[Sport] How sport is helping empower young women to become the next generation of leaders following London Olympics

[_Happy boy]

Nana Badu has big sporting dreams, but not the athletic kind.

He's on a mission to help young people in London, with a focus on sport as a tool for positive change.

The founder of BADU Sports says they're using the lessons and the narrative of sport, exemplified by the 2012 Olympic Games in his city, to uplift young people so they feel like they belong, are worthy, and are capable.

"Sports is our vehicle to educate, and really empower, so people can understand and (believe in) themselves," - Badu shares with Olympic Channel.

"We are all about self-lifting and making sure you know how amazing you are, or help you see the amazing things about you that you didn't see in yourself." - Nana Badu

"As an organization, we do that, and we use sports as our metric."

The London 2012 legacy plan was aimed not just at regenerating a large area around Stratford in East London. Organisers were also keen to use the event as a way of increasing sports participation in Great Britain, particularly among the host nation's youth.

Team GB's performance at the Games, where they won 29 golds and were ranked third in the medal table, certainly did that at the time.

And the legacy continues with organisations like BADU Sports aiming to create opportunities for the next generation and develop positive support systems in and out of school.

They currently work in 45% of schools in Hackney, East London, just up the road from the Olympic Stadium.

Each week they reach 22,000 young people aged between 3 - 19 years old, through mentoring, events, and sports programmes.

A 2013 study called “Girls In Sports” identified that girls are dropping out of sports 1.5x faster than boys by the time they turn 14 years old.

The study also recognised that more than half of the girls completely stop doing sport by the time they are 17.

It’s a trend that Badu and his team are fully aware of.

"You see them at seven, eight, nine, ten, and they're beating these boys and they've got these talents,” he shares.

"And then they drop out at 15, 16, because we haven't made those resources or information or places or safe spaces available, so they're not dropping out because of just body conscious wise and stuff.

"Where is the space for them to feel like they can just be their whole selves still and still compete?'' Badu asks.

His response has been to create a program called LEVEL UP.

"It's designed with young women. It's programme that looks to empower and support, but also to come together and create a space for them to work and just build even as an athlete, as a journalist, as physio, or anything."

For Badu, empowering those leading the project was about simply letting them show what they can do.

"If you are a director and you're going to build something (aimed at women), then put a woman in charge and let her create our own team.

"Don't put her in charge and then go, right, let me get my mate from over there. No, no, no. Let them do it. I wouldn't know what to do personally as a female, because I'm not one."

Approximately 20 woman help champion the programme, focusing on trying to bridge gender gaps in knowledge and access to resources.

This mirrors the commitment to gender equality in Sport set out by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The Olympic Charter, Chapitre 1, Rule 2.8, says the IOC's role is: “to encourage and support the promotion of women in sport at all levels and in all structures with a view to implementing the principle of equality of men and women.”