World Triathlon

Mid-February saw the virtual graduation ceremony of the Women for Sport Leadership Academy’s (WSLA) High Performance Coach course that began back in 2019.

The five female coaches invited by World Triathlon to join their peers from five other IFs selected by ASOIF to take part in what was the first third-party initiative to be funded by Olympic Solidarity were; Pamela Fulton (ZIM), Ljudmila Medan (SRB), Kate Murray (RSA), Pooja Chaurushi (IND) and Najla Al-Jeraiwi (KUW).

World Triathlon President Marisol Casado was also invited to speak at the end of the course that, despite having to be concluded online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, remained a defining experience for those taking part.

“The WSLA experience has been life-changing,” said Zimbabwe national team coach Pamela Fulton. “It has helped me believe in myself and focus on being a leader and now I look forward to using my expertise and experience to assist my federation and to help mentor up and coming athletes, coaches and women in sport.

“Each session on the course was so diverse and often unpredictable constantly stretching our comfort zone and having to think out of the box. The WSLA experience has been one of the most inspirational things I have been a part of and I am most grateful for this opportunity.”

The course began in November at the University of Hertfordshire, and was designed to help empower more women to stay in leadership positions in sport and to share their experiences within their domestic sport landscapes.

“I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to take part… I have learnt the process of self-reflection, something that is imperative to self-awareness and self-improvement,” said Ljudmila Medan. “Through working with the WSLA team, they gave me support to expand communication and share networking with others. The fear of uncertainty completely disappeared in front of the euphoria about acquiring new knowledge.”

For India’s Pooja Chaurushi, the course has left her more focussed on ever on her goals for the LA 2028 Olympic Games;

“One of my major shortcoming was feeling unease in giving online training. With the help and encouragement from one of the mentors, I overcame that fear and started providing online coaching on training peaks, taking webinar sessions, Instagram sessions and in-person lectures for coaches’ and athlete development. Now, I am ready and looking forward to work with World Triathlon as a Mentor, Facilitator, Coach and a Leader. My current goal is to develop an Olympic athlete by 2028 to represent India.”