It's not news that there aren't many women in positions of sports leadership. In the US, for example, only 41 per cent of women's college teams are coached by women and only 28 per cent of youth team coaches are women.

A Women In Sports study from 2017 found that only 30 per cent of sports leadership positions in the UK are held by women.

That's why Hudl, a performance analysis tool for teams and athletes, and WeCOACH, an organisation dedicated to supporting women coaches, have launched a new online summit. 

The BreakThrough Summit, hosted online on 16 December, is free and designed to provide inspiration for women in sport with the aim of supporting more women to smash the glass ceiling that still exists in sport leadership.

Attendees will hear from Jill Ellis, the two-time World Cup-winning former head coach of the US Women's National Time and Dr Jen Welter, the first female assistant coach in the NFL, to name two.

The summit will address the pressures that women in sport can face, from pay inequality to gender stereotyping and lack of representation to objectification. Through giving guests like Ellis and Welter the spotlight, women will be able to see and hear from women who have reached the upper echelons of their chosen sport.  

Speaking to Forbes, Dr Welter says: “We have a lot of powerful women in sports coming together to elevate each other by sharing best practices and expanding our network. It’s also a great opportunity for us experienced leaders to share with upcoming leaders (men and women) things like leadership strength and technique.”

Hudl CEO, David Graff, highlights how diverse businesses are statistically more successful: “There have been a number of studies that show that. And growing leaders is so critical for businesses at every stage of their life cycle. We recognized early on that to achieve the goals we needed to invest in diverse leadership and help them grow right alongside the business. We’ve had some incredible success with that approach, so it was extremely important that Hudl host The BreakThrough Summit.”

Register for The BreakThrough Summit here.