Born: 1944
Gwenda Ward’s involvement in athletics started at the age of 11 as a jumper and hurdler and she was winning national under15 titles by the age of 13. She eventually achieved international status primarily as a high jumper but also as a multi-eventer. She was a member of the 1964 GB Olympic team and also took part in the Jamaica Commonwealth Games in 1966. Although she retired from competition in 1971, her keen interest in the sport’s development has kept her involved ever since.
As a result of researching and campaigning on women’s issues, Gwenda was appointed inaugural honorary secretary of the Women’s Advisory Group in 1991. She assembled a team and found funding for a programme to address psycho/social factors affecting female athletes. Some 50 athletes and coaches took part, including Denise Lewis, Ashia Hansen, Paula Radcliffe and Kelly Holmes. Participants reported great benefit and evaluation 6 months after the course showed increases of up to 28 % in self-belief, assertiveness, control over performance and ability to handle conflict.
Gwenda has provided projects for British athletics on “fast-tracking” for women in decision making and on gender awareness. Most recently she has designed a “Coaching Women and Girls” module and resource book for the new coach education programme. She has been a guest speaker on gender at a variety of conferences and been a guest lecturer on gender equity in sport at University College St Martins (Lancaster). She is a tutor for SportsCoach UK specialising in child protection and sports equity and sits on the UK Athletics (UKA) Womens forum.
She is delighted to be selected as the UKA nominee for the IAAF Women’s Committee. She sees the achievement of full event parity for women as a leap forward by the IAAF and believes that exchanges of ideas and information on the specific needs of female athletes is the way to build on this and achieve global development for women’s athletics.
