Tokyo-bound Montag selected for IOC Young Leaders Program

Less than a week after unofficially breaking the Australian 10km race walk all-comers record, Jemima Montag is celebrating another achievement - being selected for the IOC Young Leaders program.

Focusing on the power of sport to create positive change, the IOC Young Leaders program selects just 25 people across the globe to develop their own sustainable sports-based social business in response to a local issue.

Each participant receives CHF10,000 seed-funding over four years, and is supported by weekly learning modules and leadership opportunities.

Up against 3,000 applicants, Montag’s passion for empowering women in sport saw her selected as the only Oceania representative, and she’s now looking forward to addressing reasons why so many young women in Australia stop playing sport.

“Growing up as a sporty young girl from an athletic family, I was acutely aware of the problems and struggles that girls face from the onset of puberty and in high school,” Montag said.

“Bodies start to change, and the changes you see in yourself as a female can be detrimental to sport. Boys get faster and stronger, but I remember wondering why I felt so sluggish, why everything got so hard and so many of my peers started dropping out of sport. It was sad to see, and still is sad to see so many miss out on the social and physical benefits that sport has to offer.”

At just 23, Montag said that despite her success from a young age, she’s using her own lived-experience and research to come up with new solutions.

“I represented Australia at the World Under 20 Championships when I was in year 11, but the following year I missed out on a few key international events, and I thought I was done,” she said.

“In that time, sport made me feel nervous, inadequate and body conscious.”

While Montag stepped away from the sport for a year to focus on her year 12 studies, it was a trip to Japan with her family at the end of high school that encouraged her to aim high for the Tokyo Olympics this July. She’s now just one of five athletes from the sport already selected. 

“Even having that experience as a young woman at the time, it’s now sparked a passion in me to speak to young school girls, to visit schools through the VIS and to talk about all sorts of different things, including the benefits and power of sport at any level, and particularly the community level.”

Through her own research, Montag has discovered there are three key barriers that are preventing social change.

“The first barrier is being judged, or the fear of being judged; the second is ability – not being good enough or fit enough, or not knowing the rules, and the second is prioritisation,” she said.

Judgement comes from the types of uniforms women and girls are expected to wear when competing in sport, she said, while prioritisation often comes down to a social issue. 

“It’s feeling that they shouldn’t prioritise sport or physical activity when there are other things they feel like they should be doing – like studying at school for instance, or even organizing dinner or taking care of kids.

“I come from a long line of women who are sporty and active. My grandmother is in her 80s and power walks every morning – she says that’s where I got it from – and then it went to my mum and my sisters and me. But we are the lucky ones,” she said.

“I went to Wesley College that gave me opportunities to travel for sport. I’m able-bodied, I’m white, I’m cisgender, but I want every young woman and even older women to have equal opportunity. I’ve been able to see all the benefits – social, emotional and physical and so should they.”

The first year of the program will focus on ideation and research and she’s looking forward to using her growing platform to amplify her discoveries. 

“Being an athlete is a unique space – sometimes it’s confusing why you have such a platform and why people listen to you, but it’s an opportunity I don’t want to waste,” she said.

“Having lived experience and having overcome my own challenges in my career to then make Worlds, Commonwealth Games and now the Olympics, I want to give back for all that sport has given to me.”

Montag will next compete on Sunday, 14th February at the Australian 20km Race Walking Championships where she will look to defend her national title. 

By Sascha Ryner
Posted: 4/1/2021