Transcript: Video: Women in High Performance Coaching, The Changemakers

The first in a series of videos that features two of Australia’s Paris 2024 Olympic Coaches who are leading change at a National and International level.

Coaches: Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi, National Slalom Coach, Paddle Australia; Bec Rippon, Stingers Head Coach, Water Polo Australia.

Other speakers: Keesja Gofers, Australian Water Polo Athlete; Sara Latham, Manager of Performance Operation, Canoe Slalom, Water Polo Australia.

00:00 Keesja Gofers

Bec is a change maker in high performance coaching. I think there's the obvious things, there's the real tangible things. You know, she's the first female coach in women's water polo to win an Olympic medal. So, you know, that's an incredible achievement. She's also won Olympic medal as an athlete.

00:20 Keesja Gofers

For me, what makes her a change maker is really her approach. People are looking into our teams that she was so calm, and she was so composed. That was really a contagious calm for our team and something that our team really needed.

00:33 Bec Rippon

There's a few things that have, you know, motivated me and inspired me to be a coach. I wasn't 100 % sure what I wanted to do, but one thing as an athlete was, I always wanted to understand the why behind what was going on. And I think that intrigue around training and then how to put that into our performance was something that I had as a kid.

So, there's something there that just really, I don't know, motivates me to work hard every day and to help others try and achieve that as well.

What I had as an athlete and the thing that inspired me and the thing that motivated me is what I want to be able to provide and help and give back to the athletes coming through now.

01:05 Keesja Gofers

So Bec was my Olympic coach for the Paris Olympics but our connection dates much further back when she was a member of the Stingers, and I was a young athlete trying to get my foot in the door.

01:18 Keesja Gofers

I think as well Bec did an amazing job of really communicating her vision for our team that was something that she did really early on when she took over as a coach and that vision I think was what we wanted to be not necessarily the outcome we wanted to achieve and she really embraced everyone's different personalities and she knew that when we were that authentic self that was how we could get the best out of each individual.

That's really her superpower was getting the best out of each of us.

01:47 Bec Rippon

Being the first Olympic head coach of the Aussie Stingers is a bit of a pinch me moment. Again, if I think back that was never my goal and it was never something I even thought about as a kid and I didn't think it was really an option I suppose.

Now that I'm in there I realise what a what a privilege it is first of all but also how important it is maybe when I was younger, I underestimated how important having female role models out there showing you what was possible was because I just wasn't aware that there were limits on things.

02:15 Bec Rippon

I hadn't quite experienced that yet so I see it as an opportunity to inspire others who have maybe thought there are blocks in the road that they can't do it. The legacy that I'd like to leave is that you can achieve success. So, I think yeah, it's just around showing that care and vulnerability is strength.

02:32 Sara Latham

I think what makes Myriam a change maker in sports is she pushes boundaries. She won't accept the status quo. She always wants to be able to improve the sport, make it more accessible, but also make sure that we're doing the right thing for our athletes. It is always the athlete at the center of this and the equal opportunity that they get to represent the country and put their best out there.

02:56: Myriam Fox

I started as a paddler, as an elite athlete for France. And when I moved to Australia, ahead of the 2000 Olympics to follow my husband, I was asked if I could help in doing some coaching with helping the national team and the Olympic boats preparing here. For years, for many years, the girls We're only allowed to do the character class and it's only in 2020 at the Tokyo Olympics that we have the gender equality into that and of course Australia have been leading the way of why not have the woman, when are we going to have the woman, it's inevitable that gender equality is happening in other sport, we need to make that happened.

03:45 Myriam Fox

The coaches in Australia, and the team Australia were the leaders in that and I'm very proud of having been part of that journey that leads to the women now and in our sport, we have gender

equality.

03:59 Sara Latham

Working alongside Myriam has been for me a massive growth journey for me personally. I started my position with Paddle Australia, and she was one of our senior coaches and really taught me everything about Slalom, but also about the challenges in the space of women in Canoe Slalom. It is a very male -dominated sport. When I went to my first World Cup as team leader, I was one of the only females in the room there. All men would represent the other nations. Myriam’s really bought me on that journey, and she's made me find my voice as a representative of the Canoe Slalom team went in those environments to make sure that we challenge the system and that we make sure that women are heard and that women are equal in this sport.

04:45 Myriam Fox

In sport at the Olympics, you know there's not enough women coaches but there's still room for more women in sport and that's things we need to create you know the opportunities for women to get there so, after it's on each organisation to make it work. I was a female coach so that means you know it's possible to become a coach when you're a female you just need to make sure you speak for your right, you are honest, sport is we also judge as you know medallists are we a successful sport and I think canoeing now is a successful sport and I think yeah if I have contributed for that it's not just me it's also the team behind us you know that would be great!