Empower state of mind: WISH pathway takes aim at gender gap in coaching

With an equal number of male and female athletes, the Olympic Games Paris 2024 marked a historic milestone for gender equity in sport.

But while significant improvements have been made on the field of play, progress around it – specifically the athletes’ entourage – continues to lag. In leadership roles as well as coaching, a sizeable gender gap remains.

Seeking to address this imbalance, Olympic Solidarity introduced the Women In Sport High-Performance (WISH) pathway for the 2021–2024 cycle.

Supported by a USD 1 million budget over four years from Olympic Solidarity, the programme is designed to empower elite female coaches by giving them the tools needed to succeed at the highest levels of sport. Each programme runs for 21 months and includes online sessions, mentoring activities and a residential week at the Institute of Sport at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.

While participants receive instruction on leadership and sport-specific skills, they are also taught the importance of fundamentals such as mentoring, networking and confidence building. These latter elements, according to the instructors, have been some of the most rewarding aspects of the course for many taking part.

“Sometimes all someone needs is for one person to believe in them. WISH gives people that belief,” said legendary UK rowing coach Rosie Mayglothling, one of the pioneers of the project that eventually evolved into the WISH programme. “We’re not just ticking boxes. We’re actually helping women see what they’re capable of and giving them the tools to make it happen.”

To date, 120 coaches from 22 sports and 59 nations have benefitted from the WISH pathway. Ten WISH alumni had coaching roles at Paris 2024 in seven sports.

One of those graduates was Happiness Burutu, who was part of the coaching staff for the Nigerian wrestling team at Paris 2024. Burutu said her time on the WISH programme had a profound effect on her ahead of the Games, instilling her with greater confidence that allowed her to better communicate with her athletes.

“It provided me with both the knowledge and the support I needed to perform at my best,” she said. “Leading up to Paris 2024, the programme helped in developing me not just physically but mentally and emotionally, too.”

Another WISH alumnus that coached at Paris 2024 was Ireland’s Noelle Morrissey. The high-performance athletics trainer says she was so moved by the stories of her peers on the programme that it inspired her do all she can to support women in elite coaching roles going forward.

“The WISH programme opened my eyes to the struggles of women in different contexts, making me realise that, despite my own challenges, I was relatively fortunate,” she said. “I’ve been called ‘lucky’ by male coaches instead of being recognised for my skills and experience. But after hearing the stories of my WISH peers, I’m motivated to become an advocate for women in elite coaching — something I hadn’t even considered before.”

One of the most powerful elements of the programme developed organically: a support network was formed between the different cohorts and the instructors that has quickly become a source of strength for the participants. According to WISH Project Director Elizabeth Pike, it has the potential to be a true game changer.

“What we talk about on the programme is for the participants to not only develop themselves, but also to develop others,” said Pike, the Global Winner of the 2024 IOC Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (GEDI) Champions Award. “The collaboration has been key. We brought the initial four cohorts back together again for our Coach Connect programme and they’re saying they’ve got a massive support network now. They’re learning from each other, they’re supporting each other, they’re giving each other visibility.”

As in any field undergoing a cultural shift, seismic change within the elite coaching ranks isn’t expected to happen overnight. But with time, hard work, and an ever-expanding support network, progress is inevitable.

“Now that we’ve got these amazing graduates who are out there advocating for change and demonstrating the positive impacts,” Pike concluded, “we will absolutely see changes going forward.”

This all bodes well for an increase in the number of female coaches at upcoming editions of the Olympic Games as well as many other national, continental and international competitions worldwide.