Cross Country Canada is losing too many developing female skiers and it has now tapped Olympian Madeleine Williams to chair the organization’s women’s committee to help solve the issue.
Williams will now head the group, which works to ensure equality across the sport, be it for athletes, coaches, officials or leaders across the country.
“I am incredibly excited about the opportunity to chair CCC’s Women’s Committee,” Williams said.
Williams skied competitively for 15 years and competed at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games before earning her law degree from McGill this spring. Now working for the Federal Ministry of Justice in Edmonton, Williams will take over the role from Beckie Scott and Milaine Therieault, who headed the group previously and were instrumental in spearheading a number of programs.
“I’ll try to build on what Beckie and Milaine started. We have a lack of female coaches and female athletes in Canada, and that is something we have to change. The big problem is retention through the development stages,” said Williams.
“Providing coaching has a big role to play in solving that issue. If we keep that as the big focus, that would be a huge accomplishment.”
Williams studied the funding gap between male and female athletes while at McGill, and published a paper in the International Sports Law Journal entitled A Pragmatic Solution for Gender Equity in Canadian Elite Sport.
The paper found Canadian women in elite sport have fewer opportunities for funding and advancement than their male counterparts. She hopes her education will allow herself and the committee to tackle some of these issues, and graduate more female coaches and athletes to the top levels of the sport.
“There is a problem with proportionality. The number of women being funded compared to the number trying for positions doesn’t line up,” Williams said.
She’ll work to continue programs that fund female coaches in cross-country skiing, and expand upon partnerships that already exist, such as partnerships with Chandra Crawford’s Fast and Female organization.
“I’d like to build on what’s been done and figure out how everyone can work together so we can create a structure to keep people in the system,” Williams said.
Following actor Emma Watson’s speech at the United Nations on behalf of the ‘He for She’ intitiative, Williams said equality is everyone’s responsibility.
“It’s not so much the gender of the coach if you have a coach that understands the needs of a female athlete,” Williams said. “We have a lot of talent we can cultivate, but we have a lot who start, but don’t move on. We must figure out what we can do to help.”
Cross Country Canada has a survey online targeting female athletes and coaches. One of Williams’ first jobs will be to use that data and line it up with the business plan. The organization also hosts seminars at Canadian national championships.
Scott and Theriault will continue to serve on the committee, much to Williams’ delight. The group will also include Camille Pepin, Kathy Davies, Sue Holloway, Sharleen Hoar, Paulina Sudrich and staff member Stephane Barrette.
Williams will split her time between Edmonton and Canmore, where she still has a place with husband, Graham Nishikawa.
