During the first-ever IFAF Women's World Championship, participating players nominated Tea Törmänen from Finland and Saadia Ashraf from Canada to represent women's football on the International Federation of American Football Athletes Commission.
An important element of the IFAF objective to secure International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognition includes establishing an IFAF Athletes Commission.
Defensive lineman Törmänen and quarterback Ashraf, who are participating in the 2010 IFAF Women's World Championship, were elected by their fellow athletes - without the influence of coaches or administrators - to serve on the Athletes Commission. Two athletes per IFAF tournament will be added to the commission until a total of 10 are reached in 2011. Two athletes were previously elected at the 2009 IFAF Junior World Championship, one from USA and one from Sweden.
In 2011, two of the 10 will then be voted onto the IFAF Executive Committee to play an active part in shaping the future of IFAF and the international game of American Football. One will be male and one will be female. They will have a say in establishing rules and regulations, offer a player's perspective to the Executive Committee and will possess voting powers from 2011 onwards.
Törmänen, who is her seventh season of playing football, is a passionate and dedicated player whose main goal is to help improve and increase participation of women's American football in her native Finland and around the world.
She began her football career playing semi-contact football for four years, a mixture of flag football and tackle, for her club football team Helsinki Demons. The past three years she has developed into a talented linebacker in the tackle football league helping her team to two national championship titles and is a two-time all-star.
Last fall, Törmänen's passion for football saw her cross the ocean and move to the United States for the opportunity to play to semi-professional football for the IWFL Washington DC Divas. Starting at linebacker, she is still in season with the Divas and will have a conference final game coming up after the IFAF Women's World Championship.
Törmänen is excited to represent athletes in the IFAF Athletes Commission and sees it as a great opportunity to help women's football grow and improve who also coaches girl's flag football.
She will come into the committee with many ideas to put in motion.
"We need more coaches that are interested in coaching women," explains Törmänen. "In a lot of areas, the guys are very reluctant to coach. Women have not been playing that long, so we do not have a lot of retired players that could coach. We have one female coach on the Demons but we need more. We need the guys to understand that women can play football!
"I also think the biggest problem in Finland is that the women do not know that we have teams there. I know a lot of people who started playing football after they were 30 years old and they are so sorry they did not hear about it ten years ago."
Saadia Ashraf the second nominated player resides in Montreal, Quebec, and has been playing football for seventeen years ever since high school when she immediately fell in love with the team spirit of football. She started playing touch football, then progress to flag and ultimately found a home in tackle football and is currently playing for the IWFL team Montreal Blitz.
She immediately realized the importance of football and the potential people can gain from playing on and off the field starting her own team - the Montreal Warriors - which is still in existence today. She began coaching at the age of 21-years old and presently coaches girls from grade seven to eleven.
The talented football player helped her Montreal Blitz team to an IWFL championship title two years ago, and last season the team reached the championship game. Following the IFAF Women's World Championship the Blitz will play in the semi-finals.
A true lover of the sport, when the Montreal Blitz was under the threat of folding, Ashraf took matters into her own hands and purchased the team because she could not imagine the loss of her team and the opportunity to continue playing football.
Like Törmänen, Ashraf is excited for the opportunity to help the sport move forward.
"I would like to be part of the Athletes Commission to represent not just Canadian women's football but women around the world," said Ashraf. "I would like to know what is going know on to see if anything needs to be changed and find out what women tackle football players want."
She hopes if given the opportunity she will help the sport of football grow and improve.
"To get it moving in the right direction we have to move back a little bit," said Ashraf. "We have to get the players in at least high school. And that is a big task. We are decades and decades behind the guys. It will be a tough tack but it is definitely possible."
The Athletes Commission will increase in number when two more athletes are added each at the 2010 IFAF Flag Football World Championship and 2011 IFAF Senior World Championship. Only one country can be represented on the Athletes Commission. Currently IFAF has two males from United States and Sweden and two women from Canada and Finland represented on the committee.