Opinion: When triathlon is more inclusive everyone wins, so why is it so difficult?
At the end of 2024, SheRACES and Fund Her Tri UK published a report on the real-life experiences of women in triathlon â and what race organisers can do to get more women on start lines.
Conducting a survey of 900 women in the sport, the results found that just 3% of the women who responded reported not being deterred from entering a triathlon, or experiencing inequitable provisions for women. Demonstrating that while triathlon as a sport has certainly taken positive steps to becoming a more equal and inclusive sport, thereâs still plenty of work that needs to be done. Both for PROs (as Skye Moench and Sarah True discussed with me back in 2023) and for amateurs, at all levels of the sport.
After the publication of the report, I caught up with Sophie Power (elite ultra-runner and founder of SheRACES) and Bianca Fernandez (7 x Ironman finisher and founder of Fund Her Tri) to dive deeper into their findings and the challenges they face in their mission to get more women on start lines. And to get their take on why weâre still facing headwinds at making the sport more inclusive for all. You can watch the full video-cast below:
Confidence can be a major barrier for womenâs participation in sport
Some of the issues raised in the survey â such as concerns over cut-off times, a lack of course information and intimidating imagery and language â are things that can affect all competitors. Men and women. These issues arenât exclusive to women, but they are more likely to impact participation for women, because confidence can be more of a barrier.
A report by Hewlett-Packard found that in the context of the workplace, on average men are likely to apply for a job if they hit 60% of the criteria â while women typically need to feel they meet 100% of the criteria before theyâll consider applying. And as an article published by Forbes put it: âMen are confident about their ability at 60%, but women donât feel confident until theyâve checked off each item on the list.â
So it makes sense that this need to feel 100% confident would also impact some women in the context of sport. Meaning if thereâs a lack of information about race courses, or cut-off times, or if the marketing material focuses on how tough and impossible an event is, some women may be more likely to be deterred from entering.
âWeâve been doing research on primary girls,â explained Sophie Power, who is also a trustee of Women in Sport. âWe see that at the age of five, girls have less confidence in their sporting ability than some boys, which is heart-breaking. And then we know that every stage, more girls drop out.â
Sophie Power is an ultrarunner, founder of SheRACES and a trustee for Women in Sport [Photo credit: Phil Hill]
âI didnât take up sports until I was 26, I wasnât a runner at all. I had no confidence, I did nothing at school. And there are so many women like that⊠To bring them into a sport like triathlon, you have to get over such a greater hurdle.â
âWe canât blame the triathlon industry for our own confidence⊠but we can work on how triathlon is visible.â
Bianca Fernandez explained that a lot of the work she does through Fund Her Tri involves demystifying triathlon and helping the women she speaks to understand that it isnât just an elite sport for top level athletes. âItâs only swim, bike run. It might be longer, it might be three sports, but you know, just demystifying it because itâs seen as such an elite sport⊠You only see triathlon at the Olympics, at the PRO levels. You donât see everyday triathletes.
Through Fund Her Tri, Bianca Fernandez helps to empower women on their journey to their first triathlon. [Photo: Fund Her Tri]
âAnd I know thatâs something that obviously itâs women, you know, we are like that. Itâs our nature. We cannot blame the triathlon industry for our own confidence, but we can definitely do what Sophieâs mentioned â we can also work on how triathlon is visible.â
Itâs time to flip the script
By moving away from â as Sophie put it â branding themselves as âthe biggest, baddest, toughestâ and flipping the language, events can have a huge impact on making themselves more accessible. Small changes such as being clear about the cut-off times, the paces required to meet those cut-off times and realistic training plans (aimed at those who want to complete, as well as those who want to compete) can help more potential participants to have the confidence to put themselves on a start line.
Of course not all women will be put off by hardcore language and imagery â tor some, thatâs the appeal. And likewise, not all men will be going around with 100% confidence, 100% of the time. But by making minor adjustments to the language we use and the information provided, weâre not downgrading the challenge these events pose, or the scale of the achievement that comes with completing them. But we are helping more people to feel empowered to give the sport a go.
Surely that can only be a good thing?
