Judy Murray has urged British sport to “keep its foot on the gas” and to push harder to ensure equal funding and opportunities for girls and women in sport.
In a powerful speech to mark 40 years of the Women in Sport charity, Murray told an audience of senior sports leaders: “I am sick of listening to talk, but where’s the action? What are we waiting for? Let’s get on with things.”
The conference heard that just 13% of British coaches were women at the Paris Olympics, while there are also fewer women in senior positions in governing bodies than before the pandemic.
Murray acknowledged that the London 2012 Olympics had been a gamechanger for promoting women’s sport but said that more needed to be done, including getting more women into key decision-making positions.
“We have come a long way since 1984,” she said. “But we can’t afford to be complacent. There is still much to do. We have to keep our foot on the gas. So often women in sport are like snowflakes. We float and we hit some kind of obstacle that forces us to melt away. But if we bond together and join with the allies in this room, we can form snowballs. And snowballs can do a lot of damage.”
Murray told her audience that when she started on her coaching journey one of the other coaches said to her: “What would you possibly offer to performance coaching when you have two young kids?”
She said that things had improved but there were still too many examples of abuses of power in sport. “We need male allies,” she added. “The world was created for men. The sports world was created for men. We have been crashing it for some time. But we’ve got to keep crashing it.”
Earlier the conference heard from Katherine Grainger, the chair of UK Sport, Paula Dunn, the head coach of British Athletics, and chief executives of multiple sports, about the struggles they had faced on their journey to the top.
There were also calls for sports organisations in receipt of public money to target 50% female representation on their boards and senior teams – and for there to be more equal distribution of funds to men and women. An independent regulator for sport to ensure adequate safeguarding and duty of care was also mooted.
Stephanie Hilborne, the chief executive of Women in Sport, said: “This work goes beyond sport, it’s essential for society. In an increasingly fragmented and polarised world, we must unite women and men to dismantle the stereotypes and misogyny that stands in the way.”