Kuwait City, Kuwait, March 28, 2022: Amany Gouda is hopeful that the ongoing Olympic Council of Asia special development programme for coaches and referees from 12 National Olympic Committees in West Asia will be the catalyst to the growth of women’s gymnastics across the Arab world.
“I hope in a few years there will be an Arab Championship for women gymnasts. At the moment there are only a few countries in the region, mainly from North Africa, who compete and my dream is this programme organised by the Olympic Council of Asia will help promote the sport across the region,” said Gouda.
Egyptian Gouda is the coaching instructor at the Women Artistic Gymnastics coaching course being conducted from March 27-31. Alongside this course is a rhythmic gymnastics course for new judges conducted by Sarah Ghoneim.
The 12 NOCs participating are Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and hosts Kuwait.
Gouda believes the decision taken last year by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) to allow women athletes to wear hijab or headgear will be a huge boost to promoting the sport across West Asia.
“Getting the message across at seminars like this for women gymnastics from this region was always a big challenge because of cultural and religious reasons. But the recent FIG decision to allow female athletes to wear hijab during gymnastics will promote the sport and make it more accessible to women,” noted Gouda.
“This programme is a very good step taken by the Olympic Council of Asia and I’m hopeful that I can share my knowledge with coaches from the region. This sport is relatively new to most of these countries, especially for women, and my aim is to spread the word,” added Gouda.
Gouda, who herself represented Egypt in gymnastics for eight years, is presently coach of the national team in artistic gymnastics and was part of the Egyptian squad at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
