Global Sports Mentoring Program

OLYMPIC MARTIAL ARTIST AND JOURNALIST FIGHTS FOR EQUALITY IN EGYPT

In 2004, then 17-year-old Abeer Essawy represented Egypt as a Taekwondo fighter in the Athens Olympic Games. She continued her athletic success in the years after and won five consecutive titles in the African Championship from 2003 to 2007. Now that she has finished with her competitive career in martial arts, Abeer has transitioned to fighting for gender rights in her country by creating easier access to sport programs in her country.

Abeer serves as a member of the Athlete’s Commission for the Egyptian Olympic Committee (EOC). In her role, she interacts with national sports federations and represented Egypt at the Second World Olympians Forum in 2019

Abeer also leverages her experience and network in sports to educate and empower a new generation of Egyptian women, focusing on increasing the percentage of women involved in leadership levels of the Olympic Committee. Though previously a woman has served, Abeer dreams of seeing another female on the EOC’s board of directors or executive board, as all 54 federation presidents are currently males.

Outside of her work with the Olympic Committee, Abeer is also the co-founder of the Egyptian Sports Network (ESN), the first non-football sports network in the country. The network focuses on generating interest in Olympic sports and developing stronger and larger sport-based communities. Abeer hopes this platform can lead to more sport-based career opportunities for women.

For GSMP: Empowering Women through Sports 2019, Abeer will be mentored by Val Ackerman, Commissioner of the Big East Conference, and her team in New York City.

Val Ackerman, New York City, NY

Commissioner, Big East Conference

Val Ackerman was named the fifth Commissioner of the BIG EAST Conference on June 26, 2013. She previously spent eight years as an attorney and executive at the National Basketball Association, was the founding President of the Women’s National Basketball Association, and is a past President of USA Basketball, which oversees the U.S. men’s and women’s Olympic basketball program. She also served for two terms as the U.S. representative to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).

She has had a long and accomplished career in the sports industry and is one of the few executives in sports who has held leadership positions in both men’s and women’s sports at the collegiate, professional, national team and international levels. A recent highlight to her many accomplishments in the sports business, Val was inducted as a contributor into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of its 2021 class. Val was previously inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and currently serves on that organization’s Board of Directors.

Val is a 1981 graduate of the University of Virginia, where she graduated with high honors with a B.A. in political and social thought and was a three-time captain and Academic All-American on the women’s basketball team. She received her law degree from UCLA in 1985.

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OLYMPIC MARTIAL ARTIST AND JOURNALIST FIGHTS FOR EQUALITY IN EGYPT

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