This week has been a conflicting one for me as I reflect on the Olympics and their aftermath. There are many aspects to celebrate, lots of heart-warming moments like the ones I outlined last week, some great firsts like Quinn being the first open transgender person to compete and also to win a gold medal at the Olympics. The high number of medals that Aotearoa NZ won, and with our sports women making up half of the athletes they also won 11 of the 20 total medal tally and 5 of the 6 gold medals. Lisa Carrington now holds the record for the highest number of medals and according to some dominated the Olympics. The media coverage of our sportswomen has been awesome, particularly by Lockerroom and Stuff. And Sport NZ feel their investment in women’s sport is justified and proven with the medals. Which is fabulous, it’s a fantastic achievement for our country and women’s sport.
However, those achievements are just one part of the story and I felt uncomfortable reading the headlines focusing solely on the medal tally and how that equalled success. While the International Olympic Committee released a statement on achieving diversity at the Tokyo Olympics, much of that diversity was symbolic. Almost half the athletes competing were women, while off the pitch we have a huge amount of work to do, for example, only 5% of coaches in the Aotearoa team are women and under 10% for Australia. There were articles celebrating “the Olympic spirit” with photos assuming two athletes were breaking country competitiveness to comfort each other after an event, when in fact it was Australian footballer Sam Kerr with her partner, U.S. footballer Kristie Mewis. The fact they are a same-sex couple was missed. There was the relentless spotlight on Laurel Hubbard and the racist comments on Lisa Carrington’s social media posts.
And then there’s player welfare. Some athletes are choosing to prioritise their mental health and wellbeing which is awesome but it was considered newsworthy, with daily updates speculating whether Simone Biles would compete or not. It’s great that we’re talking about wellbeing, but it’s still considered an exception. Which is frustrating given the constant headlines over the last few years on the toxic culture and bullying that occurs in sports organisations. Stephen Cottrell reviewed player welfare for High Performance Sport NZ in 2018. A year ago this week, Clay Wilson published an article titled Who’s hearing our athletes’ cries for help? on player welfare and what is (not) being done. Eleven national sports organisations, including Cycling NZ, have had independent reviews over the last 5 years, that all confirmed issues with the culture and bullying behaviour both within the organisation and in the high performance programmes. This all became very real for Aotearoa this week with tragic sudden death of Olympic cyclist Olivia Podmore.
Former Olympic cyclist Eddie Dawkins, who left cycling last year on his own terms, said Olivia’s death was the cost of the focus on medals. Former Olympian and close friend of Olivia’s, Eric Murray is calling for more action and fast by sports organisations. The CEO of Cycling NZ said they would be questioning for a long time whether it had failed Olivia. I think that’s the wrong question because I think we know the answer. The question we should be asking is how can we do better, and now. If not now, when? Surely now more than ever, there needs to be a massive shake up of our sport sector.
Amongst the achievements it’s also a sad week for women’s sport. Take care of yourself and your whānau. If you need support, please reach out to a friend or your doctor or one of the helplines available, and if that support doesn’t work out, try someone else until you get the support that is right for you.
Check out all the media headlines in women’s sport for the 13th August right here.
Alida Shanks 