Anette Möllerström

"Basketball helps shrink the world"

- I love basketball, and playing sports has opened many doors for me. It has strengthened and developed me as a person and given me confidence. It was an obvious choice to get involved and give back to the sport and help young people. I want to give them the same opportunity for development that I had.

- Basketball is more equal than many other sports. There are roughly as many girls as boys who play the sport and Malbas has in recent years had many leading women in its organisation. We have a woman club manager, a woman chairperson for Mini Malbas, equal representation on the board, and many strong women leaders.

- The sports arena by default belongs to the boys, and the girls can easily end up on the sidelines, as spectators. But we’re working on breaking that pattern. For example, we run girls-only workouts, as well as encourage, support, and teach them to be more involved.

- We’re already in several areas where sports don’t have much of a presence, but want to be in more and we want to grow in the areas where we already have a presence. In addition, we have minimal fees and have been able to provide equipment and shoes with the help of some partnerships. It’s so incredibly important that the sport isn't just for those who have money or live in the right area.

- Basketball is big on basically all continents and attracts both girls and boys. There is the music, the fashion, and the trends. Basketball is a sport that appeals to young people. We have great cultural diversity in most of our teams. In part, it has to do with Malmö's multicultural composition, but it’s also because basketball is an inclusive sport that attracts people from different cultures. It's great and helps shrink the world a little.

- I played four years in the US, where I learned that athletic achievement isn’t everything, that there is so much more. I usually say that a team is like a miniature society. Sports make us work together and develop together. Sometimes you have to comply and compromise, sometimes you need to take responsibility and lead. And that’s how it is in society in general. In that way, playing sports is a very good education.

- Sports are just as important as school, we must not diminish the community and inclusion that playing sports contributes to. A dream scenario would be if the sport associations are upgraded and become more than the non-profits they are today. We would need a system where funding is not a constant major concern, where the public sector can step in and support so that the associations can hire leaders and put the energy into the actual organization instead of just chasing money. The sports association community is far too important to be dependent on non-profit constraints.