Buckinghamshire triathlon coach keen to inspire and empower young girls

The role includes coaching and develpoing 14 to 18-year-olds that are on a strong path to becoming our future World Champions, Olympians and Paralympians.

In contrast to a recent 6% decline in female coaches across all sport highlighted in UK Coaching’s Gender Spotlight report in January, British Triathlon has seen a 30% increase in female performance coaches since 2021. For Jodie visibility is key to enabling women to thrive in this environment. Speaking as part of British Triathlon’s Women in Triathlon campaign which is highlighting the role women play at all levels of the sport, Jodie commented:

“Role models and recruitment are really important. If women don’t have the opportunities in elite coaching roles, they can't flourish in those roles and they can't become role models.

Opening those gates rather than shutting them, is the way to get more women into high performance coaching. There’s plenty of women that want to coach and are capable of coaching at the elite level, but if they're not given the opportunity to do that, then how can they excel in this space?”.

Previous UK Coaching research reached a similar conclusion, revealing that 78% of women believe having more visible female role models in coaching would support their career progression. Drawing on her own experiences, Jodie says having a deeper understanding of the person behind the athlete has really helped her career as both an athlete and a coach:

“My standout positive role model was the only female I've ever had coaching me – a lady called Siri Lindley. She was a very different style of coach; she had far more interest in the person, which meant she understood what I needed as an athlete. It went against the traditional coaching model of telling someone what they need to do to improve their performance.

Now as a coach myself, I take a similar approach. I like to know the athlete, where they've come from, what their background is, what motivates them, and how that then affects their training.”

Coaching is just one area in which British Triathlon champion equality, as explained by their CEO Ruth Daniels: “Triathlon’s roots are founded in equality. Women and men have always raced over the same distances and received the same prize money and exposure. We are also proud that nearly three quarters of the senior leaders and board members across British Triathlon are female, and 71% of British Triathlon’s Executive Team are women.

Although International Women’s Day is a brilliant opportunity to recognise what we’re doing well as well as where we can be better at encouraging more women and girls into our sport, we want to make it less about one day a year and more about what we can do all year”.

For Jodie, this means continuing to learn; although women’s sport has surged in popularity, there’s still room to have a better understanding of female athletes.

She said: “There's always been talented females in elite sport, but now we've got more research, more experiences, and more feedback from athletes that has enabled women to thrive.

We are still learning, and as we continue to learn, it's really important we continue that feedback and research, and we get actual figures of what works and what doesn't work for women and continue to move forward.”

Want to find out more about becoming a triathlon coach? Find out more about British Triathlon’s range of courses, workshops and resources to help you get involved in delivering swim, bike and run.