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• Promote girls and women in sports
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• Support women athletes
 Help the next generation of women participate in sports!
STATISTICS:
•For the first time, women competed in the same number of team sports as men. Additional sports for women included modern pentathlon, taekwondo, triathlon, water polo and weightlifting. Two more teams were added in handball and hockey. Trampoline was added as an additional discipline and cycling (500m track), shooting (ball trap and skeet), synchronized swimming (duet), hammer throw, pole vault, 20km walk (replaces 10km walk) have been added as events.
•According to an Oxygen/Markle Pulse poll, 56% of women agree with the statement that seeing successful female athletes makes them feel proud to be a woman.
Playing with Mexico's colors in my heart
Lorena Ochoa
MexicoGALLERYCONVERSATION
I started playing golf at the age of five. We lived next to the Guadalajara Country Club and so I asked my father to take me to the golf course.

He was the one who taught me and gave me my very first lesson. At that point playing golf at the country club was more about getting together with my whole family. Then as I discovered how much I loved playing and as it became clear that I had a talent for it, I asked my father if I could continue on and get more serious. I got a teacher and started competing. I played my first competition at six and won the state tournament. At age seven I won my first national tournament and by eight I was Mexico's top-ranked junior and had won the prestigious Junior World Championship in San Diego. It was just the start of the road towards achieving my goals and dreams.

I worked very hard and continued playing and learning. At ten I started taking lessons with Rafael Alarcon, who is one of Guadalajara’s most famous golfers. As the years went on, I won several more tournaments and a couple more titles, but still hadn’t fully realized my goals.

By the time I was competing at the collegiate level, I knew that I was playing at a really good level and that if I kept at it I could achieve my goal of being a champion golfer. And I did it. In 2001 and 2002 I earned NCAA Player of the year honors. My freshman year I won first or second place in eighteen out of twenty starts and my sophomore year I finished with eight out of ten wins. I also set the record score those years. In 2001, President Vicente Fox presented me with the National Sports Award. Not only was I the youngest recipient, but was the first golfer to achieve this great honor. I had come a long way since those first days on the Guadalajara course with my father.

And how did I do this – achieve my dreams and aspirations? Hard work and faith. I am very religious – a devout Catholic – and I always had faith that I could achieve my dreams. For this reason, it was also very important for me not to take my success for granted. I am so deeply grateful for how blessed I am. And as a catholic, I believe that one must give freely to others and the more you give the more you get. So, as soon as I started winning money from the tournaments and getting sponsorships I wanted to create a foundation. In 2004 I established the Lorena Ochoa Foundation to help children in Mexico. The foundation assists impoverished and underprivileged children in many ways such as through educational programs and activities that promote health through sports. I firmly believe that education is the key to helping families and communities. It is also the key to achieving your personal goals. It was so important for my own success. We now have 600 children who are participating in the educational activities. It is so inspirational to see the impact on them and how happy they are while playing golf and learning necessary skills. I am proud to be able to do this for my country and people.

Other than continuing to play my best and working to be the number one golf player, my other goal is to create more public golf courses in Mexico. I want to provide equal access to the sport, which right now is primarily only available to people with more money and means. Golf should be something that girls and boys, no matter whether rich or poor, should be able to enjoy.

I am proud to be a woman. I am honored to represent my country. When I play golf, I play with the colors of Mexico in my heart. I try to live my life in a good way and to be a good example for girls and boys alike. When people see you trying hard and giving one hundred percent they do the same. As a champion golfer and successful woman athlete, I hope that my story can be of inspiration for you and motivate you to work hard for your dreams and give back to your communities.
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tarik (Morocco)
slt sa va
johnzvosec (Ukraine)
I am 77 years old and I recently finished serving 6 years as an American Peace Corps Volonteer helping poor people in Ukraine and I intend to stay here and continue this work as a free private volunteer and I like golf. This young women is extremly talanted because of her hard work and dedication and she the right view on life and on people.


voltairine (France)
Despite what we all want to assume-that in today's society women have equal opportunities and equal treatment-women in sports continue to face great challenges. There is definitely still a barrier to women in many fields of sport-or at least there's a stigma against them. Golf, at least to my understanding, was no exception when Lorena started out. Congrats on breaking down those barriers!
Hana (Japan)
Lorena this is such a great piece. I feel really inspired right now. Thank you.

Elena (United States)
I don't know about wage differences in golf, but I know it's an issue in Mexican soccer. Check out Monica's piece, "The Level Playing Field."
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