no. 07-00-877/2025-02 date: 13. 1. 2026.

SPORTS ASSOCIATION OF SERBIA
Davor Štefanek, President

11000 BELGRADE
Kneza Mihaila 7/2

Dear Mr. Štefanek,

A female athlete contacted the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, pointing out a problem faced by athletes who are not employed and who become pregnant during their active sports careers. She particularly highlighted the position of athletes who practice sports on an amateur basis and who financially secure both their sporting and private existence exclusively through sports scholarships, in the event of pregnancy. Thus, for example, the athlete who approached us with a complaint is a member of the Serbian national team, a two-time European champion with a total of ten medals from European and world championships in her sport, a recipient of the Spartacus Award, and whose sports scholarship from the Ministry of Sport for athletic development has been her only source of income over the past eight years. The complainant states that during 2025 she competed for the Serbian national team while pregnant and points out that, given the legal nature of the scholarship, she has been left without means of subsistence because in 2026 she will not be able to engage in sports and receive the scholarship, since she is expecting the birth of a child.

We inform you that, for the purpose of achieving equality and protection against discrimination, the Commissioner issued to the Ministry of Sport Recommendation of Measures No. 021-01-979/2024-02 of 21 May 2024, to prepare a draft strategic document for sports development and specifically define an area, i.e. a goal relating to the development of women’s sports and its promotion at all levels, taking into account the various personal characteristics of women in sport (such as age, health status, disability, etc.) to expand and improve women’s sports, achieving gender equality, and preventing and combating gender-based violence in sport, as well as to ensure, when creating measures and activities for the implementation of this goal, that due attention is paid to the need to increase investment in women’s sports and to the provision and allocation of funds for these purposes.

Acting upon the recommendation, the Ministry of Sport informed the Commissioner, by letter No. 1867097 2024 13800 003 001 000 001 of 28 June 2024, that the drafting of the Sports Development Strategy for 2025–2035 and the Action Plan for its implementation is underway, accompanied by a regular and precise data collection system through the implementation of research aimed at defining the current situation and setting the objectives of the new strategy, and that, among other things, the adoption of a Decision on the appointment of a working group for the preparation of the Sports Development Strategy for the period 2025–2035 and the Action Plan for its implementation is also in progress.

The concrete example of the athlete who contacted us is only one of many and clearly illustrates the financially uncertain position in which female athletes who are not in an employment relationship find themselves during pregnancy and after childbirth. In cases where a sports scholarship is the only support for professional engagement in sports (for example, when a sports club is unable or unwilling to employ the athlete), female athletes find themselves in a less favorable position during pregnancy and after childbirth. This situation affects only women in sports. In addition to the fact that pregnancy, after a certain period, becomes an obstacle to further engagement in sports and achieving sporting results, the athlete is also prevented for some time after childbirth from actively engaging in sports and maintaining fitness, that is, from continuing sports development and competition. Depending on the period of the year in which a woman gives birth, it will also depend on whether she will be absent from the training process and competitions for one or two competitive seasons. In this way, a sports career and parenthood become mutually exclusive, which places or could place women in sports in a less favorable position.

Sport, as a powerful and influential social field, can simultaneously be a space of discrimination and a space of emancipation. Whether it will represent an obstacle or an opportunity for women depends on society’s readiness to confront deeply rooted gender stereotypes, ensure equal resources, and support their full participation.

In this regard, the Commissioner recommends that the Ministry of Sport, through the strategic document currently under development, define an area or objective that would provide for the possibility of financial support for female athletes during pregnancy and after childbirth who do not have an employment contract with sports organizations. Providing financial security to female athletes through a measure that would facilitate balancing private life with sporting obligations further emphasizes the need for comprehensive changes in order to achieve genuine gender equality in the sports sector.

We take this opportunity to inform you of the above and to recommend that the Sports Association of Serbia, within its legal competences, undertake measures and activities to ensure financial support for female athletes who receive scholarships during pregnancy and after childbirth and who do not have employment contracts with sports organizations, thereby facilitating the reconciliation of private life with sporting obligations.

COMMISSIONER FOR THE PROTECTION OF EQUALITY

Milan Antonijević