Two time Olympic Champion, Kellie Harrington, delivered the keynote address at today’s Paris Wave: Women in Sport Conference.
Paris Wave is the IABA’s boxer, coach and club support programme, launched on the day Team Ireland boxing returned from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The Paris team of 10 was the largest boxing team since Rome of 1960, and Team Ireland was one of only 3 countries in the world to qualify a full squad of women (6).
Paris Wave includes NextGen – a programme which supports clubs in meeting demand to welcome new members; Safeguarding – which adds 10% more Safeguarding learning opportunities to all clubs before years end; Coaching – enabling 80 coaches to begin their coaching careers through Fundamentals qualification and another 80 to obtain Level One certification, and the Women in Sport programme, which includes an arc of workshops taking place between August 31st and March 8th, online and throughout the association.
Kellie Harrington closed today’s conference with a 30 minute keynote speech which ranged from her perspectives on performance and training, her experiences in Paris and the 3 Ws which guided her career: Why, What and When “You have to plan stuff around competition – let’s say you’ve a competition in September. How many weeks to we have to get ready? When does sparring come in – 15 weeks beforehand, does it come in 6 weeks beforehand? These are things you need to sit down and discuss with your coaching team in your club.
Kellie also spoke at length about her experience in Paris:
And she spoke about the Elite mindset in an individual sport:
Kellie also emphasised how important it is for all coaches to understand how the menstrual cycle impacts boxers “Women’s bodies are so much different than men’s bodies. We hold weight in different places and at different stages, we get heavier and we lose weight. It’s also very hard if you have a coach who doesn’t understand what you’re going through. I’d be like a demon for nearly 5 days of the month. And I mean like a demon. I’d get sacked out of a job, that’s how bad my hormones are. But I tell the coaches, let them know it’s coming up to that time. So, they know – but some coaches are like like ah, jaysus, I don’t want to hear that – but if you have female boxers in your club, you have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. It has to be talked about. It’s a massive, massive part of what we do.”
Today’s conference included Strength and Conditional for female combat athletes, delivered by specialist, Sean O’Reilly. IABA National Safeguarding Manager, Stephen Flynn and Sligo Development Officer, Maeve Clarke, co-delivered the Safeguarding Essentials workshop, which looked at the Safeguarding Statement-
Vetting, Coaching Courses, Policy and codes of Conduct, role of the Children’s Officer,
Situational based stuff Safeguarding learning and reporting a concern: how, and to whom.
IABA Women in Sport Lead, Sophie Doolan, delivered a Coaching Teenage Girls workshop and Q&A, covering Drop-out & Engagement in Girls’ Sport & Physical Activity; Meeting the Psycho-Social Needs of Girls in Sport; Key Considerations for Coaching Girls 12-17 years: Body image & Maturation and
Preparing for the Challenges of Adolescence in Girls
Sophie Doolan says “The Paris Wave: Women in Sport Conference was a great way to spark learning, and begin this important six month period in WIS learning in IABA – I’m heartened to see the number of male coaches here today, because often the assumption is that WIS-related learning and workshops is only for women – that’s not the case. Our workshops over the next six months are for people who coach women and girls, and, given that three quarters of our coaches are men, these workshops are for them.“
Paris Wave Women in Sport Arc
As part of this programme, a series of Women in Sport Workshops will take place from September, culminating in a Women in Sport conference on March 8th, International Women’s Day.
- September 25th: Coaching Teenage Girls (online)
- October: Connacht Coaching Teenage Girls (in person event)
- November: Munster Coaching Teenage Girls (in person event)
- November: Connacht S&C for Female Combat Sport Athletes (in person event)
- December: Munster S&C for Female Combat Sport Athletes (in person event)
Registration for these events will open in due course, and the 2025 calendar will be released in the coming weeks.