The Paris Olympics has been a remarkable spectacle of what can happen when we invest in women’s sport. Here in Australia, we’ve seen women bring home the vast majority of our gold medals and lead us into our most successful Olympics campaign ever.
What’s received less coverage is the many women who’ve worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make it all happen. From logistics, to sports nutrition and athlete management, there’s a diverse range of roles that have played integral parts in the 2024 Games.
Below, we take a look at the stories and careers of some of the key women from across the world who have worked to make this Olympics possible.
Kirsty Burrows
Kirsty Burrows is the Head of Safe Sport Unit at the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which focuses on the prevention of and appropriate response to harassment and abuse in sport and mental health.
Kirsty is also an Academic Director of the IOC Certificate: Safeguarding Officer in Sport programme and a member of the Council of Europe’s Pro Safe Sport pool of experts. Kirsty moved into her field after working as a physiotherapist for elite athletes, where she witnessed first-hand how systems and cultures within sport can foster environments that enable abuse to occur, as well as how mental health in sport is often overlooked.
Louise Ekland
Lousie Ekland is a freelance journalist and television presenter at Owner Ekland Group Productions. Her wide-ranging career has included presenting France’s Got Talent, the Oscars, and acting as a judge on the French version of Top Chef. She regularly covers British stories for the French media
Asked what it’s like to be a woman in a male-dominated field, Ekland said: “As a female sports journalist, you’re not allowed to make mistakes. Compared to a man, who might make something up if they don’t know it – and get away with it – we have to know all the facts and figures, or we’ll be in the firing line.”
Ellen Farlow
Ellen Farlow has worked on arrivals and departures, airports and transport for the Olympic and Paralympic Games since 2000. She helps design, plan and coordinate every arrival and departure, as well as the daily transport service – ensuring each of the 60,000 accredited Games participants and their luggage get where they need to be, when they need to be there.
Ranging from canoes to firearms, horses to exercise bikes, the challenge of handling the volume of specialist equipment is immense.
“It takes a huge amount of work to successfully move the volume of people, luggage and equipment around at Games time. The people involved are rightly proud about what they’ve achieved: it’s the equivalent of athletes and their sport, striving to do their best and winning a medal in the work they do,” Farlow says.
Jojo Ferris
Jojo Ferris is the Head of the Olympic Refuge Foundation (ORF), the organisation managing the IOC Refugee Olympic Team. Jojo also oversees programmes around the world aiming to improve social inclusion and better mental health outcomes for the millions of people across the world forced from their homes.
“I am driven by believing that change is possible, upsetting the status quo is necessary – and by the people around me that help make this reality. The moments when you see somebody engaging and being able to benefit from an activity are the best experiences in my job. Sport isn’t accessible to everybody. You’ve got to find a way for those who are least likely to be able to play to enjoy the benefits,” Ferris says.
Ferris has worked at the United Nations, NGOs, International Sport Federations, Olympic Organising Committees and the Oceania National Olympic Committees.
Alicia Kendig Glass
Alicia Kendig Glass is a Senior Sport Dietitian at the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), working across track and field and swimming. She works with athletes to educate them about their nutritional needs and dietary choices, providing grocery store tours, group cooking classes and online support.
On landing her dream job, she said: “It was one of the specific moments of my career when I advocated for myself. I wanted it so badly that I never questioned, ‘Can I do it?’, ‘Do I have the experience for it?’. I just went into the office of the person who was hiring and wasn’t going to back down. I said, ‘I want track and field, and I want swimming.’ And here we are.”
Georgina Grenon
Georgina Grenon is the Director of Environmental Excellence at the Paris 2024 Organising Committee. She is responsible for ensuring sustainability is embedded throughout every area of the Games, to limit impact on climate, resources and biodiversity.
Grenon has previously spent six years in the French Ministry of Ecology and Energy and was also active in the creation of the Paris Agreement, the international climate change treaty of 2015.
After two years back in the private sector, she was headhunted for the role of Director of Environmental Excellence for Paris 2024. She is responsible for ensuring sustainability is embedded throughout every area of the Games, to limit impact on climate, resources and biodiversity, and leave a positive legacy for the future.
Melanie Knopp
Melanie Knopp is a Manager of Athlete Science at Adidas Innovation. She is responsible for testing and analysing running shoes for elite athletes with the aim of creating an ever-better product. Her work has informed the shoes marathon runners are using to compete in at the Paris 2024 Games.
Wendy Martinson
Wendy Martinson is the Performance Nutrition Lead at Team GB and the Technical Lead Performance Nutritionist and Performance Rehabilitation Nutritionist at the UK Sports Institute.
She has worked with Team GB at five Olympic Summer Games and is currently working towards her sixth, as the Performance Nutrition Lead. As such, she is responsible for making sure all the food and fluid provision for the athletes while at the Games meets their requirements, enabling them to perform at their best.
Aurélie Merle
Aurélie Merle is the Sports Executive Director at the Paris 2024 Organising Committee. She is responsible for the overall delivery of all 32 Olympic sport competitions at the Olympic Games and 22 during the Paralympic Games. This includes making sure all conditions are right for 15,000 athletes to be able to compete at their best, and that the Games are a success for all involved.
“It’s the element of excellence that I find interesting and exciting, people performing at their best. And it’s the emotions – I cry like a baby each time I watch sport. It has this incredible power,” she says.
Amber Walbeck
Amber Walbeck is the Head of Event Infrastructure at the International Olympic Committee. She works with venues and infrastructure teams to make sure all Olympic and Paralympic events are safe and compliant, and meet the needs of a wide range of users: including athletes, media and spectators.
“As a delivery team, we’re running our own race to make sure the athletes can run their most important race,” she says.
