Karen Coventry is the Director of Sport at Special Olympics Ireland.
She stepped up to the role in 2018 and oversaw Ireland’s participation in the 2019 World Games in Abu Dhabi, a role she will do again at the World Winter Games in Turin in 2025. This year she also became a Board member at Gymnastics Ireland.
Building back the trust and the infrastructure of Ireland’s Special Olympics network after the pandemic was harder than in other sports but the enthusiasm with which athletes and coaches greet her is a mark of just what a great job she and the rest of the team did.
She sits on the Europe Eurasia Sport Committee of Special Olympics and has been with the organisation since graduating from Waterford Institute of Technology.
Coventry was a Regional Development Officer for the Dublin Region of Special Olympics and went back to Waterford Institute of Technology to undertake a Masters degree in Applied Sport and Exercise Psychology.
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This is the twelfth edition of the Sport for Business listing of 50 Women of Influence in Irish Sport in partnership once more with our friends at AIG.
We began this journey in 2013 when challenged that we would never be able to produce a list of twenty Influential Women in Irish Sport. The 20 stretched to 30, then 40 and 50, and it still does not do justice to the talent out there.
Substantial progress has been made during this time. The Government, mindful of the importance and need for gender equity, challenged Irish sporting bodies to have at least a 60/40 gender split on their main board or leadership entity by the end of last year.
The vast majority of National Governing Bodies of Sport met that target, including some who had to work hard through constitutional reform and for some, antiquated thinking on leaders having to fit a particular profile.
The aim now is to go higher, with Sport Ireland setting a target of 50/50 by 2027.
This is as it should be. Internationally, the gender split in doctors ranges from 46 per cent female in New Zealand to 48 per cent in the UK, 52 per cent in France, and 54 per cent in the United States. Sport has for too long lagged behind.
The gender gap in terms of participation is targeted to be non-existent by 2027, and the profile of our elite athletes is as high for Leona Maguire, Rachael Blackmore, Kellie Harrington, Katie Taylor, and Katie McCabe as it is for the best of our men.
Look at our Olympians and Paralympians from the summer. Across the two Games, we won 13 medals, five by Men or Men’s pairings and eight by Women. And beyond the medals, Rhasidat Adeleke and Ellen Keane were the stars who won the hearts of the public without getting to stand on the podium.
We are nearing the point where sport is sport regardless of gender.
The gap remains too big in media, sponsorship, attendance, and funding, but it is only by highlighting the wrongs that we can make them right.
This year’s list will again draw from all the multiple areas that make up sport. From the fields of play to the corridors of power, from the boardroom to the studio, and from every corner of the country.
Last year’s list included 24 who could be described as from leadership or administration positions within sports, 14 from Sponsorship, and the balance from Agencies, Coaching, Backroom Teams, Politics, and Media.
For this year, we will challenge ourselves to generate a minimum of 40 per cent of new entrants once more.
This will mean some who fully deserve to remain stepping aside but that is part of what influence and leadership is about and they are in no way diminished by their not being on the list this year.
So, who should be included? We have a good sense of the landscape, but we are always open to new suggestions, which is where you come in.
Every year, the number of nominees exceeds the ceiling of 50 that we place on the list, and we have no doubt this year will be the same again.
The list we will build over the coming weeks is a snapshot of women who are changing the way sport is played, consumed, grown, and delivered.
They are part of making the role of women in sport unexceptional by being exceptional in what they do.
Recognition of their contribution is rarely asked for but is entirely deserved, and we want your help in identifying those who you feel should be among them.
So, who do you think should be on the list for 2024?
The Sport for Business Membership comprises nearly 300 organisations, including all the leading sports and sponsors, as well as commercial and state agencies.