#143: The Paralympics, of course! Plus Georgia Munro-Cook, AFLW + the Siren archives
A Women in Sport Collective
We are keeping the Paris vibes high as we continue to support our athletes at the Paralympics!
Like with the Olympics, we’re seeing more women participate in the Paralympics as well, and that is welcome news. But we also know that these numbers are not the full story and women and non-binary folk need more support across all levels of sporting participation.
One way we can play a role in supporting our para athletes is by following disability sports all year round, and this month we have Paralympic wheelchair basketballer and academic Dr Georgia Munro-Cook to tell you just how to do that! Dr Munro-Cook has also written for The Conversation on the Paralympics so be sure to check out the article “The Paris Olympics celebrated the gender-equal games. The picture isn’t so rosy for women Paralympians.”
We also want to send a big congratulations to Dr Munro-Cook who also just published her academic book “Building the WNBA From ‘Dunking Divas’ to Political Leaders” - these textbooks are a lot of work so well done at getting this important research out into the work Georgia!
We’re also celebrating the start of the AFLW this week with some recommendations for all your AFLW coverage - the content creators you should have on your radar and in your follow list so you can be across all the big stories and the little stories this season.
Happy reading!
Athena Sports Nutrition
Our friends at Athena Sports Nutrition have generously extended their special offer for our readers this month. Thank you Athena!
Siren subscribers get an exclusive 30% off Athena products!
Use the code SIREN30 when shopping the range.
Keep watching our Paralympians beyond the Games!
Paralympic wheelchair basketballer and academic Dr Georgia Munro-Cook gives us a guide on how to follow your new favourite disability sports after Paris.
Melbourne friends: watch the Paralympics at Federation Square
Off the back of the excitement of the Olympics, Fed Square will be streaming the Paralympics from this Wednesday 28th August, live from Paris on the big screen. As Victoria’s official live site, Fed Square will be broadcasting coverage between 12 pm and 10 pm throughout the Paralympics and welcomes all to come see the excitement!
Presented in partnership with the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), Paralympics Australia (PA), and Channel Nine, Fed Square is the ultimate hub for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Details:
What: 2024 Paralympics LIVE Site at Fed Square
When: Paralympics: 28 August to 8 September
Time: Highlights and replays from 12 pm to 10 pm daily
Where: Fed Square, Swanston St and Flinders St, Melbourne VIC 3000
For the full schedule of Paralympic events that will be screened live, visit the official website.
Women for the win!
Have you seen our latest League Tees collab??
Thirteen gold, nine silver, ten bronze. That’s 32 reasons to invest and elevate women in sport.
We’ve teamed up with our wonderful friends at League Tees to create this new shirt that celebrates the passion of fans who support our mission and who love women’s sports! Proceeds from this shirt go directly back to Siren and support us to continue our work creating community and opportunity for women and non-binary people in sports media.
Congratulations to The Ladies League!
Australia’s first bar dedicated to showcasing women’s sport is open this weekend! We are so thrilled for Rose and the team at The Ladies League bar in Sydney and we know this place is going to be so special to so many people.
At Siren, we try as much as we can to support women and non-binary folk in our sporting community and we are so proud to have been able to support The Ladies League by sponsoring our very own Siren Sport table!
If you’re in Sydney and head down to The Ladies League, we hope you feel most welcome to take a seat at our table. And if you do, send us pics!
It’s AFLW Season!
The AFLW is back and we’ve rounded up a great list of pods and journos and content creators to follow to help you keep across all the big stories and little stories and everything in between.
There are some great podcasts that will keep you up to date on all the stats and numbers, the stories and people and the big talking points. Follow Credit to The Girls, The Outer Sanctum, AFLW Weekly, Chicks Talking Footy, Tagged, The W and AFLW Today. Those are just a few to get you started.
There are plenty of journalists and writers and content creators that provide awesome coverage of the league. We’ve listed some below with links to their Twitter/X profiles. We know not everyone is on that platform, but you can also search them on other platforms.
Gemma Bastiani, Sarah Black, Sarah Burt, Brihony Dawson, Nat Edwards, Bobby Macumber, Tara Murray, Kate O’Halloran, Sarah Olle, Eliza Rielly, Meg Saultry, Marnie Vinall, Lucy Watkin, Jess Webster, Lauren Wood.
This is not an exhaustive list so continue to tag Siren with the AFLW coverage you love so we can keep adding more awesome women and non-binary folk to this list!
As our friends at the Outer Sanctum would say, go footy!
From the Siren archives
You know we love the archives at Siren. And lucky for us (and for you!) we have our own jam-packed archive full of gems that absolutely deserve to be re-read or read for the first time.
And with the Paralympics here, we’ve pulled together some of our fave Paralympics stories from the last 140+ newsletters!
If history is your jam, dig into some great stories from the history of the paralympics.
Five moments from the history of the Paralympic Games
And if you love under the radar sports (we absolutely do) then you’ll want to read up on some of the best ones at the Paralympics.
5 under the radar sports to watch at the Paralympics
We’ve done a heap of profiles of para athletes over the last few years, which are always great reads:
AJ Jennings: AJ Jennings is going for gold
Amber Merritt: Amber Merritt on Tokyo 2021, Leadership and Mental Health
Robyn Lambird: Robyn Lambird is dreaming of gold
The Aussie Belles: The Aussie Belles are bound for Tokyo
Tyan Taylor: “I play for her”: Tyan Taylor's Goalball journey
Roby Storm: Taking the Paralympics by Storm
Alexandra Viney: A Powerful Place to Be: Alexandra Viney on rediscovering her ability
Deakin University research into athletes and menstruation
This study aims to identify barriers to participation in sport and active recreation during periods (menstruation/bleeding) and strategies to overcome the barriers to participation.
If you meet the eligibility criteria and are interested in participating in the survey, click here.
Siren is on Patreon!
We have a Patreon! And we’ll be adding some cool things for our Patreon supporters over 2024 so if you can, sign up now!
Funds from our Patreon go towards:
commissioning and paying writers and content creators
running our Emerging Sports Writer Programs
creating opportunities for women and non-binary folk in sports media
The support of the Siren community has facilitated that work and helped support those commissions and opportunities and we can’t thank you enough.
You can become a Patron of Siren today and help us continue to challenge the status quo of sports media.
