The Women Coach Internship Programme, launched at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, was a resounding success and created enduring bonds of friendship and support.

When the women crowded into a small room in the Athletes Village for their first meeting, no one knew what to expect and there was no hint that something extraordinary was about to happen. But almost immediately, a powerful connection was established.

Their diverse backgrounds range from growing up in farming communities to small towns to sophisticated urban centres. All were athletes, all are committed to improving opportunities for girls to succeed in sport and in life, and all have a strong desire to give back to sport, which has given them so much.

This book is testimony to these remarkable women and demonstrates that much is possible when talent, determination, discipline, and courage come together.

Sheila Hurtig Robertson is the author of Shattered Hopes: Canada’s Boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games and the founding editor of the Canadian Journal for Women in Coaching. She attended three Olympic Games as a communications specialist. A past winner of the Canadian Sport Award in Communications, she is a director of the Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship and a member of the Grandmothers Advocacy Network. She and her husband, Bruce Robertson, live in Manotick, Ontario.

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