So Im sorry Im getting to the roundabout part of your question but yeah I was a completely ordinary and active kid grew up in a regional part of Queensland with parents whod sort of taken a bit of a tree change and left a city to work in a very hippy sort of school I suppose it was like a Montessori or an unorganized but very creative supported school. Has this been a lifelong passion and did you. In road cycling, where images of men with lean, tanned legs and hollowed cheekbones had been emblematic of true professionalism, most teams aspired for the same appearance for their women riders. Bridie returned to full time work in 2013 as a behaviour change physician at Epworth HealthCheck and Epworth Breast Service, with a part time role teaching doctor-patient communication at Deakin University Medical School. We now had over 100 women last 18 months benefit from our scholarship program where they apply through a competitive process to get to five or ten thousand dollars to seek out an educational opportunity to advance their sporting career or their administration career whatever it is they do in sport and rec but we also know that systems need to change and thats where board quotas support it. I was good but just never great enough to represent my country. Thats where all of our networking events support it. So those kinds of images have far more reach than one could ever imagine. And that I think has been the extraordinary difference for professional womens sporting leagues and teams is that theyve had to grow and blossom and be criticised in the most ridiculous level of scrutiny both on social media from anonymous abusers but also from just you know male commentators saying this is boring I dont like watching this and it wasnt that long ago that I was commentating Road World Cycling Championships and we were hearing commentators from other countries saying this is a boring race nothings happening with therefore womens cycling is boring without any insight into the idea that these women are not only different physiological beasts but its a different race with different team numbers. And of course here in the States so many are owned by my wealthy people you know of the Womens Soccer League here in the States. And then when theyre not the fastest anymore they dont know what to do next. O'donnell is a world champion road cyclist, a . In 2007, she began road cycling and in 2008 after winning the National Time Trial title, she raced on the Australian National Team, and then Professional teams in Europe and the United States, representing Australia at three World Championships. 3-min read. They would need to have 40 per cent women on the boards of these organisations acknowledging these were all volunteer positions. Look at the proof of how thats raised the profile of womens soccer in this country because thats now on free to air TV and you can find that on the networks every week during season some of the coaches say oh sorry to interrupt you but I was just thinking about a lot of the coaches will say high performance coaches will say they still want to see people at games and that Lisa Alexander talks about this with netball and the super nimble coaches will say we want you to come. You know we have a really a problem in Australia against violence against women. But I had incredibly supportive colleagues and certainly the public service is very good at that. So what did being a professional. Well I was active as a kid but I wasnt good at anything and we certainly had a bit of a culture of high achievement when it comes to sport and particularly we know this from from the data that girls who are really great at sport get supported and cultivated not only by their parents but by coaches by schools. CEOs and board directors and the stats are mind boggling 96 percent of women in leadership positions across all industries have been competitive athletes. [00:04:37] And like so many of them I took a chance of you know quitting my job as a physician where I was working behaviour change because I just felt that this was a unique opportunity and remarkable way for me to have an influence over the lives and the outcomes of so many girls and women that I didnt have when I was coming through sport and that so many girls and women who are who have a disability or who are from a multicultural background or from a marginalized communities definitely dont have in Australia. Its my life you know. There was no chance I could have been a lightweight; I was too tall with healthy but heavy muscle mass that would have required me to radically transform my eating habits. and theres been so such a lack of diverse thinking that you know these people generally all the same age that probably went to school together and so by by asking them to have a quota and bring women in. In November, 2017, Bridie was appointed the inaugural Head of the Office for Women in Sport and Recreation by the Victorian Government and in May, 2018 she published Life and Death a cycling memoir about her experiences as a professional cyclist in the international peloton. I soon realised the reason for her meandering: the beauty of riding for long, slow hours with no money on her was that she wouldnt be tempted or able to eat. Copyright 2017 All Rights Reserved. Bridie also managed and reached for Rush womens team a national road series cycling team in Australia in 2016. Six years of med school was helpful but actually following around the senior doctor and thinking Okay heres what being a surgeon involves. Equally with Sydney in this country and the population of Victorias about eight and a half million and we have 115 now. But the 41-year-old former Mapleton woman