About us
We are the UK's Only Athlete-Led & Sport-Wide Safe Sport Organisation.
We are a survivor-led and athlete-run organisation working with UK sporting communities to influence change in welfare and wellbeing policies for women athletes.
Our team understands sport today because we are sport today. We are founded by two women athletes, Kate Seary and Mhairi Maclennan, who, following their own adverse experiences around the way women are treated in sport, decided to do something about it.
We believe that all athletes should be able to safely practise sports and athlete wellbeing should be a key measure of success. Currently, the culture and structures within sport do not allow for this. Policy in sport is outdated, out of touch, and fails to serve the athletes it’s there to protect. This is why we advocate for progressive policies in women’s sport, enacting change one campaign at a time, to instil an equitable sporting culture from grassroots clubs to the Olympic Games
Our priorities for 2024-2025
Over the next few years we will be working towards our overarching vision: a sporting community which fosters a safe environment for all athletes and has the protection and welfare of women at its heart.
Our priorities as an organisation are rooted to our three missions: Educate; Advocate; Support. From our experience, these are the focused ways in which Kyniska can make the biggest steps to achieving our vision.
We are explicit about our actions and impact while remaining ambitious in our mission statement and targets to bring our vision closer to reality.
We have learned during our first few years that our scope has to stay focused to deliver quality and impactful work while remaining agile and responsive, with our relatively limited resources.
Who was Kyniska?
“While Kings of Sparta are my fathers and brothers, since she won with a chariot of swift-footed horses, Kyniska dedicated this statue; And I alone I say of the women of all of Greece take this crown”
Kyniska, princess of Sparta, was the first woman to win an event at the Ancient Olympics.
She went on to win two Olympic crowns in the Four-Horse Chariot race in 396 and 392 BC.
This was no mean feat for a woman in Ancient Greece, as they were banned from the Olympic Sanctuary during the Olympic festival.
Kyniska was a trailblazer for women in sport.
As the first female winner, she paved the way for other women to follow in her footsteps, changing the narrative so that we can see women thriving in sport today.
We honour her and challenge ourselves to carry on her legacy, for women everywhere.
Kyniska, as imagined in Sophie de Renneville’s Biographie des femmes illustres de Rome, de la Grèce, et du Bas-Empire (1825)