“I’VE HAD AN IDEA”
Oh Mhairi and I haven’t met yet. Not really.
Hours of zoom calls, facetime, voice notes, 2am “I’VE HAD AN IDEA!” messages, standing on the same start line, even finishing races within 0.2 seconds of each other. But no, we haven’t met yet, not really.
I guess you could say we’re a lockdown relationship on heat.
We didn’t swipe to find one another; It was our common values, passion, drive, and the poor state of women’s sport that brought us together.
Kate & Mhairi racing against each other in Edinburgh
Mhairi, left, running for Scotland with purple buff. Kate, centre, running for Wales in a red vest
And so we’ve embarked on this journey- one that is sure to be tough, undoubtedly rewarding, but mostly, necessary. Women’s sport isn’t where it should be, isn’t where it deserves to be, and quite frankly, continues to be seen as the piece on the side.
So why do it?
Well, we’re tired of it!
We’re tired of men’s standards being the ‘normal’, bored of policies made with only men in mind, exhausted of being sexualised, sick of being paid less, worn out fearing for our lives, done with being disrespected, finished with being the ‘nice to have’, but mostly FED UP OF BEING ON THE SODDING BBC RED BUTTON.
But what we’re not tired of is the fight.
And that’s why we take Kyniska, the first ever women to win a gold medal at the ancient Olympic games, as our inspiration- we’ll be fighting to be in the room no one else has been in before, to take up space that wasn’t traditionally made for us, and doesn’t yet wholly celebrate us.
We’ll be doing this by working with sport’s governing bodies, politicians, the media, coaches, volunteers, and fellow athletes to shine a light on the issues women face in sport every day and seeing actionable policy change, based on equitable needs, to make things right. We want a collaborative approach, everyone working together to create change as we believe a more equitable sport is a better, more enjoyable sport for everyone.
So this is us starting the conversation, using our torch to shine a light for all women, in all sports.
After all we are Women in Sport, For Women in Sport. We are Kyniska.
