Substitutes cheer from the sidelines during the match on the mount.
A group of fearless women have achieved what many thought
impossible having
climbed up Africa’s highest mountain, taking goal posts and nets in
tow, and played a 90-minute football match on Mount Kilimanjaro.
The
squad of 30 footballers representing 20 nationalities, who included
retired US international Lori Lindsey and former England midfielder
Rachel Unitt, completed a 11-a-side match at nearly 19,000 feet, an
altitude never before attempted.
Using flour to mark the
pitch and trekking poles as corner flags, the women — ranging in ages,
from 18 to 66 years old — played in punishing conditions on a volcanic
ash pitch.
The game — between
Volcano FC and Glacier FC — ended goalless, but the result was
inconsequential as the sole purpose of the challenge was to highlight
the inequality women face in sport.
American
defender Erin Blankenship, co-founder of event organizers Equal Playing
Fields, said: “You can’t challenge the fact that you’ve got a group of
athletes who are playing at almost 19,000ft. It doesn’t matter what
gender they are.”
The women trek up Mount Kilimanjaro before playing their match.
Olympic
champion Lindsey, who played for USA at the 2011 World Cup and 2012
London Olympics, was one of the star players taking part. She was keen
to raise awareness of the issues women and girls face when playing
sport.
“I’m fortunate enough to
have had pioneers who came before me, but it’s our responsibility to
continue to make strides forward for the generations to come,” she told
CNN Sport before embarking on the trip.
Playing in thin air, which causes a reduction in physical performance, isn’t easy.
In
May 2007, FIFA introduced a
temporary ban, revoked a year later, on international matches at more
than 8,200ft above sea level, citing concerns about players’ health and
the “unfair” advantage to acclimatized home teams.
Earlier
in 2007, Brazilian club Flamengo had said it would boycott
high-altitude games after a match at 12,467 ft against Bolivia’s Real
Potosi left some team members needing oxygen.
“We made a pact before the game that it was all about the game finishing,” said Glacier FC coach Dawn Scott. “It
was equal opportunities and we termed the substitutes coming on as
record makers as they’d be the ones pushing us on because you could see
players dropping and needing oxygen towards the end.”
Female footballers celebrate on Mount Kilimanjaro after breaking the world record for the highest match ever played.
CNN