We Need More Women in Sports Who AREN'T Athletes 🏃‍♀️

This is part 4 of 8 of my summer series on community in trail running. See the whole series here.

One month ago, I stood at the finish line of Wild Woman Trail Runs and watched woman after woman come through the flowered finish archway, taking the final steps of a trail ultramarathon. This has been how I’ve spent my entire career: helping people access sports and outdoor adventure. I’ve rowed people with disabilities down class IV whitewater. I’ve led Girl Scout troops on their first snow camping trips. I’ve taught adults and children wilderness first aid skills. What a dream!

But it took until just last month to have a big 💡aha moment that might shape the focus of the rest of my career.

The race videographer, a woman, filmed a runner crossing the line as another woman announced the finisher on mic. The runner thanked her coach, a woman. I heard another runner talking about a great sports dietitian, a woman (of course). That day, it hit me: my work isn’t meant only for athletes. It’s meant to help women become leaders in sports in so many other ways beyond the physical challenge of athletics.

We need more women in trail media who aren’t running the race themselves.

We need more women on mic for podcasts and events, sharing new perspectives. We need more women physical therapists, producers, race directors, journalists, race commentators, apparel designers… especially women of color and those who aren’t celebrated in traditional sports media.

“What percent of runners are women?” is an easy number. It does matter, and I’m proud of my slice of it. But right now, a woman can win the biggest race of her life and still be coached, filmed, treated, and narrated almost entirely by men. She can be the star of the sport and a misunderstood guest in it at the same time. The people in the roles around a runner set the terms of her whole experience.

Her coach decides whether her training plan mentions her menstrual cycle (or shrugs if her period disappears). Her dietitian decides whether she’s taught to fuel vs. shrink. Her physical therapist decides whether her pain gets taken seriously or waved off. Her race director decides whether there’s tampons at the aid stations or a way to transport breast milk.

Same in media: Photographers decide which runners are worth pointing the camera at. Journalists decide whose comeback is a story. Editors decide which pitches become features.

I’ve spent so many years helping folks get to the race start line, giving them permission to call themselves runners, athletes, even ultrarunners… and yet, there’s so much more I’m excited about to help women get into the places where they interact with athletes.

➡️ I don’t want women to simply be the subject of trail running media. I want them to be the authors, the supporters, the media megaphones, the people who made that athletic feat possible.

I still want every woman who wants to run… to run. Obviously! But I’m done treating “become an athlete” as the sole focus of gender equity in outdoor sports.

Coincidentally, I got this video of the First 50k Sisterhood in my inbox yesterday. A beautiful piece of media where women were both the authors and the athletes, the sponsors and the ultra finishers:

Enjoy the film! ^ And I’ll give you a few ideas to help us all diversify and support trail running beyond just athletes:

✨Inspo for brands, races, and media:

• Count who’s around the athlete, not just how many women crossed your line. Track women on your coaching, media, medical, and leadership rosters. (As they say, what you track grows!)

• Put women behind the camera and on the mic, not only in front of them. When you staff an event’s media team, make women photographers, videographers, and commentators a requirement, not a nice-to-have.

• Pay for it. These are jobs. “Exposure” is not a wage. Budget for women in support and media the way you budget for athletes.

• Hire women in, then move them up. Don’t stop at a junior hire and call it progress. Mentor toward the head-coach chair, the editor’s desk, the board seat.

• Ask the women you already sponsor what they need from the people around them… then hire for that answer.

• When a woman says something honest (or, as they’ve historically said, “outspoken” or “bossy” or “TMI”), keep her. They’re sharing a truth you can be a leader in addressing.

• Publish your numbers. Who’s on your roster, your masthead, your board? If the answer would embarrass you… that’s a sign.

• Book a free athlete story audit with me! We can talk about how to better connect with and support women in your community through your brand storytelling.

✨Inspo for everyday athletes and running fans:

• You don’t have to be fast,or run at all, to belong here. Pick up the camera, start a blog, pitch that story, offer to announce the local 10k.

• Volunteer into the role you want to grow into. Races always need volunteers and the roles go beyond course marking and sweeping. They need timing, comms, medical aid, media. Use race volunteering to experiment with a role you’re interested in.

• Bring your skill to the sport. Nutrition, PT, writing, photography, design, coaching… the sport needs it, and it needs it from voices and perspectives like yours.

• When you get the mic, hand someone the next opp. Credit women, hire women, recommend women, celebrate women.

• Put your attention on women-made media. Follow, share, subscribe, pay the women telling these stories. Be a part of the market demand.

• Make your OWN sports media! This is my absolute jam. I’ll run another 🎤 Storytelling for Athletes workshop next month if I get enough interest - reply to this email if you want it!

• Start absurdly small. A group photo at a community run. A Substack with 12 readers. A table with support at a local race. What’s the teeeeeniest tiniest step toward getting your story into the public running sphere?

More women running isn’t the finish line. It’s a warm-up.

And it feels like the past 15 years of my career have been a fantastic warm-up for the race ahead. :)