International Women's Day celebrates females from all walks of life, says Denise Lewis
By Dev Trehan
Last Updated: 08/03/17 12:25pm
International Women's Day is an opportunity to celebrate females from all walks of life, says former Olympic champion Denise Lewis.
Falling on March 8, International Women's Day brings the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women sharply into focus.
Lewis won heptathlon gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics and succeeded Dame Kelly Holmes as the president of Commonwealth Games England at the end of 2015.
"I think IWD is a chance to celebrate all that is great and wonderful about women in every genre and in every walk of life," Lewis told Sky Sports News HQ.
"There is a great platform for women in athletics. There is a good gender balance and we have a great tradition going back to the Seventies.
"We lost a little momentum during the Eighties but definitely in the last decade or so, we have been real pioneers and trailblazers for our younger generations."
Lewis was speaking alongside heptathlete-turned-coach Kelly Sotherton and long jumper Lorraine Ugen, who has just returned from Belgrade where she won silver at the European Indoor Athletics Championships.
International Women's Day also marks the start of ticket sales for this 2017 World Athletics Championships in London.
Sotherton will be in a minority if she is there in a coaching capacity but hopes her presence can inspire other females to follow their coaching dreams.
"I'm one of not many female coaches at this level, especially in our country, and probably in the world," said Sotherton, who coaches long jumper Jazmin Sawyers and heptathlete Morgan Lake.
"I'm also quite honoured that the girls that I coach asked me to coach them.
"Jazmin did quite well at the weekend {at the European Indoors] but I was the only coach in the coaching pit. Hopefully somebody like myself can show there is a pathway for other people to aspire to."
