Female coaches made their mark at the Paris Olympics 2024 with brilliant results and Olympic firsts. These inspiring examples have participated in the Women in Sport High-Performance Pathway (WISH), an International Olympic Committee (IOC) initiative to address the under-representation of women in elite coaching.
These women now thrive as coaches in Paris, inspiring countless young women to follow in their footsteps. WISH graduates who have been coaching in Paris include two inspiring women coaches from Africa, Marwa Amri (Tunisia), wrestling and Endurance Teye (Nigeria), and athletics.
Furthermore, the WISH Program graduates’ coaches included Emilie Bydwell, who made history as the first female coach of any rugby sevens team—men or women—at the Olympic Games and guided the USA women’s team to bronze, the country’s first Olympic medal.
In addition, it included Gymnastics coach Cecile Landi, who oversaw American star Simone Biles’ three gold medals in Paris. Moreover, female coaches guided male athletes, with British diving coach Jane Figuerido coaching Tom Daley and Noah Williams to a silver medal in the men’s synchronized 10m event and Mel Marshall helping Adam Peaty to a silver medal in the 100m breaststroke.
While Paris 2024 is making history as the first Olympic Games to achieve full gender parity on the field of play, the number of women and men coaching at the Games is much less balanced. In Tokyo 2020, just 13 percent of coaches were women. As the Olympic Movement strives to achieve gender equality at all levels of sports, the WISH program, funded by Olympic Solidarity, is a vital part of the IOC’s strategy to address this challenge.
Backed by USD 1 million in Olympic Solidarity funding, WISH is a bespoke four-year program designed to equip more than 100 women to coach at elite Olympic and world championship levels and in continental teams. Thus, it was launched in 2022 following a successful pilot, WISH has provided mentoring and leadership sessions to four cohorts comprise 123 female coaches from 22 sports and 60 countries. The 21-month program also features a week-long residency at the University of Hertfordshire. Ten of these coaches, representing nine countries and nine sports, are now in coaching roles at Paris 2024. They have highlighted the support from WISH as crucial in helping them feel better equipped to perform their essential roles at the Games.
