But O'Donnell said after nearly a year of preparation, when she spent thousands of dollars on a bike and partaking in a strict anti-doping protocol, the record attempt was surprisingly easy. Given that most of the mid-season races on the womens calendar were between three and four hours long, and involved circuits with long climbs and technical descents, riders who had been on a bike for decades and were not only fearless and desperate, but quite literally, hungry, were potential winners. Nothing really was landed at that time around how that would look at that. So weve invested twenty nine million dollars in female friendly facilities over the last four years which means upgrades to pavilions so that these girls toilets and change rooms better lighting better surfaces on the field so that more teams can play. Where did that money go and why are we not seeing as much content as we would like and the WNBA is a great example. What would she save in a fire, whats her most useful object? Bridie ODonnell shares three special things. While working in Intensive Care and studying for physician exams, Bridie competed first in rowing . [00:25:11] Yeah. Women like Angela Merkel and Christine Lagarde You know Theresa May. And so what weve seen with now three complete seasons of AFL WS Thats the Womens Australian Rules. conversations from the world of women's sports. Youre dealing with very powerful people generally men whove had their power for a long time. I was one of 70 who applied and one of 12 who got selected to be part of a testing programme. For six years, she travelled the world racing in the Australian national team and Italian professional squads. According to our Database, She has no children. But Im curious as to where you see the progress that youre making. And what Im asking them to do is think differently about something and that can be for some of them deeply threatening. Bridie O'Donnells income source is mostly from being a successful . So being active playing sport engaged in it in their life. If you have any comments or questions about the shows that we do or suggestions for guests please do drop us a line to info at WiSP Sports dot com. First, she worked as a medical practitioner. Bridie graduated as valedictorian from the University of Queensland medical school and won the G R S last prize for the most outstanding intern in 1999. Equally with Sydney in this country and the population of Victorias about eight and a half million and we have 115 now. What does this say. But we do have a lot of great wheelchair athletes who did very well obviously in Rio and do very well. And that I think has been the extraordinary difference for professional womens sporting leagues and teams is that theyve had to grow and blossom and be criticised in the most ridiculous level of scrutiny both on social media from anonymous abusers but also from just you know male commentators saying this is boring I dont like watching this and it wasnt that long ago that I was commentating Road World Cycling Championships and we were hearing commentators from other countries saying this is a boring race nothings happening with therefore womens cycling is boring without any insight into the idea that these women are not only different physiological beasts but its a different race with different team numbers. Or you can post your comments on our social media at Facebook Instagram and Twitter or LinkedIn. Okay. I still miss that swimsuit. O'donnell is a world champion road cyclist, a . And if I had had men in the public service say youll never be able to be this boss of this office and run this budget do make this change because youve never done it before then. O'Donnell set the record at the the Adelaide Super-Drome, which is a far cry from her family house in Obi Obi Valley, where her family lived off-the-grid. So you know there are opportunities out there. How we overcome this hurdle of you know challenging the networks to make this free to air and satisfying the sponsors and getting the coverage that women need in the media. Bridie ODonnell in full cycling mode in the US in 2012. There and can use those facilities and feel part of a club. [00:05:17] Just a little over 18 months I want to dig a little bit deeper into what youre working on now because Australia of course seems in many ways to tell us and the rest of the world is one of the leaders when it comes to womens sports in terms of equality and opportunity facilities and so on. And so whilst were not where we need to be in terms of pay equality and the number of women in leadership positions and the doors that are open to girls and women of all abilities and all genders and all racial backgrounds we are certainly much in a much better position than we have been even two years ago. No absolutely thats a copout. As long as many more episodes of different shows we have now over a thousand episodes and a global audience reach now of more than three million. And unfortunately under that category of niche was womens sports. [00:08:28] A friend of mine was doing a triathlon Id never ridden a bike before and Id never done a running race and Id only just swum for you know learning that school. So weve invested twenty nine million dollars in female friendly facilities over the last four years which means upgrades to pavilions so that these girls toilets and change rooms better lighting better surfaces on the field so that more teams can play. Bridie was the first woman to join SBS Cycling to commentate the Tour de France, covering the race in 2020 and 2021. Because Im most curious about this you know being in the media for as long as I have. Our guest this week is Dr. Bridie O'Donnell who is head of the Office for Women in Sport and Recreation in Melbourne Australia and she is here to discuss the issues affecting women and girls from her