fortnight that has been really heavy for women in Australia and around the world, we hope these stories inspire you as you head into the weekend.

Keep running up that hill,

The Missing Perspectives Team xx

Lucy Small: The hidden human cost of the Paris Olympics

In Ile-de-France, the region of France with Paris at its heart, anticipation is running high. Doors and windows of businesses are marked with the Paris 2024 Olympic rings, and as the sun starts to appear from behind the clouds, tiny green leaves emerge on the trees that line the streets and the dusk grows longer and longer, the taste of the 33rd Olympiad starts to flavour the springtime air.

This week the Olympic torch was lit and last month the Olympic Village was inaugurated. The final stages of two new stadiums and renovations to existing facilities are said to be on track to welcome more than 10 million spectators in just 100 days. Paris is the first Olympic Games with human rights provisions in its host contract when the global tournament returns to the city a century after it was last held there. While this rendition of the Games is being celebrated for huge gains on sustainability and a reduced carbon footprint, there remains a darker side to the Olympics. 

Reports emerged last year about hotels across the city of Paris cancelling their government contracts that provide emergency housing to some 50 000 people to make way for the scores of fans and tourists who will descend on the city to watch the Games. People living in homelessness have been moved to regional cities across France, with squats of hundreds of people dismantled and lives uprooted. The government agency that provides subsidised student housing announced in May last year that more than 3000 student leases would be cut short to make space for the Olympic workers who are set to arrive in the city. 

This week French news outlets reported the eviction of over 300 migrants from an abandoned building in southern Paris. They had been bussed to outer regions. In the regions, people arriving from Paris are reported to be provided with just three weeks of accommodation before they are left unsupported. In some of these areas, housing stress is even greater than in Paris, and there are far fewer options in terms of emergency accommodation.

In a statement to the media, French housing charity Utopia 56 said that Paris Olympics glory needs to keep in mind the city's most vulnerable citizens.

“The people affected by the social cleansing provisions are numerous, the need for access to social services and support is constant. If Paris wants to be magnificent this summer, this cannot be done to the detriment of the most precarious,” Utopia 56 said.

More than 80 NGOs from across France have called for an end to what they describe as "social cleansing", but the French government resists this characterisation, and has argued that additional accommodation for rough sleepers would be part of the legacy of the Olympics. 

Occupying 50 acres on the outskirts of Paris, only 25% of the newly constructed Olympic village is slated for affordable housing following the Games. This is despite a reported 10-year delay for those on the waitlist to receive public housing, with the majority of those living in homelessness and precarity being from migrant backgrounds. 

Read Lucy’s full article on missingperspectives.com

Meet the young Aussie normalising living with a spinal cord injury 

Christina Vithoulkas was told she would never ride a two wheeled motorbike again, but she is determined not to let her disability define her and is living her life to the fullest.

Meet Christina - a young woman who is obsessed with drifting, cars, and motorbikes. “At the moment drifting is just for fun,” she tells me, “but I have really competitive bones in my body - I like pushing myself to maximum capacity.” She’s also casually a former competitive motocross and freestyle motorbike rider - a sport that changed her life in so many ways.

At 23, Christina experienced a serious accident while on her motorbike, which resulted in a complete loss of movement and feeling below her T5 vertebrae. She was told by doctors that as a result of this spinal cord injury, she would never walk again. Christina made a pact to herself - that she would never let this injury define the trajectory of her life.

Christina points out that there are so many misconceptions made about people with spinal cord injuries, and often people are told that they will never be able to do the things they love again. Christina is on a mission to normalise her spinal cord injury and has exceeded all expectations - even in rehabilitation.

She talks about what it was like to have to “relearn everything” after the accident. Still having her competitive streak, she points out that she left rehabilitation earlier than they thought. “They told me I’d be in here for three months, but I was there for two months. Everything was a competition.” She says that “when you are a paraplegic, you feel like you have so much to prove to people.”

Since her accident, she has made a point of celebrating ‘re-birthdays,’ and sees her accident as something of a rebirth - saying because of it, her life is richer and more meaningful. “It’s like you’ve had your second chance at life. I’m like this is my five extra years. I’ve had another year to celebrate.” A major milestone was getting her car licence back (“that was like freedom for me,” she says). “When you’re on the road, you feel so normal - that you’re as fast as everyone else on the road. When I got my licence, I could go to Maccas again on my own!”

Christina says it’s “so important” to tackle taboos and stigma around disability and spinal cord injuries. She says she uses social media to teach followers about things that often aren’t discussed - such as toileting, relationships, and ability to have children.

“I was previously studying teaching. One thing that stuck out to me during studying - our brains are filing cabinets. The way kids learn is that if you show them a cat, they will learn what a dog is by associating the two. I had always thought people in wheelchairs, their legs don’t work. I didn’t understand the rest of it. People know what people in wheelchairs look like. I’m trying to be the filing cabinet that keeps adding to it.” 

Christina will be joining the annual global Wings for Life World Run on the 5th May to raise money and awareness for spinal cord injury research.

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