Olympic Solidarity and International Federations Launching a Joint Program to Support High Performance Female Coaches
Building on the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) longstanding commitment to promoting gender equality and inclusion, and in particular helping more women achieve leadership positions, Olympic Solidarity and several Federations International Federations (IFs) have launched a new mentoring and training program that helps female coaches progress to high-performance coaches roles at national, continental and international competitions, including including major events such as the Olympic Games.
Although Tokyo 2020 has broken through as the most gender-balanced Olympic Games to date, with 48% female participation, there is still a long way to go towards gender parity when it comes to coaches. and female officials. Only 10% of the coaches recognized at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games over the past decade have been women. Early figures show little progress in Tokyo with 13% female coaches; However, this number is still very low.
International Olympic Committee
To address this situation, the IOC has launched a number of initiatives, working with International Federations (IFs), National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and Organizing Committees to open up more avenues for training. and more executive for women.
The High performance sports path for womenalso known as the WISH Programme, has been developed in collaboration with a team of experts based at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK, with the aim of supporting female coaches who have demonstrated their potential and aspiring to succeed in landing key roles at the highest level of their sport.
1 million USD sponsored by Olympic Solidarity
The program supports the implementation of the IOC Gender Equality and Inclusion Goals for 2021-2024, and in particular is committed to promoting the representation of women in sports leadership roles.
Olympic Solidarity is investing $1 million in the WISH Program and will run four teams during the current four years, benefiting approximately 100 coaches. The 21-month program will provide participants with access to sport-specific leadership training, coaching and mentoring led by their IFs, and engagement with the Olympic Committees. Country (NOC).
The first cohort of 22 coaches from 20 NOCs and seven sports (skating/climbing, cycling, judo, rugby, skiing, volleyball, and wrestling) kicked off live training. their online course on May 23, with a UK residential week scheduled for August. Those interested in participating in further intakes are encouraged to apply through the IF their and many IFs were contacted to proceed with the application process for subsequent groups. Candidates need support from both the IF and the NOC to be accepted into the program.
Successful pilot program
The launch of the WISH Program follows the success of an IOC-supported pilot initiative, the Women’s Sports Leadership Academy (WSLA HPC), which runs from 2019 to 2021 and features 26 women from 23 NOCs and six sports (cycling, rowing, rugby), tennis, triathlon and wrestling) participated.
Among them is Pamela Fulton, a triathlon coach from Zimbabwe who now mentors not only rising athletes, but coaches and other women in the sport.
“For me, WSLA is a real life changer,” she said. “It was an incredible experience that really gave me confidence and it also helped me think about what my goals are. It made me really sit down and think, ‘What do I really want?’ And then map out a roadmap to get there.”
For Fulton, that goal is to coach an athlete at the Olympic Games. “That would be my dream,” she said. “I was at the Youth Olympic Games and was very lucky to do that, but obviously everyone wants to go to the Olympics. It’s difficult because most athletes don’t stay in Zimbabwe when they go to university or college, so I always think, ‘That’s impossible.’ But what WSLA has taught me is not to give up.”
For Fulton, one of the key aspects of the program is the inspiration she feels working alongside the other participants and seeing what they’ve achieved, with three of the same people. her time attending the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as a coach, team or technical official. roles, while 15 are currently in the position of national coaches and two are coaching men’s professional teams. In addition, eight of the participants are providing education and mentoring to support the growth of other female coaches.
“I feel that you always have support from other women,” says Fulton. “We are all in the same position; all we want to do is try and do the best we can for our federations and for our athletes. To find out what some other women have done, it makes you think, ‘Okay, I need to get motivated and get out there. If they can do it, so can I. ‘ It makes you think more deeply about what you can do and what you can achieve. “
Through her participation in the show, Fulton now hopes that she can bring the same inspiration to other female coaches. “I really hope that I can inspire some other women to just go and achieve what they want to do,” she said. “The sky is the limit, and I don’t want anyone else to think, ‘I can’t do it because I’m a woman.’ If you want it, go for it. “
And thanks to the launch of the HAPPY Program, more female coaches will now have the opportunity to follow their dreams.
Olympic Solidarity: supporting athletes and the development of sport
With Olympic Solidarity, the IOC aims to provide support to all NOCs worldwide, especially those in greatest need.
This support is achieved through multifaceted programs – including the WISH program – that prioritize athlete development, but also train coaches and sports managers, and promote Olympic values.
The Solidarity Olympic Development and Support Budget for the 2021-2024 plan totals 590 million USD, corresponding to the share of broadcasting rights from the Olympic Games (Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022) belonging to the NOCs. Olympic Solidarity redistributes these funds through programs offered to all IOC-accredited NOCs.
