'A conversation with Martha Lourey-Bird' - supporting our daughters and young females in sport

Parents in Sport Podcast

In this episode Martha Lourey-Bird and Gordon MacLelland discuss sports parenting and specifically supporting our daughters and young females in sport.

Martha shares her experiences of being a sports parent to two high performing children and the different approaches they take in supporting their son and daughter.

She also shares all of her experience from working across a range of amazing projects around women and girls in sport allowing us all to take something away to help support our sports programmes and our daughters at home.

During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:

• Drop out of sport in young females
• The major mental, physical and social benefits of involving our young children in sport
• The importance of fun, friendship and socialisation for girls
• Being innovative with the sporting programmes that we offer
• Giving girls a voice in the process to shape their programmes
• Making sure girls feel welcome and facilities are appropriate
• The huge challenges of gender inequality in sport
• If you can see it, you can be it
• Managing the car journey home
• Supporting our children to take ownership of their sporting experience as they get older
• The huge support network required to raise high performing athletes

Martha is a Sports and Exercise Scientist, a 15-year lecturer at the University of New South Wales' Faculty of Medicine and has an international corporate career in women's health. Currently, she manages the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup women and girls legacy programs.
Martha contributes her expertise globally to both the sports industry and corporate sector, always working to improve sports participation and/or physical activity levels.
To find out more about Martha's work click here.