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Female DS?

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Christian

Christian

Mar 13, 2009
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Clermont Foot, a professional football team in France's second division (Ligue 2), announced last may that they had signed portuguese Helena Costa as their head coach (manager), making them the first professional football team to have a female head coach (at least in France - not sure if in all the world).

Two months later, Costa decided not to take the job after all, citing complete lack of professionalism from the French side. Clermont Foot then proceded to sign french Corinne Diacre as a replacement, who holds the position to this day. Currently, Clermont Foot is in 17th place (out of 20) in France's Ligue 2, with three wins, four draws and seven losses.

This got me thinking: will we ever see a female directeur sportif, or should I say directrice sportive in professional male cycling? In theory, nothing should prevent this from happening, since men who have never raced, or raced in a completely different era can still be succesful DS's, and we see more and more sport scientists enter the teams, highly qualified master graduates, who have studied various aspects of professional sport. I am not sure if I remember correctly, but I think the UCI also offers trainings for aspiring DS's, it'd be interesting to find out if many women participate in this.

I don't know much about women's professional cycling, or how the teams work, but I assume they also have female DS's. In men's cycling, many teams have women on their staff, but it seems almost exclusively as press officers, soigneurs or doctors. Two prominent women in men's cycling more recently have been Christina "watches her money disappear" Hembo and Linda McCartney. As far as I know, there is no WorldTour team that has a female DS, though I could be wrong. I have also never heard of a directrice sportive on ProConti or Continental level.

What do you think? Are there qualified women who could take these jobs (knowing that there seem to be quite a few unqualified men who occupy them right now)? I know that on Radioshack-Leopard, for example, they promoted Luc Meersman from bus driver to DS. That is not to say he's not a good DS (I have no idea) but it shows that little qualification seems to be required.

I thought this might make for a nice discussion during the off-season :)
 
Microchip

Microchip

Jul 23, 2010
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"directrice sportive" I like the sound of that.

directrice.jpg


I don't see why it can't work! There's a European male tennis player, I forget his name right now, whose wife is his COACH! It can surely work.
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

Feb 20, 2010
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Robin Morton is probably the trailblazer in this respect, having been a team boss at the Giro and the Vuelta in the 80s.

I feel pretty sure Europcar had a female DS or similar a couple of years back. They would make sense as a team for that as well, having also had the first 3rd-gen Algerian-French rider (Saïd Haddou), the first Afro-Caribbeans at the Tour (Gène and Reza) and the first Asian Tour rider (Arashiro, same time as Doi for Skil-Shimano).
 
P

Parker

Mar 4, 2011
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The problem with a DS (much like a football manager as the OP cited) is that that role is invariably filled by an ex-Pro. It's a tactical position where knowledge of how the peloton works, as well as contacts with other DSs are important. So it puts women at a disadvantage. Their CV won't be as good.

It doesn't mean that they can't do it. Sky had a complete outsider - Dan Hunt - as a DS for a while, but no longer.

But here's the question. How many DSs are there in women's cycling? Surely that's the place to start.

(Women can do everything else just as well. Management is a more obvious avenue. Fran Millar is someone who seems quite high up - no idea what her actual job is though)
 
Master50

Master50

Mar 10, 2009
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I know Robin from the days she was race director in Philly. I never knew this about her. Cool.
She is still a promoter at G4
 
Microchip

Microchip

Jul 23, 2010
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Parker said:
The problem with a DS (much like a football manager as the OP cited) is that that role is invariably filled by an ex-Pro. It's a tactical position where knowledge of how the peloton works, as well as contacts with other DSs are important. So it puts women at a disadvantage. Their CV won't be as good.

It doesn't mean that they can't do it. Sky had a complete outsider - Dan Hunt - as a DS for a while, but no longer.

But here's the question. How many DSs are there in women's cycling? Surely that's the place to start.

(Women can do everything else just as well. Management is a more obvious avenue. Fran Millar is someone who seems quite high up - no idea what her actual job is though)
Click to expand...

"Head of Business Operations of Team Sky", says Wikipedia. Turns out she's David Millar's sister.
 
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