8 outstanding women in sport you should learn from

5 minutes with any of them will make you smarter

Hello friends! 👋

Welcome to the SportsGrad Newsletter. Each week we take a deep dive into how people are growing their careers in sport.

Here you’ll find insights, tactics and tools to help you win jobs, get promoted, work around the world, make an impact, and still get paid fairly in sport.

Plus the latest on what’s happening in the SportsGrad Community - a private group of legends lifting each other toward the careers of their dreams.

Happy International Women’s Day!!

Today we’re reflecting on the many outstanding women who have told their stories on the SportsGrad Podcast.

We’ve been super lucky to chat with incredible women who are driving the sports industry forward and creating generational change, so we thought we’d highlight a few!

If you’re up for some inspired listening, here’s a 8 outstanding women you can leanr from.

(honestly though, we could have listed every single woman to have graced the pod!)

8 Outstanding Women in Sport you Need to Listen to 🎧

Ep #274: Chloe Dalton, Founder of The Female Athlete Project.

Chloe's remarkable journey as an athlete and an advocate includes clinching a gold medal in Rugby 7s at the Rio 2016 Olympics, and growing The Female Athlete Project to 125k followers.

Chloe is an outstanding leader championing gender equality and empowering female athletes worldwide, using her platform to elevate the visibility of women’s sports.

Chloe’s now a 2x published author, and The Female Athlete Project has become Australia's fastest-growing women’s sport platform.

Plenty to look out for including her journey as an athlete, the origins of TFAP, the team and business model behind the scenes, the impact she’s having in the athlete community, how she responds to ‘the standards not good enough’ and ‘why should they be paid the same?’ Not to mention her candid approach to dealing with trolls!

Ep #273: Elle Steele, National Project Manager at Disability Sports Australia

Beyond her day-to-day gig, Elle is also a Paralympian, Founder, TEDx speaker, and inclusion advocate. If you're interested in a career in the diversity & inclusion space, you're going to love this episode.

We dive deep into her main initiative, the â€˜Building Inclusive Sport Clubs’ program, where her goal is to promote the access and inclusion of people with disabilities in sporting clubs across Australia.

Heaps to look out for, including Elle’s career journey, how to make your organisation more accessible and inclusive, learnings from being a Paralympian, and how Elle wishes everyone would view those with a disability. 

Ep #271: Basia Sikorski, Head of Media Operations at Sail GP

Basia is far from a stranger to international events. Before SailGP, she worked at the 2016 Rio Olympics, the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and the International Paralympic Committee.

She is now on the epic team at SailGP, managing everything to do with the media operations for the global event.

There are plenty of useful insights in this episode, such as what it’s like working at major events worldwide, lessons she has learned from her experiences at the Olympics, and advice on how to work in Media Operations like her.

Ep #270: Ankita Karungulakar, Cricket Presenter

Reuben met Ankita on a whim at the end of 2022, where she told him that being a Cricket Presenter was her 2-year goal. Inspired by Rana Hussain presenting at the T20 World Cup in Adelaide, she thought to herself, “why couldn’t I do this too?”.

Less than a year later, she found herself standing on the same oval, doing the same thing as Rana! Her inspiration and now mentor.

Ankita is also killing it in the social media space, using her personal brand to promote her media skills and grow her career.

Lots to look out for, including how to land your dream job, how to work overseas, and what a day in the life looks like when working at the IPL and Cricket Australia.

Ep #263: Sarah Burt, Journalist & Host

Sarah recently moved on from Channel 7 to pursue working for herself, and has stepped up to host 3AW’s AFLW broadcast. Before this, Sarah cut her teeth in media roles at the AFL, The Age Newspaper, Fox Sports, ESPN, and the Hawthorn FC. She has a ton of experience and jumps on the pod to share it with you.

