Togolese sports administrator
Falilatou Tchanile-Salifou |
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Nationality | Togo |
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Occupation | sports executive |
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Known for | 2023 Woman of the Year |
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Falilatou Tchanile-Salifou is Togo's leading sports administrator. She has used sport as a way of increasing gender representation in sports organisation and education generally. She was named Woman of the Year at the World Athletics Awards 2023.
Life
Tchanile-Salifou became the President of the Togolese athletics federation[1] and she has used sport as a way of increasing the role of women in her country.[2]
Tchanile-Salifou organised a race that gathered 1,500 female competitors as part of a campaign titled "Girls together for sport and for life". Togo has remote regions and these were also targeted as well as Togo's larger towns.[3]
Tchanile-Salifou had an awareness programme that encouraged parents to register the births of girls and then to go on and ensure that they went to school.[4] Measurable improvements were made. It was reported that 90% of the girls returned to school in Togo at the start of the 2023 school year. This compared with an estimate of 40% for the year before.[1] (Data from UNESCO is not available in this detail).[5]
In 2023 the World Athletic Foundation added a new section to its awards. President Sebastion Coe was credited with initiating the award and the inaugural award went to Tchanile-Salifou. She was recognised for "advancing women's rights and fostering gender equality in sport".[2] Faith Kipyegon and Kelvin Kiptum from Kenya and Ethiopia's Tigist Assefa were all runners named as Best athletes of the year, joining her achievements for Africa.[6]
The award should raise her profile at the Paris Olympics.[3] She is leading her country's contribution and she is the vice President of the association of francophone athletic federations.[7]
References