Five-time Olympian Naomi Folkard is now coaching the Great Britain women’s team. “You could say that over my career, my perception was that most coaches were male,” she said.
“I thought it would be quite hard to get respect as a female coach but I think that the world has probably moved on a lot from since then. Particularly with the the younger athletes, I suppose they have a much more diverse opinion of gender equality than probably I would have had when I was growing up.”
At the start of her coaching career, Folkard took part in a WISH course (standing for Women in Sport High-performance pathway programme) sponsored by World Archery and the IOC.
“Just being able to immerse yourself with other like-minded women and trying to learn from their experiences and how they’ve dealt with things was fantastic, sharing experiences of how to step between an athlete and a coach. Seeing that there are female coaches out there doing different sports, and that’s a normal thing as well,“ said Folkard.
“I think [as women] we might be a bit more attuned to how an athlete is feeling under pressure and a bit more understanding of how to deal with those changes that an athlete goes through. But perhaps that’s just because I’ve had male coaches not do that,” she added.
What would it take to increase the numbers of elite women’s coaches? “I think it’s always going to be a bit on the lower side, just because it is hard having a family and coaching and traveling abroad. Not every culture around the world has fathers willing to take on the main parenting role. So that’s a cultural and practical issue rather than something for governance.”
