Emma Wiggs Great Britain Paracanoe. Photo Credit: Planet Canoe.
We are thrilled to announce we recently partnered with an amazing female-led design team at lenspeace to help us refresh the identity for WomenCAN International, giving us a new look and feel before the debut of Women’s Canoe and Women’s Paracanoe events in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games.
Our new website is https://womencanintl.com/
And our new logo is our new profile photo for Vote YES for Women’s Canoe. (Please Like and Share our page)
We have carried the same look for nearly 16 years and we finally found the right people to help with not just re-branding, but to help us better represent our extraordinary community of women canoeists, training hard every single day, and help us promote those people and organizations who make paddle-sport possible for all of us to enjoy, at every level.
Hungary C2 Sprint. Photo Credit: Planet Canoe.
We could not have asked for a better team to collaborate with. Lenspeace was founded by nationally recognized impact designer and unapologetic feminist, Lennie Gray Mowris, aided by the detailed skills and web wizardry of Nyasha A Wooling (“Sha”). They specialize in communicating on behalf of social responsibility, environmental stewardship, and designing equitable systems, so they were the obvious fit to support our mission.
We spent considerable time looking at the essence of our sport for the Power and Grace of the female athletes who represent the “Sisters of the Single Blade” in these new Olympic disciplines. Together we worked to display our powerful diversity of women in the sport of Olympic Canoeing – single blade.
“If she can see it, she can be it.”
Jessica Fox Australia Slalom. Photo Credit: Planet Canoe.
Just know that this is just the beginning. Our goal throughout the rest of 2019 is to also incorporate our rich and long history of women paddling in Olympic class canoes, dating back to the early 1900s. Note, there have been many who thought women only recently started training and racing in these canoes, however, we have photos from nearly 100 years ago, and we know that paddling in canoes has been a method of transportation, a means of gathering food, recreational outlet, and a part of survival for women and their families for centuries. Our Aboriginal, First Nation, Asian, African, Central/South American and Polynesian sisters and ancestors are our sisters of the water. Their warrior spirit lives within us.
—>>> Now – We need your help!
We want to share your high resolution photos and videos on our website, and on Facebook and Twitter, to keep it current and relevant and will gladly give photo/video credit. Additionally, if any corrections need to be made to the site, or proper credits, please email us at info@womencanintl.com and we will work on it together.
Thank you Lenspeace for putting your heart and soul into a project that I have poured my heart and soul into for 19 years as an athlete and activist for inclusion and equality. I would not be here if not for vision and inspiration of Canadian Canoe pioneer Sheila Kuyper. Her “Power and Grace for 2008” Campaign in 1998 was the beginning of the formal global fight for Olympic inclusion and gender equality. Yet we both were riding on the wake, and standing on the shoulders of so many women canoeists who came before us, who were told “No”.
Thank you Canoe Kayak Canada for being the leader for the world to follow. Thank you Planet Canoe for ensuring women will share the world’s grandest stage with the men in Tokyo 2020 and ensuring development camps continue around the world. And thank you to all of the women and men – mom’s and dad’s, coaches, volunteers, administrators, equipment manufacturers, etc. – who helped make our Olympic Dream come true.
We are a “Yes” for Tokyo 2020! Thank you for being on this #RoadtoTokyo with us!
#WomensCanoe #TogethertoTokyo #Tokyo2020 #WePaddle#CanoeSprint #CanoeSlalom #Paracanoe #ICFSprint #ICFSlalom
“The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practising sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play…..The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Olympic Charter shall be secured without discrimination of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” ~Olympic Charter https://stillmed.olympic.org/Documen…/olympic_charter_en.pdf
Pam Boteler, President, WomenCAN International – a global voice for gender equality and equity in Olympic Canoeing.
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