| Professor Elizabeth Pike PhD, a leading expert in sport and gender from the University of Hertfordshire (Great Britain), is the Global Winner of the 2024 International Olympic Committee (IOC) Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (GEDI) Champions Award. On the eve of International Women’s Day, the IOC is celebrating Pike, alongside five continental winners who are all breaking barriers in #SportForAllWomenAndGirls.
A Professor in Sport, Health and Exercise, Pike has dedicated her career to creating life-changing opportunities for women in sport and empowering female coaches.
While gender parity was reached for athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, only 13 per cent of coaches were women. As the project director of the Women in Sport High-Performance (WISH) programme, a mentorship and training programme for female coaches supported by Olympic Solidarity, Pike has helped tackle this under-representation.
Some 120 female coaches from 22 sports and 59 countries have graduated from the programme, equipped with the tools needed to take on roles at the highest level of their sport. Ten WISH graduates were in coaching roles at Paris 2024.
“Elizabeth Pike’s dedication to creating opportunities for women in sport, especially through the WISH programme, greatly contributes to strengthening gender equality in sport,” said IOC President Thomas Bach. “Her work has made a significant impact on the lives of many female coaches, and we celebrate her remarkable achievements today,” Bach added.
Pike emphasised that her work, part of a larger team effort, is aimed at helping others reach their full potential. “I feel very honoured the IOC has recognised the part that I have played in helping to unlock the full potential of really talented individuals,” Pike said.
“What we do is try to work with the women to identify what tools, resources and support they need to succeed at the high-performance level – as a coach, but also as a leader,” Pike added.
Pike is also the co-founder of the Anita White Foundation and Fund, which supports female leaders in sport around the world; a co-developer of the Women’s Sport Leadership Academy with the Females Achieving Brilliance network; and the research lead for the International Working Group (IWG) on Women and Sport.
The 2024 continental winners alongside Pike are:
- Africa: Syra Sylla, Senegal
- Americas: Patricia María Malik de Tchara, Argentina
- Asia: Dunya Abutaleb OLY, Saudi Arabia
- Europe: Lubomira Kozanova, Slovakia
- Oceania: Annett Edmondson, Australia
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