Pushing women’s sport up to the level it deserves to be at is a mammoth challenge.
One glance at the statistics sums up the issue. According to Women in Sport research issued last month more than one million teenage girls (43%) who once considered themselves ‘sporty’ disengage from sport after primary school. There are plenty of deep-rooted issues behind that number.
A fear of feeling judged by others (68%), lack of confidence (61%), pressures of schoolwork (47%) and not feeling safe outside (43%) were some of the reasons given for not wanting to take part. There is no easy fix but, thankfully, there are those out there determined to change the current state of play.
Paralympic legend Dame Sarah Storey is one of them, a pioneer of British sport who cares deeply about advancing women’s cycling and giving female athletes a chance. As the principal of the ŠKODA DSI Cycling Academy - which exists to support aspiring female cyclists - the battle to recognise women’s sport as it should be is one the Paralympian is all too familiar with.
"The challenge has been the same for 30 years,” Storey said during the academy’s testing day.
“I've always struggled with the concept that we lose more girls than boys in teenage years. But as a society we still have this issue that these are the things girls do and these are the things boys do.
“We have to try and stop talking and segmenting people into what they should be doing because they're a girl or a boy. Sport is for everybody, we can all do sport, we might not all make it to the elite level but we can all be fit and healthy and, at the end of the day, having people living longer in good health should be an aim for us all in a society.
“It shouldn't be that women feel less likely to want to do sport because of other external factors. This is important so we can showcase to the whole of society that women are just as important."
"We still need to make sure we get the base of the pyramid right"
Thankfully, through greater visibility and passionate individuals pushing for change, we are starting to see progress. There is still a long way to go - be it in tackling those deep-rooted issues or trolls on social media determined to shout into the void - but any step in the right direction is a positive.
And, in terms of women’s cycling, Storey recognises how things have altered for the better. But that doesn’t make it a place where people can afford to stop pushing for more.
"We've seen a huge amount of change towards the top of the sport, in terms of pushing for change in prize money or time on TV,” she said. “But if you look at the stats it's still quite shocking the disparity in the amount of sponsorship that goes into women's sport - television and media coverage.
“There's still a huge amount of work to do on that. We're starting to see Games time, we talk about gender split at the Olympic Games with 50/50 - the same number of events for men and women - and is each sport providing that opportunity at the same level?
“But, then you move down into the grassroots and the community level and there's still fewer women taking part. Some people say 'I rediscovered it in my 30s and I wish I hadn't had that 15-year gap'.
“But we need to find a way to stop that 15-year gap occuring. If you're 15 years old as a female, and you're enjoying sport but you feel pressured into not doing it for whatever reason, then we need to tackle those problems. Elite sport is improving but there's still a long way to go and we still need to make sure we get the base of the pyramid right."
"If you’re into something and you enjoy doing something you’ll probably do it more and more"
That aforementioned base of the pyramid is key in the overall battle, and is also pointed out by former pro cyclist Adam Blythe. Now an ambassador for ŠKODA and a regular pundit on cycling coverage, he also highlighted the importance of role models to young people.
“It’s like anything in life, if you’re into something and you enjoy doing something you’ll probably do it more and more,” he said. “If you get into cycling, you follow cycling, you find out who Dame Sarah Storey is - if you don’t know already - then it’s just taking that advice from someone.
“Put it in football terms for a male, say you can go around and follow [Cristiano] Ronaldo, Ronaldo’s going to come and guide you and help you - that’s what Sarah is. She’s the greatest Paralympian so it’s a no-brainer that people want to do it if you know Sarah’s there.
“To what you said about women not really wanting to do sport in school, I think maybe it’s a little bit about society and it not being built in the right way. PE’s not changed, sport’s not changed, of course you can’t go ride a bike in PE because it costs a fortune for bikes and so on.
“I just think it’s giving them another opportunity and with women’s professional cycling being on TV more, it might inspire people to think, ‘I like riding my bike, I might get stuck into that’. It is literally as simple as that.”
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Dame Sarah Storey is the Principal of the ŠKODA DSI Cycling Academy that was set up to support aspiring female cyclists and address the gender imbalance in cycling. For more information visit www.skoda.co.uk/discover/cycling-academy
