ABSTRACT
In the UK, current statistics and research suggests that diversity within sport and sports leadership remains low. This trend is apparent despite a wider drive and legislative push for sport organisations and national governing bodies (NGBs) to increase and diversify their participant base and sport coaching workforce. In particular, there is an under-representation of Black and minoritied ethnic (BME) groups in all leadership positions across multiple sports. Within this, and providing the focus of this chapter, is the acute invisibility of Black women as sport coaches. This chapter (re)presents the voices of eight Black women coaches, interviewed about their professional and personal experiences of coaching across a range of sports. Rooted in a Critical Race Theory and Black feminist theoretical framework, we discuss the coaches’ narratives under three themes: feeling hyper visible, overcoming the burden of doubt, and everyday experiences of sexism. Foregrounding the experiences and counter narratives of Black women coaches highlights the practices that reinforce the dominance of both whiteness and masculinity within sport coaching. The coaches’ narratives demonstrate the need for greater knowledge and understanding of the intersectional structural and relational experiences that facilitate, as well as constrain, Black women coaches’ progression in certain sports.
