A Woman in a Man’s World

Meet European medallist, Tokyo Olympian and CUBC Women’s Assistant Coach, Matilda Horn

PHOTOGRAPHY BENEDICT TUFNELL

In eight years of rowing, spanning three different clubs and seven different squads, I’ve only had one female coach. This has led to some uncomfortable remarks about menstrual cycles and sports bras, and on one occasion a coach said to me that he didn’t think women should lift weights. My experience as an (incredibly) amateur rower is not unique. Nearly 70% of British Rowing members who have a coaching qualification in their membership profile are male. Meanwhile the highperformance sports community is also not immune to the huge gender imbalance. Only 10% of coaching positions are taken up by women, according to UK Sport.

In a sport where females make up just short of half the athletes, the rowing world needs to also drive for equality right through to the coaching level.

CUBC’s Women’s Assistant Coach, Matilda Horn, is one woman asserting her space in a predominately male world and has loved her first year embracing the unique challenge of coaching the Light Blue boats.

“I’ve spent a long time on the Tideway, and previously you’d very rarely see a woman coaching from a launch. Now I see women coaching from almost every club.”

“This year has been fun, exciting and a challenge. It’s a beautiful thing coaching these women. They are not full-time athletes, but they want to be as good as, and challenge themselves as much as, full-time athletes would. They are trying to balance so much and as a coach I need to be empathetic to that, but also remember our task in hand, to win the Boat Race.”

Coaching is a family affair for Horn, whose father Alastair coaches at Fulham Reach Boat Club. After learning to row at Eton Excelsior Rowing Club, she switched to coxing after a back injury. Horn had a successful GB rowing career, where in 2017 she coxed a new-look eight to silver and bronze medals at World Rowing Cups II and III and became an Olympian in 2021 as the cox of the women’s eight. Horn also spent seven years as Assistant Head Coach at the American School in London, where during her years they qualified their first boat for Henley Royal Regatta and achieved gold and silver medals at National Schools Regatta.

Coaching a Boat Race crew was never an aspiration of Horn’s, but after her first call with Chief Coach Patrick Ryan it became clear this would be a dream job.

Horn recalls the first conversation. “I think we were on the phone for an hour and a half and that was the first time we’d ever met, just on the phone. Once I’d had that conversation with him about what he was trying to do, his vision for the women and how he operates, I knew I wanted to be part of the team.”

“At Cambridge we also have Bronya Sykes, our Lightweight Women’s Coach; it is nice having her around because it does feel sometimes like you are a woman in a man’s world. Yet Paddy is such a deep-rooted feminist and is incredible. He really fights the battles that I think we would just accept to an extent. Having someone like him is the reason I’m able to do it, and Autumn [Mantell] before me. It’s the reason we can operate in this world so successfully and fit in.”

On why she thinks there is gender disparity in coaching, Horn says: “I think the development of women’s coaches in the world of rowing is something the sport hasn’t considered in the past. In all sports we have operated with a model where men did it first and then women came along and did it as well. In the past, women coaches have just had to go, ‘Oh well, I’ll just have to learn to coach men because they’re the ones that are successful and doing well, or I’ll just have to learn to coach men, and then I’ll be able to coach women because it’s the same’ and I don’t think we’ve really allowed ourselves to think outside the box and develop either women athletes, women coxes, or women coaches as their own entity”.

It’s not all doom and gloom though as Horn is keen to express that change in the coaching world is happening, albeit slowly.

“I’ve spent a long time on the Tideway, and previously you’d very rarely see a woman coaching from a launch. Now I see women coaching from almost every club, so I think we’re making steps in the right direction.”

“I think it helps hugely to have a woman on the coaching staff. Paddy is open and helpful and talks to the student athletes about anything they want to talk to him about, including menstrual cycles and boob health. That’s been incredible, but I think being able to talk to someone who has been a female athlete, albeit a cox, in an elite environment helps them find a bit more security in asking the uncomfortable questions.”

“I also hope the athletes see that it can be done, being a coach and a woman. I wouldn’t say that I’m a role model but it’s great that they are seeing women in this environment, the ones pushing for success.”