Food for thought. Female coaches, managers and directors in professional cycling. Where are they?

Here’s some food for thought for you. So last year I wrote an article for another piece of work I was doing on gender stereotyping within sport. I wrote about something that had stood out to me through my career as a professional cyclist, it was something I often questioned, and to be honest still do. Maybe it resonates to me more so now that I have retired from the sport. I’m out of the bubble, and so it becomes even more clear. Maybe the fact I’m also coaching riders now myself, and in doing so believe that coaching, just like cycling is about supporting and challenging each other to inspire and help others progress. However the majority of these other coaches I hear about or see are nearly all male. I want to share what I wrote with you and intrigued to hear your opinions too. 

Female coaches, managers and directors in professional cycling. Where are they?

As in most professional sports, professional cycling is as cutthroat and ruthless as any. When your winning, making substantial amounts of money and living life on the road competing together with your team mates all over the world you’re on cloud nine, but those times come and go. The athlete’s you see in the sport for the long run, are those that have a key village behind them. When I’m talking about a village I’m talking in terms of the team behind the team. The coach, wife, husband, physio, dietitian, psychologist, friends and family. 

In my opinion, having a good coach is the key to a successful career. Athletes look for a few things when choosing a coach, similar interests, passion, and motivation. So why is it through my career I’ve only ever had male coaches? Is it simply because there was never any other choice out there, or are we lead to believe that males make the better coaches, do we gender stereotype when it comes to choosing our coach? 

I see a coach as someone who I can rely on to give me sound advice. They need to have a deep knowledge of the sport, have good organisational skills and they need to motivate me in a way no other can. Most of the coaches I’ve worked with have had good background’s in the sport, they have been cyclist’s themselves and I think this is where a lot of trust lies. When searching for a coach, not once did I ever think about the sex of the coach. I, just like many others assume it will be a male.

Professional women’s cycling is still lightyears behind men’s. There have been huge improvements over the last few years, with increased television and media coverage making a huge impact to the level of investment and coverage of women’s cycling. However respectable and consistent salaries for women are well below that of any men’s teams. Maybe it’s this very reason women coaches are few and far between. If women’s sport as a whole is deemed inferior to men’s then perhaps this is the reason, we all assume female coaches are inferior too? This, in my opinion, is a common misconception that needs to change. Gender stereotyping within cycling isn’t just witnessed in this one area of coaching. There is an apparent lack of female team managers or director sportifs within the sport too. Of the 18 professional male world tour teams (the highest level in cycling), there is not one single female coach, director or manager in a senior position representing and guiding the riders. 

In my opinion, this has to be the next step of change, there should be no reason for there not to be more women involved in the management and coaching in professional cycling. There is a need for equal opportunities to be given within these organisations, which give women the platform they need to be seen in the same way as any other male’s involved in the sport.