As the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics open this weekend, we will once again be reminded of how sport can capture a nation’s imagination. But beneath the ice and ceremony, and all of us becoming armchair curling experts, sits a familiar question for Australia: are we still mistaking moments of inspiration for a strategy?
In 2021, after Brisbane was awarded the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games with a record 11 years to prepare, I wrote Going for Gold on Equality with cautious optimism. Hosting the Games, I argued then, offered Australia a fresh chance to sharpen our approach to delivering gender equality in sport – not through one-off programs, but through deliberate national leadership.
By articulating what we want Australia’s sporting landscape to look and feel like when our athletes enter their arenas in 2032, I argued that vision would allow us to take stock of the status quo, establish firm actions to realise that vision, and transparently measure progress to know we were, or weren’t, on track.
For me, this vision involves more women and girls active than ever before, comfortable and confident knowing sport is somewhere they belong. A nation proud of thriving professional women athletes, teams and leagues. Athletes earning not just a living wage, but a wage that supports their financial security and future prosperity. Gender balanced media and broadcast. An engaged corporate Australia. A paid and volunteer workforce where anyone holding any role is utterly normal. Leadership that’s truly representative of the sector it leads.
Nearly five years later, that opportunity remains.
Australia still lacks a wholesale vision and comprehensive national strategy to capitalise on a once-in-a-generation window for women’s sport, and women in sport.
The warning signs are now even harder to ignore. Australian Research Council-funded work led by Griffith University’s Dr Adele Pavlidis released in mid-2025 found that the key Brisbane 2032 legacy plans risk reinforcing persistent issues of gender inequality. Not narrowing. Not fixing. Reinforcing.
The research found well-intentioned broad statements may unintentionally anchor in the very structural barriers needing to be dismantled. Keep in mind, history suggests we shouldn’t expect another summer Olympics to come to Australia’s shores until the 2070s. This is our chance to drive change.
But even so, legacy plans from the Brisbane organising committee will, by their nature, primarily focus on south-east Queensland.
This is why the timing of UN Women’s recent release of a new global toolkit to advance gender equality in and through sport represents an opportunity for a national reset. Built around six core principles for action, the toolkit offers an evidence-backed path to reshape an entire sport ecosystem.
Designed for governments, Olympic committees and community-based organisations alike, this guide considers not just the role of leadership and representation, the role of sport in the prevention of gender-based violence, and the importance of equal opportunities to participate.
With equal prominence, the toolkit outlines the importance of closing the investment gap for women’s sport, in ensuring equal economic opportunity, of levelling the playing field in sports media, and monitoring and publicly reporting on progress. These principles go to the very heart of the business side of women’s sport, and Australia ability to finally break free of a cycle, noted since the 1980s, that the perception of progress for women’s sport is exactly that: mostly a perception.
Countries like the UK and the US are leaving us in the proverbial starting blocks when it comes to capitalising on the growth economy that is women’s sport.
Australia does not need to start from scratch. We have world-leading athletes, strong participation pipelines, and a set of professional women’s leagues that should be the envy of the world. Olympic teams and medals often skew towards our outstanding women athletes. We have select pillars of a plan in place, such as the Australian Institute of Sport’s Women in High Performance Coaching Project or its Best Practice Recommendations to Support Elite Athletes from Preconception to Parenthood – both developed under the world-class leadership of AIS Director Matti Clements.
But we can’t realise our full potential in siloes. Without a comprehensive strategy across the full ecosystem of sport led by the Federal Government itself, these initiatives remain pockets of excellence, all the while other critical areas of deeply entrenched inequality remain benched, outside of the remit or capacity of individual organisations seeking to drive change.
The UN Women framework offers us a ready-made platform to reflect on where we are succeeding, what we are missing, and where we want to go. If Australia truly wants a legacy that delivers gender equality across sport once and for all, the next step is obvious. Inspiration is here. It’s strategy that’s overdue.