This initiative is really bold. It can make a difference
Maggie Alphonsi’s life would have turned out very differently without a female role model
If you want to know why today’s launch of Telegraph Women’s Sport is important then I should tell you what my life was like when I was 13 years old. I was not a rebellious child, but at that age I had clearly reached a crossroads – shape up or be expelled from school. My problem was having too much energy and prioritising socialising above my studies. Most of my days ended with a dressing-down from my head of year or the headmaster and it was increasingly obvious I had run out of chances.
What saved me was a conversation with one of my teachers, Liza Burgess. She arrived at school with a black eye one day and I asked how she had done it. Playing rugby for Wales, she replied. She looked at me and made a suggestion – “why don’t you turn this energy into a positive and give the game a go?” At first I thought she was mad. I had grown up in a single-parent family on a football-obsessed council estate in Edmonton. I had been born with a club foot and walked with a limp. I was a girl. I was black. There simply were not many people like me who played rugby, or any top-level sport at all.
Liza did not care about my excuses. She told me to get the W6 bus to Saracens, my local club, and ask to play. For a few weeks I ignored her. I did not want to go on my own to play a sport I did not know or understand, with people who I thought would judge me.
Instead, I played my guitar and got into more trouble until there were few options left. So I made what to me seemed a brave choice. I got the bus to Saracens and asked if I could take part in training.
I discovered I was actually quite good, and that neither my gender nor ethnic origin mattered. For the first time in my life I felt completely free. I had made a choice that transformed my life.
In the 18 years since I made that choice, I have won 74 England caps, a World Cup and forged a career as a pundit, analyst and public speaker. But I have always been aware that my success has been achieved in spite of the system, and conscious of the fact I never had any role models to follow.
I was incredibly fortunate that one teacher, who happened to be captain of the Welsh national side, saw something in me and brought it to the surface. But I have always been aware that without that conversation my life would have taken a very different path.
It is why I have tried throughout my career to be that role model, talking about what I do and my journey to this point. It is also why I genuinely believe this initiative by
The Daily Telegraph has the potential to make a difference to all those girls out there in a similar situation to the one I found myself in when I was 13.
This commitment to women’s sport means that we will hear about so many more of the success stories that might otherwise have been buried amid the avalanche of men’s achievements. It ensures there will be role models and examples of how you can make it to the top, no matter your gender, background or ethnicity.
The idea of a glass ceiling can be so oppressive – I certainly know it was for me. But to see others breaking through that can
inspire a generation, and that is what this initiative is designed to do.
One area it will be looking into is to help to level the playing field for girls starting out, particularly at school. I think back to when I was at school, or when I first started playing club rugby, and I know it was the little things that annoyed me most.
We would have to change in the toilets as the men would get the best changing rooms. We would have to train on Wednesdays and Fridays – who wants to train on a Friday? – because the men had priority. We were given hand-me-down kits from the men because no one wanted to buy brand new strips for the women’s team. It drove me up the wall, and it still does.
The situation is better now than it has ever been, but you can still see examples of this attitude that are prevalent today.
It could be that your daughter, for example, has been told that she can play netball at school, but not football or rugby. It might be that the girls have to pay for transport to matches, whereas the boys’ teams get it paid for. It might be that if only one of two pitches has working floodlights then the boys always get priority. It is long overdue that this is addressed.
Clearly, this conversation is easier now than at any point in the history of women’s sport, and so many little things show me how much progress has already been made. During the 2015 World Cup, for example, I made history as the first female pundit covering a men’s match at an international tournament when I worked on the game between France and Romania.
A generation previously there would have been an outcry, but the reaction seemed to be almost all positive and my profile rocketed as a result. Shortly afterwards Alex Scott posted a tweet, commenting on my work during the men’s Six Nations and how great it is to see a woman being a pundit in a men’s tournament. Less than four years on, she has smashed through her own glass ceiling and is a regular on the BBC and on Sky Sports’ coverage of the Premier League. It shows what can be done, and I hope many more will follow in our footsteps.
With the incredible progress made by England women’s footballers, cricketers and rugby players it feels like we are on the verge of something special. Girls do now want to be the next Lucy Bronze, Anya Shrubsole or Jess Breach, and they believe it is possible.
One key difference between men and women’s sport is that any success for any female team really is the rising tide that lifts all boats. When the England rugby side I was in won the 2014 World Cup, the hockey team won gold at the Olympic Games, the netball side won gold at the Commonwealth Games and the cricketers won the World Cup. It sent a surge of electricity through women’s sport in the country, and I hope this initiative can do the same. At the very least I know there are so many uplifting and fascinating stories that are waiting to be told, and I cannot wait for you to hear them.
In 10 years’ time I really hope women are in leadership roles across all sports, and that
The Telegraph has made a difference. But more than that, I hope it inspires more of our young female athletes to see just what they are capable of. I achieved my goals because I had the support of an exceptional teacher, and a mother who was behind me every step of the way. I was incredibly fortunate and know very few people have that. Instead, a 13-year-old should be able to see these stories of achievement and wonder and think “I can do that”.
I learnt that you achieve nothing on the field without being bold. This initiative is bold and I think it could have made a difference when I was a child. I think it can make a difference now.