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Delyth Jewell, who represents Plaid Cymru, is one of four regional Senedd Members serving the South Wales East region.
Progress takes time. It takes hard work. It can often feel as if the hill you’re trying to climb is so steep that you’re not getting anywhere. Yet, there usually comes a point, a moment in time, when all that hard work pays off, and you can see that all those years of toil were not in vain.
If it’s not obvious, I’m talking about the success of our neighbours – the England women’s football team in the recent Euro 2022 tournament. For years, women’s football was mocked, derided, not taken seriously. Yet, those who were committed to have it taken seriously never stopped campaigning for it. There has been gradual improvement year-on-year, which has been boosted recently by the fact that the BBC is now broadcasting highlights of the Women’s Super League on BBC One. But the improvement has been driven by those involved in women’s sport, who have been so successful in driving up standards that it’s now difficult for anyone to argue that elite female football players aren’t – well, elite.
The England team, like our own women’s team, has been truly inspirational. They played high-tempo, exciting football. They knew how to be canny when necessary, and were able to rely on moments of genius at other times. They were also inspirational off the pitch – their celebrations when they won and the interviews they gave were simply a joy to behold. As many of you would probably guess, I don’t actually support England – I support Wales – and I’m really looking forward to the women’s match against Slovenia in Cardiff next month, as part of their World Cup qualifying campaign. But I also admire and respect the English team – they’ve done so much for the women’s game and deserve enormous credit for their success. After all, it’s good for neighbours to be friends (ahh, Erinsborough, I miss you already).
Sport should be something that we can all take delight in, but too often, barriers stand in the way of our participation. What used to be true about women’s football is still the case for some women’s sports, as well as sports for people with disabilities. This will change over time, but progress needs to be faster. The real challenge is encouraging participation at a grassroots level. Not everyone is going to be able to represent their country on the international stage, but all of us have the potential to benefit by playing sports locally in our communities. Scoring a goal, or a try, while playing with your friends can give enormous satisfaction, and the health benefits of physical activity are undeniable. Keeping fit is one of the best things anyone can do to keep themselves healthy, and it works wonders as a preventative measure against potential health problems.
In the Senedd, I chair the committee that concentrates on culture and sport (amongst other issues), and we recently held an inquiry into access to sport in disadvantaged areas. We heard evidence from individuals and groups across Wales about the factors that prevent people of all ages from taking part in physical activity, ranging from physical issues like the state of gyms or sports facilities in their area, to more complex psychological barriers like body confidence and gender stereotypes. We published a report last week, which can be found here, but so many of the stories we heard got me thinking about how important physical activity is to our wellbeing.
A few months ago, and before we held the inquiry I mentioned, our committee in the Senedd took evidence from Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, and she said something that’s really stuck with me: she said that, of course, Wales should continue funding elite sports and helping ensure that sportsmen and women at the top of their game (literally) can flourish. But as well as that, and away from those huge stadiums, she told us something even more important: we need more people who aren’t very good at sport to see that sport is for them, too. In clubs and running teams and swimming pools all over Wales, people who don’t look sporty or score many goals or who don’t constantly set new records should be taking delight in the sheer joy of being physically active. You shouldn’t have to be “good” at sport to enjoy it, or to look a particular way when you’re doing it. Taking pleasure from the physical activity should be the main takeaway for people of all ages – and I know that that idea should be commonplace, but when she said it to the committee, it felt revolutionary.
Of course we all love to see the Wales football teams and the rugby teams and the netball and basketball teams do well. And I know that lots of us are competitive and want to be the “best”. But sport really shouldn’t have to be about that. Maybe what our teachers tried to tell us all those years ago really was right: it’s the taking part that counts greatest of all.
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