#WomensDay2022

Commonwealth Games to be First-Ever Major Games Predominantly Officiated by Women

Monday, March 7, 2022 - 22:40 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (March 8) -- Following the announcement of the International Olympic Committee in July 2021 to achieve gender parity for the '24 Paris Olympics, United World Wrestling launched a strategic plan with a specific focus on gender equality for the Olympic cycle.

The UWW Refereeing Commission, in collaboration with the Sports and Development Departments, undertook the task and will organize several courses throughout the next two years.

In May 2022, UWW will host the second educational program fully dedicated to female referees/officials with an aim to provide the latest education tools, online courses, practical sessions, empowerment training as part of this action plan and reduce the gender gap before the Paris Games.

Regarding the same, the Commonwealth Games Federation and UWW agreed to have a significantly higher percentage of women officials than men at the upcoming Commonwealth Games in August 2022. The wrestling competition will be officiated by 15 female referees out of 21 in total (over 70%), which is a first in the history of Wrestling. In addition, the Referee Delegate and other official positions will be fulfilled by a woman.

Currently, UWW has 10 female referees in the highest category (1S) and 91 female referees worldwide.

"We are committed to advancing wrestling in the right direction and promoting topics such as diversity, achieving gender parity, equal opportunities and access to education in all areas of our sport," Nenad LALOVIC, UWW President, said. "We are thrilled and excited to witness that the next Commonwealth Games in Birmingham will become the first major wrestling event that will have more than 70 percent women officials."

CWG

Since 2018, UWW has dedicated programs to female officials, coaches, referees and administrators to reduce the gender gap in the sport. National Federations such as Iran and Saudi Arabia organized courses dedicated to women which demonstrate that there are equal opportunities and sport is inevitably a major social development tool that contributes to shifting societies mindset.

“We are looking forward to providing equal opportunities to our wrestling community worldwide," Carlos Roy, UWW Secretary-General, said. "We are determined that the development programs will contribute to such topics in favor of all our national federations.”

Wrestling at the Commonwealth Games will take place at the Coventry Stadium in Birmingham on August 5 and 6, 2022.

#WrestleBelgrade

Wrestling scores 443% engagement growth as UWW+ makes World C’ships debut

Monday, October 30, 2023 - 11:43 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (October 18) –– United World Wrestling (UWW) trebled its year-on-year (YoY) digital viewership and recorded more than five times as many social engagements at this year’s UWW World Championships (WCH23) in Belgrade, Serbia, as the sport debuted an upgraded digital portfolio, including the new UWW+ over-the-top (OTT) service.

The multi-tiered, premium subscription streaming platform registered 4.36 million livestream views throughout the 2023 edition of UWW’s flagship event, held between September 16-24. The event also recorded 25 million social engagements (+443% over WCH22) and 155 million video views across its digital platforms (+203% over WCH22).

The impressive growth coincides with the redesign of the UWW website and the introduction of an enhanced fan-data ecosystem to help personalize and deliver an easy-to-navigate fan experience across web, social media, and UWW’s dedicated mobile app. Overall, WCH23 grew its digital reach by 63% to 296 million and attracted over 404,000 new followers.

Nenad LALOVIC, UWW President, said: “By diversifying the fan experience at this year’s World Championships, UWW has once again proven the power of digital transformation for driving engagement and expanding wrestling’s global audience. The latest numbers demonstrate the importance of digitalization and to lay the foundations for expanding the sport’s digital audience.”

Gordon Templeman, UWW’s Director of Commercial Operations and Communications, said: “UWW is establishing a digital portfolio which allows us to offer a personalized fan experience. To do this, we have diversified by investing in customer-facing digital products which enhances the digital experience for wrestling fans and enables UWW’s sponsors and commercial partners to build a direct relationship with our global audience.”

UWW
Key highlights from the WCH23 data analysis include: 

  • 25 million social media engagements (+443% over WCH22)
  • 155 million total video views (+203% over WCH22)
  • 404,000 new followers (+167% over WCH22)
  • 296 million digital reach (+63% over WCH22)
  • 4.36 million livestream views on UWW+

The UWW+ streaming platform is integrated within UWW’s website and mobile app, as part of the upgrades to UWW’s digital inventory and marks the latest phase of the International Federation’s collaboration with N3XT Sports, the end-to-end digital transformation consultancy. UWW has identified and prioritized digital transformation as one of the five pillars for its 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, which was presented and approved at the 2021 UWW Congress.

Motasem El Bawab, N3XT Sports’ Chief Information Officer (CIO), said: “Our team at N3XT Sports offers an end-to-end service plugged into UWW’s wider digital team. In addition to UWW+ and wrestling’s new, first-class streaming offering, our team also supported every aspect of UWW’s digital operation throughout WCH23, across digital marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), while optimizing the fan journey through data analytics and the assistance of artificial intelligence-driven software solutions.”

Click here to review the 2023 Senior World Championships case study.