DOHA 2019 – Meet the 2% of Female Coaches

27th September – 6th October 2019 sees the 17th edition of the IAAF World Athletics Championships take place in Doha. The Championships comes second only to the Olympic Games and will see the best athletes in the World compete in Track & Field over the 10 days. 2,043 athletes from 210 countries will be competing for 72 medals in 24 events.

As with most sports at this level, female coaches are scarce. It’s a difficult percentage to accurately measure in Track & Field, as hunting down athletes personal coaches is a tough job, but we estimate that only 2% of athletes at the Championships have a female coach.

There are two pools of coaches to chose from – Personal Coaches and Team Management Coaches. Team Management coaches are the official members of each countries squad, (along with Team Management staff and a Medical Team) and are chosen by the federation themselves. The bigger the team, the bigger the staff. Coaches can be both team coach and personal coach. Very few countries actively chose female coaches for team staff, something which will be discussed in a future article.

Thanks to Jon Mulkeen (Athletics Journalist in the UK and IAAF web editor), here is a list of female coaches at the Champs. If you spot anyone we may have missed, please get in touch!

USA

Caryl Gilbert-Smith – coach to Michael Norman (400m) & Rai Benjamin (400m hurdles)

Tonja Buford-Bailey – coach to Morolake Akinosun (100m) & Ashley Spencer (400m)

Joanna Hayes – coach to Sydney McLaughlin (400m hurdles)

Ashley Kovacs – coach to Joe Kovacs (Shot Put)

POLAND

Jolanta Kumor – coach to Pawel Fajdek (Shot Put)

Malwina Sobierajska-Wojtulewicz – coach to Wojciech Nowicki (Hammer) and Joanna Fiodorow (Hammer)

Iwona Krupa – coach to Ewa Swoboda (100m)

ATHLETE REFUGEE TEAM

Tegla Loroupe – coach to Jamal Eisa Mohammad (5,000m), Tachlowini Gabriyesos (5,000m), Fouad Idbafdil (3,00m Steeplechase), Paulo Amotun Lokoro (1500m), Otmane Nait Hammou (3,000m steeple), Lonyen Rose Nathike (800m)