FCN Launches Global Coaching Systems Exchange at IWG Global Summit 2026

📸 IOC President Kirsty Coventry speaking at the IWG Summitt


The Female Coaching Network (FCN) was proud to be part of the IWG Global Summit 2026 in Birmingham, joining over 1,200 leaders, researchers, policymakers and practitioners from across the world to explore how we move Beyond the Breakthrough and create lasting change for women and girls in sport.

Recognised as the world’s leading conference dedicated to advancing women and girls in sport and physical activity, the Summit provided the perfect platform for FCN Founder Vicky Huyton to join two of the world’s leading researchers in women’s coaching, Professor Leanne Norman (Loughborough University) and Dr Nicole M. LaVoi (The Tucker Center, University of Minnesota), to deliver A Global Conversation on Women in Coaching.

A Global Conversation on Women in Coaching

Rather than presenting a series of keynote speeches, the workshop was designed as a collaborative conversation that brought together three complementary perspectives: world-leading research, real-world application and the experiences of the global coaching community.

Dr Nicole M. LaVoi opened the session by sharing insights from more than two decades of research into women in coaching. Reflecting on her work at the Tucker Center, Nicole challenged delegates to rethink the narrative around women coaches, reminding us that the system—not women—is the problem. She highlighted the importance of centring the voices of girls and women, developing leadership, and creating accountability within sporting systems if we are to achieve meaningful progress.

Professor Leanne Norman then explored the importance of understanding and redesigning the systems that shape women’s coaching experiences. Drawing on years of international research and consultancy, she reinforced that the issue is not simply increasing the number of women coaches. Instead, sustainable change requires organisations to rethink the structures, cultures and working conditions that influence recruitment, progression and retention. As Leanne explained, representation is an outcome—not the solution.

Representing the practical application of this research, FCN Founder Vicky Huyton reflected on the Female Coaching Network’s twelve-year journey of translating research into action. Through partnerships with organisations including Nike, World Athletics, British Athletics, Tottenham Hotspur, WHOOP and the Australian Institute of Sport, FCN has developed initiatives that have directly influenced female coach recruitment, international team selection, safeguarding practices, mentoring programmes and high-performance coach development.

Vicky shared some of the key lessons learned from working alongside thousands of female coaches around the world:

• Coaches’ voices must be listened to and valued.
• Organisations need to better understand the realities and pressures of coaching.
• The conversation should move away from focusing on the lack of women coaches and instead recognise the strength, impact and success of those already coaching.
• Coaches should be supported as performers themselves, developing the skills and wellbeing needed to thrive under pressure.
• Most importantly, the coaching pathway for women is often different from that of men, meaning coaching systems need to be designed with those different journeys in mind—not simply expecting women to fit into systems that were never designed for them.

Throughout the workshop, one message became increasingly clear:

The challenge is not simply increasing the number of women coaches. The challenge is redesigning the coaching systems that continue to produce the current outcomes.

📸 Presenters Nicole M La Voi, Vicky Huyton and Professor Leanne Norman

Listening to the Global Coaching Community

The workshop was designed to be interactive, encouraging delegates to contribute their own experiences rather than simply listening to presentations.

Using Slido, participants from around the world were asked to reflect on two simple but powerful questions:

What is the biggest challenge facing women coaches in your context?

The responses revealed remarkable consistency despite delegates representing different countries, sports and coaching systems. Common themes included:

• Women being appointed into roles without the support or mentoring needed to succeed, before being unfairly judged as examples of failure.
• Coaching systems that still fail to adequately support women.
• A lack of opportunities to progress into high-performance coaching.
• Unsafe or unwelcoming coaching environments.
• Limited access to mentors.
• Poor recognition and investment.
• Financial barriers.
• The expectation that women should work within systems designed around male coaching careers rather than careers that recognise the realities many women experience.

Delegates were then asked:

What is one thing currently making a positive difference for women coaches in your context?

This discussion highlighted many encouraging examples already taking place across the world, including:

• Mentoring programmes.
• Female coaching networks and peer support.
• Visible female role models.
• Women-only education and networking opportunities.
• Female coaching internships.
• Leadership programmes.
• Ongoing coach education.
• Greater visibility of women’s sport through television and media coverage.

The discussion reinforced that while every country has its own unique context, many of the barriers—and many of the emerging solutions—are shared globally.

Launching the Global Coaching Systems Exchange

It was this recognition—that no one country has all the answers, yet every country has valuable experiences to share—that led to the official launch of the Global Coaching Systems Exchange.

The Exchange is a new international collaboration between the Female Coaching Network, Loughborough University and the Tucker Center, bringing together researchers, sport system leaders, coach developers and practitioners committed to strengthening coaching systems for women.

The network has been created to move beyond isolated initiatives and instead create an ongoing global conversation that shares evidence, practical solutions and innovative approaches to systems change.

Through twice-yearly online forums, regular knowledge exchange and a monthly newsletter, members will explore emerging research, share examples of good practice, identify common challenges and collaborate on solutions that can accelerate progress across different sports and countries.

Speaking after the workshop, FCN Founder Vicky Huyton said:

“For too long we’ve focused on preparing women to succeed within systems that weren’t designed with them in mind. The conversation at IWG reinforced that if we genuinely want more women coaching at every level of sport, we need to understand, challenge and redesign the systems themselves. The Global Coaching Systems Exchange is about creating a global community that learns together, shares evidence and accelerates meaningful change.”

Join the Exchange

If you are a sports administrator, governing body, international federation, researcher, coach developer, performance director or organisation committed to creating better coaching systems for women, we would love you to be part of the Global Coaching Systems Exchange.

By connecting research with practice, and bringing together diverse perspectives from across the world, we believe we can accelerate meaningful and lasting change for women in coaching.

Together, we can move beyond isolated initiatives and build coaching systems where more women don’t just enter coaching—they thrive, lead and remain in the profession.