From Athlete to the Boardroom: What Comes After the Athlete Perspective?

For more than a decade, sport was something I experienced primarily from the athlete’s side.

I trained.

I competed.

I represented Papua New Guinea.

I became an Olympian.

I experienced high-performance sport from the inside the pressure, sacrifice, expectations, relationships, politics, opportunities and decisions that can shape an athlete’s career.

Since retiring from elite competition, my relationship with sport has changed.

I’ve worked in athlete wellbeing and pathways. I’ve become increasingly interested in the experiences of Pacific athletes and how culture, identity, education, wellbeing and life beyond sport intersect with performance.

And lately, another question has been emerging for me:

What would it look like to eventually contribute to sport at governance level?

Athlete experience is valuable, but it isn’t the whole job

I recently attended a Minerva Network discussion focused on women in sports governance and sports boards.

It made me think more seriously about what athletes can bring to a board and what we still need to learn.

Athletes can offer an incredibly valuable perspective.

We know what policies feel like when they reach the people they were designed for.

We understand the realities of high-performance environments.

We can often identify gaps between what an organisation says it values and what athletes actually experience.

And former athletes can ask questions that someone who has only experienced sport from the corporate or administrative side may not think to ask.

But athlete experience alone doesn’t necessarily prepare someone to be an effective board director.

A sports board still needs the capabilities you would expect around any significant organisation.

Finance.

Strategy.

Risk.

Human resources.

Marketing.

Commercial capability.

Fundraising and partnerships.

Governance.

And increasingly, an understanding of how sport remains commercially sustainable.

Sport still needs to work as a business

One of the strongest themes from the discussion was commercial sustainability.

It’s easy to focus on what happens on the field, court, track or in the pool.

But behind that are much bigger strategic questions.

How does the organisation generate revenue?

What makes people attend games?

What experiences are being created for fans and partners?

What opportunities exist through tourism, events, hospitality and VIP experiences?

Where will future revenue come from?

What are the strategic priorities of the organisation?

A board needs to be capable of looking beyond the next competition or season and asking what will make the organisation sustainable over the long term.

That requires a different skill set from being able to perform at an elite level.

And that’s something I’m interested in learning.

Governance decisions eventually reach the athlete

At the same time, sport can’t become so focused on commercial outcomes that it forgets who is experiencing the consequences of its decisions.

One example discussed during the session involved facilities available to female athletes.

Something as seemingly basic as changing rooms, toilets or space for support staff can tell you a lot about where athletes sit within an organisation’s priorities.

The same applies to policies around athlete travel.

High-performance environments.

Staffing.

Wellbeing.

Safeguarding.

Resources.

These might appear as budgets, risk considerations or strategic decisions at board level.

For an athlete, they’re everyday experiences.

That is one reason I believe athlete voices can be incredibly valuable in governance.

The challenge is combining that lived experience with the capability to understand the organisation as a whole.

Do your due diligence before saying yes

Another important lesson was that being invited onto a board isn’t automatically an opportunity you should accept.

Potential directors need to do their due diligence.

Understand the finances.

Read the numbers.

Understand the constitution.

Look at the organisation’s culture.

Understand the relationship between the board, CEO and management.

Know what you’re becoming legally and strategically responsible for.

For athletes, being invited onto a board can feel like recognition.

But the better question may be:

Is this an organisation I am prepared to govern?

Moral courage belongs in the boardroom

Of all the qualities discussed, one stayed with me:

Moral courage.

A board director needs to be willing to ask questions.

Sometimes uncomfortable ones.

They need to be able to engage with people throughout an organisation from athletes and support staff through to management and executives while understanding that their role is governance rather than day-to-day management.

They need to be willing to speak when something doesn’t align with the organisation’s responsibilities or values.

That requires more than technical expertise.

It requires courage.

So where does an athlete start?

During the discussion, I had planned to ask, which was asked by another member:

For an athlete who wants to move into sports governance and eventually be considered for board positions, what would you recommend as the first steps to building the governance, strategic and commercial experience needed to add real value around a sports board?

I loved that the pathway didn’t have to begin with a major sporting organisation.

It could begin locally.

Join a committee.

Learn how meetings work.

Understand governance processes.

Become comfortable reading financial information.

Build strategic and commercial experience.

Learn the difference between governance and management.

Understand constitutions and the responsibilities of members and directors.

And keep developing your ability to see sport beyond your own experience.

From athlete voice to something more

I don’t want to lose the athlete perspective.

I want to build on it.

My experience as an Olympian gives me one lens.

My work in athlete wellbeing gives me another.

And my experience as a Papua New Guinean and Pacific athlete who competed internationally while building a life in Australia gives me another again.

Those perspectives matter to me.

But if I eventually want to sit around a board table, I also want to know that I’m there for more than my story.

I want to understand the numbers.

I want to understand the strategy.

I want to understand risk.

I want to understand the commercial realities.

I want to understand good governance.

And I want to be capable of asking the questions that need to be asked.

There is something quite powerful about recognising that what got you into one room may not be enough to take you into the next.

That doesn’t diminish everything you’ve already achieved.

It simply gives you somewhere new to grow.

Don’t lose the experience that makes your perspective different.

Build the capability around it.

So when the opportunity eventually comes to take your seat at the table, you’re ready to contribute.