We need more empathy if weâre going to keep growing the sport we love
Ultimately it comes down to empathy and understanding that other peopleâs experiences can differ from our own. Letâs take behaviour out on the race course, for example. 28% of women in the survey reported experiencing verbal or physical abuse during a race â which is a shocking figure. Bad behaviour needs to be called out.
But how many of us have also just accepted that things like getting swum over and punched during the swim in a triathlon is the norm? It can be easy to disregard other peopleâs experiences as âjust part and parcel of triathlonâ. But itâs important to understand that what might be a bit of rough and tumble for one person can actually be really scary for another. When youâve been doing triathlon for a while, you just start to expect and accept these things â but imagine someone new to the sport being told âhey, donât be surprised if you get a hefty kick to the face a few moments after starting your race.â Does that really sound like a fun way to spend a Sunday morning? Itâs not surprising people are being put off from getting involved.
If we want triathlon to keep growing, we need to get more people participating and engaging. That means being mindful of how our words and our actions can impact others. Â
When we make triathlon more inclusive, everyone wins
When Sophie and Bianca set about conducting this report into womenâs experiences in triathlon, the aim was about understanding what needs to happen to get more women involved in the sport. And yet, the report has seen some pushback on social media. I asked Bianca and Sophie their thoughts on this pushback, and Bianca summed it up well: â[Some people] will push back because first itâs not their lived experience⊠And second, thereâs a little bit of lack of empathy of âbecause something happened to you and it didnât happen to me, thatâs something that is surely not happening.â This is not unique to triathlon.
âEvery time you challenge the status quo, you get met with headwind.â
But the thing to remember is that this isnât about pointing fingers or taking anything away from triathlon. Itâs adding to it. âOur goal is to get more women on start lines,â Sophie emphasised. âItâs not to blame races or highlight what theyâre doing wrong, our goal is to make the sport better for women.â
If event organisers start providing more comprehensive information before a race, and ensuring there are plenty of facilities on race morning to make their races more accessible, thatâs only going to be a benefit to every competitor involved.
Imagine not having the stressful long queue for a toilet when youâre supposed to be on the start line in 5 minutes. Why wouldnât you want that?
The commercial value of inclusivity
Taking measures to make races more accessible and more inclusive doesnât just make the race experience better, it also holds a tangible commercial value to race organisers.
Sophie explained further: âWe did a piece of research on ultramarathons with Threshold who put the SheRACES guidelines into their events and actually did additional support for women alongside. And their additional cost was 1.5%. And in the target event, they doubled the amount of women across all of the events.
âThey had 50 to 60% more women just in one season. And it shows the massive return on investment⊠So really the commercial driver is so, so strong. Â
âI know a lot of people are looking at the work that Threshold have done with their 50/50 project this year and going âI want a piece of that because the race is great and thereâs so many women there and thereâs so many men.â
âSo they actually increased massively the amount of men on the start line too, finding that race more organically. So itâs a win-win situation.â
That commercial benefit for event organisers is ultimately a win for everyone. Because more entries means better events â increasing the number of people involved with the sport. More participants means more triathlon fans starting to engage with PRO racing. The entire wider solar system of triathlon organisers, broadcasters, brands can all start to benefit from what is, in the grand scheme of things, just a few really simple changes.
So why are we still facing head winds?
From an event organiser perspective, Sophie explains that for the most part events organisers are very much on board. Especially once the commercial upside of doing a better job for inclusivity mapped out. Though there has been occasions of getting what Sophie describes as âfairly abusiveâ responses back from race directors in running, who have been nicknamed âthe dinosaursâ.
If youâve only ever had good experiences in a sport, it can be easy to assume thatâs the case for everyone. And to even feel defensive â like the finger is being pointed when people stand up and ask for things to be made better. But ultimately, weâre talking about a scenario where a few small changes are implemented to make the sport weâre all passionate about accessible to more people. To ensure that everyone in triathlon can have a fun and positive experience.
Fundamentally, itâs just a few adjustments to facilities. A common sense approach to implementing clothing rules, without being unnecessarily exclusive. And a second thought to how our words and actions might impact other people in ways we might not intend them to. Why wouldnât we all want that to happen?
Read the full report âClosing the gender gap: Tackling the underrepresentation of women in triathlonâ published by SheRACES in partnership with Fund Her Tri here.
