The Samoa Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee along with Digicel Samoa have launched the Samoa Women in Sports Challenge in commemoration of International Women’s Day.
The president for SASNOC Patrick Fepuleai says participation is key for women to develop in any sport.
"The sole focus is to push participation of women in all levels of sports and competitions," he said.
"It is important in order to push gender equality and as well stop gender stereotyping," he added.
"The women in sports challenge is to involve as many women in competition as possible.
The challenge is an initiative put together by the national committee along with the IOC. However, for women’s inclusion in sports for Samoa, it varies in success in a certain sport.
"Our weightlifting team is very progressive and successful, and it’s mostly our women athletes bringing in the gold
"So it varies in each sport the success, as well as development, and we certainly are looking at developing all aspects," Fepuleai added.
For international teams though, it’s almost always that teams selected are mostly consisting of overseas players. This is the same for both men and women.
"The door is open for women overseas with a passport and citizenship to Samoa, there is no barrier to stop that.
"But that does not necessarily mean that we are stopping development in Samoa. Were still going to push local women’s inclusion in sports through programs such as this," Fepuleai added.
The competitions include all Olympic sports beginning in the first week of April.