Take a look inside the coaching WhatsApp group behind Simone Biles, Tom Daley and Sha’Carri Richardson
n January 52 phone numbers were added to a new WhatsApp group. It was called “Preparation for Paris” but may as well have been dubbed the Golden Group, assuming things go to plan this summer. Those phone numbers belonged to 52 leading coaches aiming for Paris 2024, hailing from 15 different countries and 19 sports. All of them are women.
“It’s quite a lonely place, coaching or leading certain programmes,” Symington says. “The fact a community of women has been created, even on a WhatsApp group, has been incredible. Women tend to have more impostor syndrome – I do – and it’s having that encouragement to have confidence in what you’re doing. I’ve just learned that you’re not in it alone.”Photograph: Maja Hitij/Getty Images
Figueiredo, 60, is one of the most successful coaches on the Team GB roster, as head coach of the diving programme, and guided Daley to two bronze and one gold medal during their decade-long partnership. She credits the programme with lifting her out of a low point last year. “There’s huge issues with how federations hand out accreditation, because there isn’t a system,” Huyton says. “So we see the mostly male performance staff usually make their picks based on who they want to spend the month with. There are plenty of qualified women who deserve to take up those positions, but until you have a standardised selection policy, they won’t be part of the teams at the Games.
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