She covers all things freelancing, what a day in her life looks like, how to navigate the pathway into working for yourself, and how to source jobs. Additionally, she chats about the skills needed to be a journalist, her tips on how to deal with networking (and the nerves that can come with it), how she prepares for game days and interviews.

This is a great episode if you’re curious on how the sports media industry operates, or you want a taste for freelance work.

Ep #262: Francesca Teh, World Cup Legacy Programs at Football Australia

Dubbing her role at FA as ‘one of [her] greatest career decisions so far’, she joins us on the pod today to talk about her role as a Legacy Manager, and the positive impact that working on the FIFA Women’s World Cup has had.

In this episode, she covers how she landed her first full-time job at Cricket Australia (whilst at uni), how she determined the path she wanted to follow, and the importance of continually up-skilling and developing, so that you don’t pigeonhole yourself in one area.

If you’re interested in women’s sport development, legacy management, events, and operations, or you want to learn how to land a role at a dream organisation, this episode is for you.

#240: Dr. Victoria Brackley, Biomechanist at the Victorian Institute of Sport

Victoria has one of the coolest jobs we’ve ever had on the show, working with elite athletes on how they can use better techniques, skills and movements to improve performance. Victoria mainly specialises in the pool, helping Australia’s best swimmers to improve their lap times.

Heaps to look out for in this ep with what it’s like to work with elite athletes, essential skills to be a biomechanist, what a day in the life looks like and where to start if you’re looking for a job in this space.

#274: Shayla Clarke, Audience Growth & Engagement Coordinator at Richmond FC

After completing a Bachelor of Business, she furthered her studies and in the 6 years since, has progressed through multiple roles during premiership winning seasons.

Lots to look out for when her episode drops on Monday including how to get a job in the AFL, how to progress and be promoted at work, plus how to grow an engaged audience as proud as the Richmond Football Club.

If you want to meet Shayla in Melbourne tonight, come along to our International Women’s Day event in collaboration with Play Like a Girl!

What’s happening in the Community?

Community Wins ⭐️

Here’s what SportsGrad Members got up to last week...

Paul Hoy completed the Crusaders Leadership Programme

Jeffrey Leong and Reuben Williams got accepted into the Melbourne Marathon

Fu Chang landed a volunteer role with the Western Bulldogs FC

SportsGrad Members have landed over 600+ jobs in sport.

If you've had a win, share it with us in the #wins channel on Discord!

Upcoming Member Events 💛

Members, to join an event, RSVP via Discord.

Pro Member Events:

⚖️ Sports Law Masterclass with Michael Bricknell - March 29th 12pm AEDT

🤝 Pro Speed Networking - March 14th 7pm AEDT

Rookie Member Events:

🤝 Speed Networking - Mar 11th 7pm AEDT

💼 Job Fair ft. Victorian Institute of Sport - Mar 20th 12pm AEDT

🤝 Speed Networking - March 25th 7pm AEDT

Last night at the Brisbane Meetup

Job Opportunities 💼

Looking for a new gig? Here are a few organisations that want to hire SportsGrad Members:

🏐 Super Netball Operations Coordinator @ Netball Australia - Full-time | Melbourne

🏐 Suncorp Team Girls Cup Volunteers @ Netball Australia - Volunteer | Sydney

🏟 Member Services Officer @ Essendon FC - Full-Time | Melbourne

🏉 Commercial Partnerships Coordinator @ North Melbourne FC - Full-time | Melbourne

🏐 Sports Event Coordinator @ Social Sport - Part-time | Melbourne

⚽️ Multiple roles @ Rydalmere Lions Football Club - Volunteer | Sydney

💪 Multiple roles @ Sporting Wheelies 2024 Boccia Tri Series - Volunteer | Brisbane

Need help to hire sports industry talent? Get in touch with Ryan.

This week also concludes our first round of meetups and new ‘Rookie’ Members for the year. Stay tuned for the next round of events and intake coming in May.

Catch you soon,

Acacia 💛

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