Author Archives: Alida Shanks

In the first week of the Tokyo Olympics we have seen the usual stories of winning moments and heart breaking losses. Dunedin teenager Erika Fairweather was epic in her swimming races, Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler winning Aotearoa’s first gold medal in rowing, Brooke Donoghue and Hannah Osborne also in rowing won silver, but unfortunately our Football Ferns didn’tContinue reading “Tokyo Olympics: Highlighting the difference between diversity & inclusion”

The Olympics kicked off this week, the official opening ceremony taking place tonight, but our rowers are in action this afternoon and the women’s football team played their first match on Wednesday night. Unfortunately the Football Ferns went down 2-1 to Australia, the highlight Gabi Rennie scoring on her debut for the Ferns. This week, Brisbane have been announced as hosts of the 2032Continue reading “A week of women in sport being told (& fined) by men”

It has been a week that saw more heartbreaking moments in sport intertwined with politics and hateful behaviour particularly racism, but the strong reaction to address these also signals hope. Last week we saw the swift consequences for Sam Casey’s terrible article with his thoughts on women’s rugby. This week we are still seeing the reaction – ZoëContinue reading “Heartbreak but hope: Racism and misogyny in the media but swiftly tackled”

Yesterday we saw England’s men’s football team reach the final of the Euro football championship for the first time. It is the first time since 1966 that England’s men’s team has made it past the semi finals in a major football competition and only the second time ever to make the final of a major tournament. I know this isContinue reading “How belonging & inclusion impacts onfield performance, and where are all our female Olympics coaches?”

Usually I use this space to write a little bit about a few key events and things that happened this week in history/herstory. This week is a little different. Last Sunday, Zoë George wrote a brilliant article on all the challenges in women’s sport and why the inclusion of transgender athletes is not one of them. It is aContinue reading “My reflections on the issues in women’s sport”

Most stories this week on women’s sport focus on the Olympics with selections, team announcements and heartbreak for those not qualifying. Of course there was a big neon, international spotlight on the brave Laurel Hubbard’s qualification. I came across this article from earlier this year on how the NCAA appear to be fudging the numbers of the U.S. women’sContinue reading “Olympics on the horizon & making sure the numbers add up”

Can you imagine the CEO of the main sponsor of a sport ignoring half the players in the room during a special event announcing said sponsorship if they were men? And then responding it’s not a big deal when they got upset? Can you imagine a cricket pitch not being prepared for a test match between England and India ifContinue reading “Sponsor ignores the girls team and cricket wicket not test-worthy”

Last week the focus was on Naomi Osaka and the mental wellbeing of athletes, this week it’s a similar issue under a different guise, with the right for transgender people to participate in sport in the spotlight. There have been a lot of one sided reporting on this complex and sensitive issue, with NewsHub even choosingContinue reading “Inclusion key over proposal to ban athletes again”

The news dominating women’s sport this week focused on 23 year old tennis champion Naomi Osaka. After years of research, policies and talk, surely it’s time for action by sports organisations to put the wellbeing and welfare of their athletes first. Even Naomi’s sponsors are supporting her. You can read Naomi’s eloquent statement here. I don’t recommend reading the dribbleContinue reading “Athlete welfare & commercial potential of women’s sport”

To draw on a sporting cliché, the news this week was a game of two halves. In women’s sport there have been some great profile pieces (albeit with some appalling headlines), including: former Black Fern Constable Selica Winiata who is off to the Olympics to referee, Dr Madeleine Pape on how a career-ending injury led to a career researchingContinue reading “A game of two halves: great profiles of women in sport but 8 stories of sexual misconduct”