This is the third in a four-part series highlighting Canadian women heading to the Paris Olympics at the top of their sport while breaking long-standing societal barriers along the way.
The statistics on how few women coach at the highest level of sport are stark but Laura Brown doesn’t need to see them, she lives it every day.
She’s not just a Canadian track cycling coach, she’s the coach of the men’s endurance team, making her so unusual that some of her international counterparts can’t quite believe it.
“No one ever assumes I’m the men’s coach,” Brown said. “I’ve had coaches when they learn, ‘Oh, you’re the men’s coach,’ they kind of scoff. One said, ‘Women don’t coach men,’ laughing at me.”
Her reply: “Well I do, and we just beat you.”
Brown will be trackside at the Paris Olympics for the men’s team pursuit, the Madison and, for 21-yearold rising star Dylan Bibic, the multi-race omnium event.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, it was Brown who was riding the banked velodrome track; she won a bronze medal in the women’s team pursuit. She started coaching in 2018 and by 2020 was asked to coach the men’s development team.
“I was kind of scared at first,” Brown said, recalling she wondered about a woman coaching a team of men. “I don’t really see that internationally but, yeah, I’ll do it.”
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