perspective. When teammates wanted free advice, or an answer to support their theory, I was of use. But we also need the networks to to buy into it too because at the end of the day everybody benefits if they have the foresight to invest in it at whatever level. And then about nine months later they announced that there would be a campaign sort of suite of initiatives called change again. I would make some coffee and then I would eat some sort of cereal with yogurt and berries. But I think thats a long conversation and when I do that we can solve it here now. There were a lot of team vans that had no seatbelts in the backseats, which terrified me. I can tell you that. She was tall and had the arms of a prima ballerinastrong, but skinny as hell. Six years of med school was helpful but actually following around the senior doctor and thinking Okay heres what being a surgeon involves. Ive been an athlete than a successful athlete. What were seeing now is those people are being left behind. Yeah theyve just won the Ashes they won the World Cup. Taylor Harris herself was interviewed on the radio sort of saying I know you shouldnt read the comments but Ive read them and these are by some men whove got women in their profile pictures you know wives and probably kids. He was a loud, confident, successful and brash 30-something whose squad contained World Champions, Olympians and World Cup winners in an era when Olympic Distance triathlon was a huge money earner.. Dr O'Donnell is a medical doctor, graduating from the University of Queensland's school of medicine in 1998 and is the current head of the Office for Woman in Sport and Recreation for the Victorian State Government. Search Log In Sign Up Your email address will not be published. [00:29:59] They would need to have 40 per cent women on the boards of these organisations acknowledging these were all volunteer positions. She will win for sure!. So it actually wasnt until I was in my second year of medical school I went straight into medical school out of high school and I started doing a triathlon. The first day she gets it and I am living breathing example of that that I had never worked in government before and all I was was just a washed up athlete doctor. [00:11:35] So all of those things are challenging. "It was the ideal way to grow up I suppose; my sister and I would explore all day long and then go to school during the week," she said. She represented Australia at three Road World Championships and broke the UCI Womens Hour World Record in 2016, riding 46.882km at the Adelaide Superdrome. So learning that online is not good enough. And yet the WNBA all is a really as a league that is struggling and has struggled to get investment. We wont be able to convince our state politicians and federal politicians to invest in a womens football tournament. Dr Bridie O'Donnell graduated Valedictorian from the University of Queensland Medical School and won the JRS Lahz Prize for Most Outstanding Intern at Mater Adult Hospital. I can tell you that. Usually former players umpires referees presidents etc. How do they respect and talk about women in their privacy of their own home. Okay. You know how to deliver you keep going when youre tired you keep going when youre annoyed when it rains when its windy. [00:39:10] Its just it can be overwhelming but I hope it can be rewarding too and youll youll see absolutely the changes. Im Chris Stafford. Peggy ONeil shes the president of the Richmond Football Club here the first woman to be president of an AFL club which is no mean feat and certainly as an outsider to a non Australian. So we all bore the moody behaviour for the good of the team. During my first week riding in Italy, after the team presentation and before we embarked on the season of racing up north, one of my teammates insisted she had to lose 5kg, otherwise everything would be very, very bad. Look at the proof of how thats raised the profile of womens soccer in this country because thats now on free to air TV and you can find that on the networks every week during season some of the coaches say oh sorry to interrupt you but I was just thinking about a lot of the coaches will say high performance coaches will say they still want to see people at games and that Lisa Alexander talks about this with netball and the super nimble coaches will say we want you to come. And I think also our sporting nature nation culture is a bit is a bit mythical. Bridie returned to full time work in 2013 as a behavior change physician at Epworth health check in Epworth breast centre with a part time role teaching doctor patient communication at Deakin University Medical School from 2013 to 2016. You dont get what you want a lot. The way to solve those critics is to. And interestingly the response by the AFL media was to remove the photo and then the Internet responded even more vociferously people in support of her and of womens sport by saying this is not the solution removing womens images from public spaces is not the way to silence critics. Dr Bridie ODonnell is a bike race commentator for SBS, medical practitioner and former professional road cyclist. Dont rub it in. I was good but just never great enough to represent my country. In 2017, she was appointed the inaugural head of the Victorian Government Office for Women in Sport and Recreation, and in 2018 she published Life and Death a cycling memoir about her experiences racing in the womens professional peloton. and theres been so such a lack of diverse thinking that you know these people generally all the same age that probably went to school together and so by by asking them to have a quota and bring women in. As a young girl growing up in a house with no electricity and television, Dr Bridie O'Donnell had no idea she would one day be a world champion cyclist. grant mcfarland cause of death,