The primary-of-its-kind girls’s observe occasion, ATHLOS, debuted on Thursday in New York Metropolis, created to deal with the shortage of visibility for observe and area outdoors of the Olympics and for girls’s sports activities usually. The competing athletes weren’t the one girls on the inaugural occasion working to make a distinction–feminine reporters, announcers, officers and influential company additionally confirmed their help. One explicit official current who has labored to create alternatives for girls was Canada’s Lisa Ferdinand–the first-ever feminine starter for a males’s Olympic 100m last.
“She joins us right here to cap the night time—making historical past as our starter for the final race of the night: the ATHLOS 200m,” the announcer mentioned, honouring Ferdinand.
Ferdinand, an achieved technical official on the World Athletics Starter Panel, has achieved a sequence of firsts throughout her profession within the male-dominated world of observe officiating.
The Canadian has turn out to be an inspiration for girls world wide as she promotes gender equality throughout the sport and will increase the illustration of feminine technical officers in athletics. Ferdinand has labored to encourage girls to hunt technical and administrative positions, administration roles, committees, and board positions, and she or he has expressed that extra may be carried out to realize gender parity within the sport. Her function because the starter of the ultimate 200m occasion on the inaugural world-class women-only meet continues to affect and encourage girls globally.
Introduction to officiating
Born in Montreal, Ferdinand started her profession in observe and area in 1974 throughout her first 12 months of highschool. After operating cross-country, she turned set on sticking to a distance no farther than 400m. At 16, she represented Canada on the junior nationwide group, competing within the excessive bounce, earlier than attending Rice College in Houston. Coached by Victor Lopez, the previous NACAC President, Ferdinand targeted on the excessive bounce, javelin and heptathlon.
In 1984, throughout her second 12 months of college, Ferdinand suffered a severe knee harm whereas throwing a javelin, requiring reconstructive surgical procedure, which led to an 18-month restoration course of. Regardless of the setback, the Montreal native persevered, transferring to Saskatchewan to coach with nationwide mixed occasions coach Lyle Sanderson, earlier than retiring from competitors in 1988.
To stay linked to athletics, Ferdinand started officiating at native observe meets, which shortly accelerated right into a profession as a technical official at world-class meets: the Commonwealth Video games, the Pan-American Video games, the World Athletics Championships and the Invictus Video games. “Officiating was not solely a approach for me to provide again, however to stay linked to a sport that has given me a lot,” she advised World Athletics throughout an interview in 2022.
Accomplishments
Ferdinand was the primary girl and individual of color to function Board Chair for Athletics Ontario. In 2015, she turned the primary girl and first Canadian to be nominated to the World Athletics Starter Panel—one among six members assigned on a rotational foundation to main occasions just like the World Championships and Olympic Video games. In late 2022, Ferdinand was inducted into Canada’s Officers Wall of Fame.
At 62, Ferdinand continues to make strides in attaining gender equality. On the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games, the geologist and mom of three turned the primary girl in historical past to be named the starter for the lads’s 100m last—the premier occasion on the highest stage of competitors in athletics. Her legacy will endure, creating alternatives for girls and establishing higher recognition for girls’s sports activities.
