Sport Ireland have launched a new initiative to encourage female representation within high-performance coaching.
Titled ‘WinHP Coaching’, the new network will aim to connect women within high-performance coaching, in a bid to bridge the gap of representation among females within that arena.
It comes as females continue to be underrepresented in high-performance coaching across a variety of sports, both in Ireland and around the world.
The long term project will focus on three key groups, ranging from women working in high-performance roles, to those aiming to progress into such roles and also high-performance athletes who might aspire to enter these roles in the future.
Tapping into the knowledge of a pool of industry experts including athletes who are both currently playing and retired, as well as women coaching at pathway and international level, it will provide interested parties with supports via professional development, mentoring and networking.
*𝐍𝐄𝐖𝐒* 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐈𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠
Sport Ireland has launched WinHP Coaching, a new network for women in high-performance coaching. There is a significant gap in… pic.twitter.com/cZOFLWA1K9— Sport Ireland (@sportireland) May 10, 2024
A needs analysis will also be set up in order to ensure consistent development of the programme through both practical and lived real world experience.
It’s thought this initiative has been undertaken in reflection of the Sport Ireland High Performance Strategy 2021-2032 document, which aspires that Ireland’s high-performance system will reflect the contemporary values of the country.
While female coaches in Ireland are a minority, an avid effort to move to a more gender balanced sporting landscape throughout the country is being pursued, as can be seen through the recent announcement towards the end of 2023 that the overall percentage of women on boards in the Irish sports sector now stands at 42%.
Within sporting bodies for example, there are currently four female Performance Directors in the Irish high-performance system.
In a statement, Sport Ireland have said that they consider implementation of WinHP Coaching a “move to increase female coaches within high-performance sport as not only an important stage in the system’s maturity, but also a potential competitive advantage for Irish athletes. Attracting new talent into high-performance coaching opens further opportunities for success.”
On the news, Sport Ireland Head of High Performance Coaching, Ciarán Ward added that he believes this is “an exciting initiative that targets the support of women in high-performance coaching and leadership roles in the Irish system, as well as the development of more female coaches moving into high-performance roles, and an increased transition of female high-performance athletes into coaching.
“WinHP will endeavour to safeguard a critical and enduring support for women coaching in high-performance and those women who aspire to be future high-performance coaches,” he says.
Sport Ireland Director of Strategic National Governing Body Programmes & Women in Sport Lead Nora Stapleton then spoke of how “a key objective of the Sport Ireland policy on Women in Sport is to broaden the coaching base to include more women from grassroots to high performance” and that the “the creation of the WinHP Coaching Network is an exciting and important initiative that can support and increase the number of women coaching in high- performance sport. We look forward to engaging with the National Governing Bodies and their Performance Directors and coaches, as this initiative gets off the ground.”
Finally, Chief Executive of Sport Ireland, Dr. Úna May, also provided her thoughts.
“Two of the actions within the Sport Ireland policy on Women In Sport are to invest in specific initiatives to increase the number of women coaching and officiating in high-performance sport and to provide opportunities to female coaches within Ireland’s high-performance system,” she says.
“Increasing the number of women coaches will not only reflect the values of Sport Ireland and the Government, but it will also significantly add to the development of our athletes. Sport Ireland are delighted to be delivering on these actions and objectives with the launch of WinHP Coaching.”
I spoke to the Dáil on Sport this morning about the requirement for 40% gender balance on the boards of our national sporting bodies by the end of 2023.
I acknowledge the considerable progress by NGBs in this space - which will only be good for sport. I'm pretty hopeful, based… pic.twitter.com/gxHgWK1ybG— Thomas Byrne (@ThomasByrneTD) October 19, 2023
