More women on coaching courses is 'massive progress' - Nora Stapleton

An increase in female participation on coaching courses is a sign of "massive progress", according to Sport Ireland's Director of Strategic NGB (National Governing Bodies) Programmes.

Nora Stapleton was speaking to RTÉ 2fm's Game On on Tuesday as part of the fifth annual edition of the Women in Sport Week.

The 2025 WIS Week kicked off on Monday and will run all the way to this Sunday, featuring a host of webinars, as well as highlighting initiatives and stakeholders from across the country.

It also supports Sport Ireland's Policy on Women in Sport, including the crucial pillar of trying to keep girls and women involved in sport.

But Stapleton also spotlighted signs of increasing female involvement in coach education.

"At an intro level, we're seeing a high level of male and female coaches. It's not far off equal," said Stapleton whose role sees her serve as the Women in Sport Lead with Sport Ireland.

"As a base across the whole population and across our coaching database, it's made up of about 36% females.

"Unfortunately, as we go through the pathway that drops off. So when you get to high performance level, you're talking about 13%.

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"Now, we've a lot of initiatives in there. We do have a women in high performance coaching programme which we're running for those in that high performance space to give them some support and just help them progress and stay within that high performance space.

"And then a lot of funding we give out. Last year we got about €4 million from Government in