European Athletics Female Leadership Online Seminar Project

In July 2020, Athletics Ireland undertook a new programme in upskilling current and future leaders within the sport through the European Athletics Female Leadership Webinar Project. This course had been developed in conjunction with European Athletics.

This was done as part of Athletics Ireland’s continuous commitment to upskilling future female leaders within the sport. The purpose of this programme was to enable participants to develop the skills, inspiration, vision, confidence, and action plans to be effective leaders and to empower them to make a positive difference to their clubs and regions through the practice of effective leadership.

The programme was delivered by Lilly-Ann O’Hora, Women in Sport Officer and 9 participants from the Athletics Ireland community were invited to participate as they were identified as key stakeholders to the federation. The participants involved were current staff members from development to HP, coach developers and tutors, board members, Olympians, current athletes, and emerging practitioners that are actively engaged in our current and future programmes.

The final three workshops took place between January and April, which focused on Personal Brand, Change Management and The Leadership Journey. The workshops predominantly focused on the individuals and their leadership skills, building their self-awareness, communication skills, values, and ability to take the lead.

Participants highlighted that they garnered benefits from their involvement in the programme both personally and in their ability to contribute to their clubs and regions. Commenting on the overall experience of the programme, Rosemary Ryan OLY said “The initiative brought women with a variety of experience levels together to work on our common aim of building Irish athletics. This is an inspired way of promoting a strong female voice in athletics.  It helped me to clarify my own goals now outside of competing. I am in transition regards my own athletics and the mix of experience and life stages was important.  I love the focus on participation and excellence which is what I've always loved about athletics.”

The participants involved are highly interested in embracing female leaders within our sport and are more than willing to collaborate with more women in their regions who would be interested in furthering their development within athletics.

For more information, please contact Lilly-Ann O Hora at lillyannohora@athleticsireland.ie

Participants Involved: