Creating system change to enable more women and girls to be active

As a canoe slalom high-performance athlete, Luuka Jones has spent her career navigating the sport system and understands first-hand the barriers young women and girls face to participating in sport and recreation.

In August 2024, after competing at the Paris Olympics, Luuka joined Sport Bay of Plenty as the Women and Girls Lead. With the support of Bay Trust and Rotorua Trust, the role is tasked with influencing the quality and accessibility of physical activity offerings for young women and girls in Rotorua and across the Bay of Plenty.

In the seven months she has been at Sport Bay of Plenty the five-time Olympian has been working alongside the regional sector to gather insights and draft a Women and Girls Action Plan.

“Our insights clearly demonstrate a gap remains in rates of physical activity between young males and females.

2024 Voice of Rangatahi survey

“Tellingly, 79 per cent of female rangatahi in the Bay of Plenty want to do more physical activity outside of school and 58 per cent want to do more at or for school,“ Luuka explains.

National insights also show that the gender participation gap grows from 17 per cent at age 16, to 28 per cent by the age of 17.

“There is enormous opportunity here to grow sport and recreation participation, but embracing this opportunity requires understanding the motivations and barriers faced by young women and girls in our region.”

Social judgement, body confidence and confidence in their abilities all factor into young women’s engagement with physical activity. Key to addressing these barriers, says Luuka, is taking a whole-of-system approach – something that is clearly emerging in the draft Women and Girls Action Plan Luuka is putting together.

“There is a prime opportunity to increase the capability of people working across the sector and to support them to better understand and cater for female rangatahi.”

Alongside this is the critical value of ‘see her, be her’ and developing more pathways and opportunities for women and girls to lead, work, coach and volunteer in sport and active recreation at all levels.

“As the visibility of women and girls in all aspects of sport and recreation increases – be it as participants, coaches, officials – then the more likely the next generation will be able to see a place for themselves in our sector.”

Breaking through the participation barriers

Growing up in Tauranga, Luuka took up kayaking at the age of ten, and began competing in 2003. In preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics, at the age of 17, she moved to Nottingham, England to train with the British canoe slalom team.

“At the time there were no coaches, no clubs and no infrastructure in our region to support canoe slalom athlete development, and I knew that if I wanted to improve I would have to move overseas and train with the best.”

Throughout her career Luuka has broken many glass ceilings, including being New Zealand’s first canoe slalom Olympian at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Shen also credits opportunities to train with other females as a means of helping her thrive in the sport.

Luuka also knows first-hand the value of sport and the power of physical activity.

“As an athlete and as a casual participant in lots of physical activity, I’ve been so fortunate to have opportunities to learn new skills, develop my own personal capabilities and meet lots of great people along the way.

“I’m so excited that I get to come back home and work in a role that supports developing those same opportunities for today’s young women and girls in our region.”