this week broke the world hour record, riding 46.882 kilometres in 60 minutes 609 metres further than the existing record. I really do appreciate it. Ive been an athlete than a successful athlete. But my goodness it does allow you a context and help you deal with strong personalities and we say that a lot in where Im working now as a sports administrator or working in government. In 2017, she was appointed the inaugural head of the Victorian Government Office for Women in Sport and Recreation, and in 2018 she published Life and Death a cycling memoir about her experiences racing in the womens professional peloton. You can imagine there were dozens or they said to me you know 100 women and men applied for this job. But that said you know the mens AFL league started over 100 years ago with zero scrutiny and social media to criticize it. You dont get what you want a lot. You are my reputation as a sporting nation but just to give a little bit about Graham Brady is to your sporting history because youve been very involved with sport actively as a triathlete and then as a cyclist. Im not suggesting that we all need to endure. And look were winning the mens ashes too. You know we had yes we had the Olympics in 1956 we had the Sydney Olympics in 2000 we were one of the first countries in the world to have an institute of sport. These are the procedures he performs and you get a sense of the job. But it is frustrating when you see the standard of play in the success of play because often the argument is so well medals will will win for funding means as it does in the UK for example with lottery funding they want to see the medals first but it can be a catch 22 as well. I had some staff by the time we got to April 2018 and so weve been up and running. [00:34:33] They came away from the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games last year with some pretty sobering data. I had some staff by the time we got to April 2018 and so weve been up and running. We were racing at the flesh while on which is a famous race in Belgium with the iconic one kilometer and 10 percent climb at the finale and the women do the race in the morning sort of around 10 or 11 and then the end of the race in the afternoon in the mens races of course live on free to air TV across Europe and America millions of people watch the womens race. [00:22:49] Well why doesnt the UCI the governing body say if you want to hold a rice race licence you have to broadcast X amount and you have to provide the footage and everyone would pass the buck and say its not their job. So theyve actually done skill ordered some of them quite formally and others more informally and theyve diversified their boards and they have more young people for example or they have a parent whos really invested in the sport but has never had any opportunity to have a voice in her organisation. Bob Marleys daughter who owns the Jamaican womens team the Thai billionaire who has funded the Thai womens team you know. Its all of the things that I experience which is you lose a lot. And then about nine months later they announced that there would be a campaign sort of suite of initiatives called change again. These are the procedures he performs and you get a sense of the job. On 22 January 2016 O'Donnell broke the Womens UCI Hour Record at the Adelaide Super-Drome. And we have seen a huge shift in the way Paralympic sports and pro athletes are being invested in here and of course we saw Dylan all cult winning at Wimbledon and the US Open in the mens wheelchair tennis but still no womens wheelchair tennis categories and that what I would argue is probably through a couple of the Normal barriers around a lack of depth of athletes those athletes havent had anywhere near as much support both financial emotional and logistical support to become wheelchair tennis players. And yet the WNBA all is a really as a league that is struggling and has struggled to get investment. So all I need to do my job is curiosity persistence support from my employer and my colleagues and a willingness to learn and anyone can do any job when they had those four characteristics. And she said if thats how theyre talking about me on social media what are they. First, she worked as a medical practitioner. [00:35:41] So what we know about women as coaches is that their lack of qualifications is not the thing. There are frequently motorbikes with cameras following us through the whole three hours and definitely on the footage of the climb at the finale and it was never like on television they didnt even do a 30 minute highlight package 10 years ago and I remember having a conversation with a woman director of a team over in Europe saying why is that. Peggy is an amazing trailblazer here in Australia and she chaired and there were some very important influential powerful athletes and administrators women and men involved in this inquiry that published a report at the end of 12 months and what they had looked into were some specific data around a number of women girls participating in sport access to facilities that these women and girls have number of women in leadership positions in sport. They were married in the 1940s and went on to have six children and eight grandchildren. We have 17 per cent of school aged children are getting the required amount of physical exercise every day of one hour one hour of movement and only 17 percent of kids are getting it. [00:26:32] No absolutely thats a copout. Really as a league that is struggling and has struggled to get investment daughter who owns Jamaican... 00:35:41 ] so what we know about women as coaches is that lack. 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