Female officials leading the charge | Australian Junior Athletics Championships

Ten of Australia’s most respected female technical officials will come together once more this Summer to lead the charge at the 2023 Australian Junior Athletics Championships.

Across the sports industry, women are under-represented as participants, coaches, officials and administrators, but athletics has defied the trend, having long forged a pathway in all areas of the sport. 

As a former athlete, a coach and now a senior official, Queenslander Helen Roberts said she was thrilled to come together with the brightest women in the sport this week, and see them thrive in leadership positions.

“It’s so fantastic to see so many women not only climbing the ranks as officials, but it’s exciting to be able to showcase how strong women are in leadership roles.”

Australia is one only two countries, along with Spain, out of 215 members of World Athletics, that provides more females than males on international officiating panels.

It’s partly because of a culture that already existed in women’s athletics in Australia when it merged with the men to form one of the first united national bodies in 1979. But even more so, because a strong group of women were prepared to take on new frontiers in officiating after Australia was awarded the 2000 Games led by Lorraine Morgan (para athletics integration) and Janelle Eldridge and Helen Lee who respectively developed the templates now used globally in the Call Room and Post Event.

There was also an unusual alignment of the planets – when the Sydney Games featured women’s pole vault and hammer throw for the first time. This in itself was largely due to the insistence of Australia’s forceful international women’s representative Margaret Mahony.

That battle having been won, the then leaders at World Athletics were stunned when Athletics Australian proposed female referees and chief judges in these disciplines – for the men’s events.

It was ground breaking stuff across all the field events – with Stella Barclay, Joan Burge, Joan Cross, Lynda Gusbeth, Colleen McEwen, Ellen Perry, Annette Williams and Pauline Zuccolin representing half of those in charge. The previous Olympics had none.

And then there was pioneer international official, Jill Huxley as Race Walks Referee having to so carefully manage the disqualification of Jane Saville in the women’s 20km.

In 2023, capping off a Summer which included Australia’s first ever World Athletics Continental Tour Gold Level Meet, with the Maurie Plant Meet as well as the World Athletics Cross Country Championships, Roberts said she was also proud to be part of a sport that has long fostered development opportunities for women.

“In Oceania, we are part of the leading area association in the world with promoting women into leadership roles. We have very strong women and those women prove themselves each and every day in athletics.

With almost 30 years of experience, Roberts’ journey has taken her from the club scene all the way to working at the Olympic Games – all thanks to the opportunities provided to her as an official. 

In 1996 while attending an athletics meet as a coach, Roberts was asked by another official if she could stay on to help due to long numbers. Not once in her time has she ever looked back. 

“I’m lucky. I get to travel the world but even if I didn’t get to the level that I’m at, I love that I’m still doing something I got involved in when I was nine years old, that my family has been involved in for generations. Officiating gives me purpose now that I’m at the other end of my life and close to retirement, and it gives me things to look forward to that aren’t just based around work and going home each day,” she said.

“I get so much out of it. It’s not just the opportunities for positions like these, but the friendships I’ve created, front row seats to the best performances in the world and the chance to feel useful in a sport that I love.”
With pathway and leadership opportunities aplenty, Roberts encourages everyone who has been involved in athletics in some way to give officiating a go. 

“For a start, we have a couple of very big meets coming up as far as the world goes. Every meet is a big meet to athletes that are competing in it, but we have a Commonwealth Games coming up as well as an Olympic and Paralympic Games,” she said.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to do the last one in Sydney and it’s enough to keep anyone in the sport longer. That whole thing about being around people who think like you, and getting to know people that are around our sport and love our sport, this is the way to do it. Nobody doubts our passion.”

If you're interested in becoming an official, click HERE for more information.  

Women  in officiating leadership roles at the Australian Junior Athletics Championships
(From Left to Right in the above photo)

Kirsteen Farrance, Vic, Field Referee

Sarah Davis, Vic, Field Referee

Rachael Larking, SA, Field Referee

Katie Johns, QLD, Meeting Manager

Yvonne Papadimos, QLD, Technical Delegate

Lauren Curry, QLD, Technical Manager

Caroline Jackman, SA, Competition Director

Kylie Brown, QLD, Field Referee and Combined Events Referee

Kim Owens, NSW, Technical Delegate

Helen Roberts, QLD, Start Referee

By Sascha Ryner and Brian Roe for Athletics Australia
Posted: 13/4/2023