The Portrayal of Women Athletes in Sports Media, POWER Project for short, held its Final Conference in Athens on 08.10.2026, bringing together 60+ participants across Greece and beyond at WHEN Hub Athens. The conference closed a two year cooperation and programme of research, policy work, and training on how women athletes are presented in European sports media. Throughout its implementation, POWER brought together six partners from six countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Hungary) with journalists, athletes, sports organizations, students, and media professionals.
The conference presented the results the partnership produced since the kick-off in November 2024. These include the comparative research on the portrayal of women athletes across six countries’ media outlets (published as a set of national reports and a consolidated EU Report), the Gender Equalişty in Sports Media Strategy with the accompanying guidelines in seven language, and the training programme for journalists, editors, media professionals and interested stakeholders that the consortium delivered across the six partner countries.
Katerina Bakola (ANCE) opened the conference with an introduction, followed by our keynote speakers Athina Papafοtiou (former Greek national team volleyball player and current player at Panathinaikos), Pedro Dias (Judo Olympian at Beijing 2008 and international sports professional with an expertise on gender equality and inclusion), and Maria Trakada (Triathlete).
In addition to the keynote speakers, project partners presented the work conducted so far with its relevant outputs, which are open to the public and accessible at the POWER website. Each material is prepared and published in six languages and English, with their format adaptable for different settings and contexts.
Even though the project comes to an end, the partners are looking forward to exploring future collaboration opportunities and continuing to spread the key messages of POWER.