Four girls from Bolton have broken barriers and amazed their peers by winning pioneering mountain biker awards.
The girls come from Rumworth, Crompton and Halliwell and were supported by the KRIMMZ Girls Youth Club throughout biking sessions delivered BY WAVE Adventure, funded by Street Games and British Cycling.
Last month they received MIAS Junior Mountain Bike leaders award in an event held at Christine Partington House which KRIMMZ had been given access to by Bolton at Home.
A statement from KRIMMZ said: “Sport gives girls and women resilience, courage and self-belief.
"Gender stereotypes hold girls and women back both in sport and in life.
“Women are underrepresented in outdoor adventure.
“Mountain Training reports that overall, 20 per cent of candidates are female.
“The higher up the qualification the higher the gap with only six to 10 per cent of female graduates.”
It added: “Reduced opportunities for role models in these sports are further exacerbated for people from ethnically diverse communities.
“Some of the barriers ethnic minority females face which prevents participation include a lack of understanding of the needs a female may have which would include having women-only spaces or facilities, having the right sports attire which would enable them to participate, having water and prayer facilities on site so their religious duties are not missed.
“For young girls, some parents might need to build trust and have knowledge by having positive role models who already partake in sports.
“Wave Adventure and KRIMMZ Girls Youth Club are jointly changing this.
“Working with KRIMMZ, parents already have the trust from their leaders to take their girls and introduce them to different sports.
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“WAVE offered KRIMMZ an opportunity to give girls access to mountain biking in a female only environment with a qualified female leader supported by two of only a minority of female MIAS junior mountain bike leaders Kenzie and Joyce.
“This opportunity meant a group of girls developed mountain bike skills with four of them becoming the first group of all-Muslim girls in the UK to complete their MIAS junior mountain bike leader qualification.
“This is a big achievement itself and following on from this success, this visibility has encouraged others to follow suit and we intend to train even more women and girls as leaders.
“This project is leading the way for girls and women from disadvantaged groups to be truly represented in outdoor adventure and its happening in Bolton.”
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