Developed in cooperation with the International Olympic Committee(IOC)/Olympic Solidarity, Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations and several International Federations (IF), the WISH programme is aimed to help women coaches, who have shown potential and ambition, to succeed in high performance coaching roles at major events.

The 21-month initiative will look into key aspects such as leadership training, leadership mentoring, sport-specific training led by World Rowing and engagements with the National Olympic Committees (NOC) and National Federations.

The programme has a five-day session scheduled in the UK from October 23 to 29 with self-assessment and 360 feedback on leadership and sport specific competencies, eight online leadership sessions, eight leadership mentor sessions, four sport-specific mentor sessions and access to a diverse network of coaches from different regions and sports.

During 2019-2021 cycle, a total of 26 women from six sports and 23 countries completed a pilot women’s high performance coach programme (WSLA HPC).

Five coaches who completed the pilot programme have gone one to take high performance coaching responsibilities at World Championships, Olympic Qualification regattas and Continental Championships.

Four of them are on course to becoming World Rowing Coach Educators and are part of the World Rowing Continental Development teams.

The Olympic Solidarity and IOC with the IFs and NOCs is looking to continue supporting the project with a commitment help women’s coaches in the next three years.

All nominations should be made through respective NFs with April 30 set as the deadline.

The information has been communicated with NFs and successful candidates will be notified by mid-May.