The amazing world record attempt set for Mount Kilimanjaro
Laura Youngson came up with the idea when frustrated. Photo: ABC
Laura Youngson was sitting on the couch watching TV and complaining about the inequality facing women in sport when suddenly something clicked.
“I thought, ‘Well you should just get up and do something’,” she told ABC News Breakfast.
What followed was a mammoth new project and the start of the Equal Playing Field initiative.
Next month, 37 women from 20 countries will climb to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the highest altitude soccer match ever played.
In doing so they hope to raise awareness for inequality in women’s sports right across the globe.
“How it’s represented in the media, how women’s coverage is less, and then also the pay is grossly unfair,” Ms Youngson said.
“It’s a lot of the invisible mountains that women have to face in sport.
Two all-female teams will take a seven-day hike to a crater on the mountain almost 6,000 metres high and play a game of soccer on a rough and rocky flat patch.
“We’ve been told it’s still going to be about minus 13,” Ms Youngson said.
“We’ve got the flat ground sorted, but I don’t think it’s going to be the best game ever, it will probably be tactical and passing.”