Leadership in athletics can refer to many things. Some may think of those who lead governing bodies or perhaps those who lead teams of athletes, coaches or officials. But it can also mean just taking responsibility and inspiring others to carry out necessary and sometimes difficult tasks.
Chairing an athletics club is one of the most common ways to lead in our sport and it frequently involves this type of leadership. As the head of the successful Herning GF Athletics club for 34 years, it was hardly unexpected to observers of the Danish athletics scene when Kirsten Bergmann was recognised with her country’s nomination for a 2013 European Athletics Women’s Leadership Award.
Kirsten’s association with athletics is life-long. “I started as child in the town I lived in at that time,” she recalls. “My gym teacher was very much an ideal role model for all us girls – active and very much concerned about girls in sports. Then I visited the club and already as a teenager the leaders saw my potential for being a trainer as my talent did not point to me becoming a top athlete.”
Elite competition’s loss was Danish athletics’ gain, as Kirsten embarked on a career in the sport that has not only seen her progress from coaching to leading all her club’s activities, it has also seen her recognised as an expert in the development of young talents all the way to representing their country on Denmark’s international teams.
This expertise led step by step to a place on the federation’s board: “I was elected as the chair of the youth group in my region, then as a member of the national youth group and from there to the board.”
Talent development often goes hand in hand with competition, so it is no surprise that Kirsten’s past work extends into that sphere as well. She has devoted much of her time to organising meetings for children and youths, emphasising all round activities, team competition and fun. The school competition programmes she developed years ago are still in use.
“My favourite saying was: ‘Athletics is running, jumping and throwing’ and you can do that in several ways,” she says.
Today, Kirsten is as active as ever, organising athletics meetings and recreational road races, coaching some of her club's young talents and playing an expanded role in the federation as a long-standing member of both the Technical Committee and Appeals Committee. She has even been responsible for translating the IAAF’s competition rules into Danish.
But she says that she still draws her greatest satisfaction from assisting, and learning from, young athletes.
The federation’s Deputy Manager Kirse Ellegaard sums Kirsten up succinctly: “Her passion and commitment for the sport of athletics are extraordinary. She takes part at all levels when it comes to her work, whether it takes place in a committee of the federation or being present on the local track coaching the club's young athletes.”
When asked about being recognised as a woman leader, Kirsten responds that more women should be occupying similar roles to those that she has over the years: “There are too few women in athletics training and coaching at high levels,” she says, “and there are too few women in leadership in general.
“We all have to work on being role models and encourage girls and women to take part in our sport on all levels.”
Long may that continue.
The European Athletics Women's Leadership Awards
The aim of the European Athletics Women's Leadership Awards is to recognise the behind the scenes work and accomplishments that have helped to make the winners role models for other women in athletics. Coaching young athletes, officiating, setting up and managing clubs . . . their achievements are as varied as the individuals themselves.
In 2013, 26 women, including Kirsten, were selected for the award by their national athletics federations.