Nada and I met in September 1999 at a regional seminar on women and sport for the European Olympic Committee in Zagreb, Croatia. I was a speaker at the seminar when Nada introduced herself as the Chairperson of the Women and Sport Committee (WSC) for the Czech Olympic Committee since 1997. She asked if I could help her with the development of the work of the Women Sport Committee. This request was the start of a collaboration between us, the Norwegian School of Sport Science and the Czech Olympic Committee and the start of a friendship that has lasted over 20 years.
WomenSport International Tribute and Appreciation to Dr. Nada Knorre
by
Dr. Kari Fasting, WSI Co-Founder, Former President
and Board of Directors – Emeritus
WSI Annual Meeting – December 10, 2022
Nada and I met in September 1999 at a regional seminar on women and sport for the European Olympic Committee in Zagreb, Croatia. I was a speaker at the seminar when Nada introduced herself as the Chairperson of the Women and Sport Committee (WSC) for the Czech Olympic Committee since 1997. She asked if I could help her with the development of the work of the Women Sport Committee. This request was the start of a collaboration between us, the Norwegian School of Sport Science and the Czech Olympic Committee and the start of a friendship that has lasted over 20 years.
I could talk a lot about the research Nada and I did together from 2001-2005 and our presentations around the world with data from our projects, but let me focus on Nada’s involvement and direct contributions to WSI.
Nada has served WSI for almost 12 years, beginning as an elected member of the Advisory Board in 2011, then as Vice President in 2014 and was re-elected as Vice-President in 2018- 2022.
Many of you may not know that Nada has a doctoral degree from the Faculty of Physical Education, Charles University in Prague, where she worked as a teacher at the Department of Gymnastics from 1986 to 2004. She was also a well-known Gymnastics Coach and served from 1993 to 2001 as a member of the Technical Committee – General Gymnastics for the European Gymnastics Federation (UEG). During the same period, she was a Board member of the Czech Gymnastic Federation and an international judge in team gymnastics. From 2001-2004 she was the first elected woman to the Czech Olympic Committee Board of Directors. In the same period, she represented Czech Sport in the European Women and Sport steering group (EWS). This knowledge and experience that Nada brought to WSI with has been important in the development of WSI.
I will particularly mention two things: The first one is that until recently, she served as the Chairperson of the Women’s Committee of the Czech Olympic Committee, and as it has widen its scope is now named the Committee for Equal Opportunities in Sport of the Czech Olympic Committee. It is very impressive the work that Nada did and influenced in Czech in many different areas related to gender equality in sport, including: the focus on female coaches and the prevention of Sexual Harassment and Abuse, where Nada translated and share the material developed by WSI.
Why do we think this has been so important? Because Nada has been one of the few women with her feet planted solid on the practice ground, an area that WSI tries to influence and support. The extensive knowledge and experience Nada gained through her work in Czech has been valuable not only for women in sport in Czech but for WSI. Nada willingly has shared her approaches and results in presentations on behalf of WSI, for example her presentation “From Research to Social Change” where she presented at the WSI parallel session at the UN CSW in New York in 2013.
The second point I will mention is Nada’s connection to the Olympic movement and how she kept WSI informed and updated with development and news from the Czech Olympic Committee, the European Olympic Committee (EOC) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). We will miss that close connection that you/Nada provided us to the Olympic movement.
I would like to thank Nada for her commitment, for always being prepared at meetings, and for a very valuable trait: Nada is never afraid of asking if there is something she doesn’t understand or disagree with. I personally think that this also clarified things for other members, as most of us struggle with a foreign language. It has been nice to work close with Nada – she is a very genuine person, always positive, and one of those persons who never says no.
She has represented WSI at international conferences and taken on tasks for WSI even when she has had many other things to do. We still remember, when she managed to get the Czech Olympic Committee to hold a board meeting for us in Prague in 2017; a memorable stay for the board members who participated in that meeting.
So, Nada, thank you for all your work, even though you now leave the board, we hope that you continue to be a member of WSI. Based on your long and extensive experience and knowledge, many young and new members have a lot to learn from you.
Following this tribute, WSI presented an memento to honour Nada’s long standing commitment to WSI and women around the world.
Dr. Nada Knorre 