Is it possible for girls to be empowered with sports; a case study

Sport is a field where self-confident, independent and politically conscious women can be raised, hence the power of sport. The aim of this study is to examine this power of sports in the case of five athletes of the Seka Secondary School Tag Rugby Girls' Team, which became the School Sports Tag Rugby Turkey Champion in 2019, and to reveal the experiences of these athletes' participation in tag rugby and their empowerment processes. The research group consisted of five athletes of the Seka Secondary School Girls' Rugby Team at Kastamonu-Taşköprü Seka Secondary School, the physical education teacher and the former school principal. The research is discussed in the context of Zimmerman's Psychological Empowerment Theory and Lim and Dixon's Women's Empowerment through Sport Participation Theory. The themes of Acquired Skills, Gender Bias and Critical Consciousness, Empowerment Skills, and Resisting Male Dominance in Rugby were analyzed through reflective thematic analysis. In the light of the findings, it was seen that the athletes who participated in the study realized Lim and Dixon's theory and experienced psychological empowerment, and that they challenged gender biases by participating in rugby, a male-dominated sport, which enabled them to have a louder voice.