• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, October 25, 2023

Despite decades of coaching effort and seemingly endless marketing dollars, the world hasn’t made much progress in turning girls into athletes. Girls still drop out of sports at twice the rate of boys.

Nike and Dove think they can turn that around, uniting behind Body Confident Sport, a novel online coaching program to boost body confidence.

A Nike spokesperson tells Marketing Daily that Body Confident Sport will be delivered to adolescent girls through a network of organizations in schools and sports clubs worldwide.

Tennis great Venus Williams is teaming up with Dove, while Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez is working with Nike. The joint effort targets poor body image as part of the problem. The program aims to put scientifically proven coaching tools in the hands of those working with girls between 11 and 17.

Rather than focus on performance, the goal is to increase self-esteem and body confidence. The effort is based on research that reveals that 48% of girls drop out of sports because they were told they didn't have the right body for that sport, and 56% say someone objectified or judged them on their appearance. Just over half say they had also been told they were not good enough. Yet they want to stick with their chosen sport, with 69% saying they would be more body-confident if they had played longer.

“Sports have the potential to make girls feel confident and strong,” says Alessandro Manfredi, Dove’s chief marketing officer, in the announcement. “Yet for so many, the judgment and criticism they face within the sports environment is damaging their confidence and limiting their self-belief. We are proud to team up with a like-minded brand like Nike to take action towards a more equitable future for girls."

Keeping girls on playing fields is well worth the effort. Years of research have confirmed that high school girls who play sports get better grades and are more likely to graduate. They also have higher confidence and self-esteem and lower levels of depression.

This effort is based on research with 4,917 children of different ages, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds in Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S.