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Keynote | Beyond the podium: Challenging systems and building better ones
This presentation explores what it means to move from intent to impact when trying to create systems where women can genuinely thrive, drawing on my experiences as an Olympian, Commonwealth Games gold medallist, practising lawyer, and founder of Hosking Bikes.
Throughout my professional cycling career, I regularly challenged decisions and systems that I believed produced inequitable outcomes for women. From publicly speaking about the lack of minimum salaries in women's cycling, to appealing unequal national team selection decisions, my career was shaped not only by performance, but by a willingness to question systems that were accepted as “just the way things are”.
Like many women working in traditionally male-dominated environments, I learned quickly that speaking up often came with consequences. Women who challenge systems are frequently labelled “difficult”, “emotional” or “opinionated”, particularly when they question long-standing practices or inequitable outcomes. Yet meaningful change rarely occurs without people willing to question the status quo.
Following an unplanned retirement from professional sport, I began reflecting on where influence within sport actually sits. This led me to a confronting realisation: systems are not shaped solely through policy or leadership statements. They are shaped by who holds decision-making power, who controls resources, who designs products and processes, and whose lived experiences are considered when systems are built.
This presentation examines how I have taken the values and advocacy that defined my sporting career and applied them through business to pursue systems-level change in cycling through Hosking Bikes. It explores business not simply as a commercial venture, but as a vehicle for structural influence, one capable of shaping participation, culture, representation, and belonging.
Importantly, this session will connect these experiences to the realities faced by women across other sectors, including emergency services and fire management. It will explore how systems built around historical norms can unintentionally exclude women, why representation alone is insufficient without structural change, and why moving from intent to impact requires women not only to participate within systems, but to actively shape and redesign them.
Throughout my professional cycling career, I regularly challenged decisions and systems that I believed produced inequitable outcomes for women. From publicly speaking about the lack of minimum salaries in women's cycling, to appealing unequal national team selection decisions, my career was shaped not only by performance, but by a willingness to question systems that were accepted as “just the way things are”.
Like many women working in traditionally male-dominated environments, I learned quickly that speaking up often came with consequences. Women who challenge systems are frequently labelled “difficult”, “emotional” or “opinionated”, particularly when they question long-standing practices or inequitable outcomes. Yet meaningful change rarely occurs without people willing to question the status quo.
Following an unplanned retirement from professional sport, I began reflecting on where influence within sport actually sits. This led me to a confronting realisation: systems are not shaped solely through policy or leadership statements. They are shaped by who holds decision-making power, who controls resources, who designs products and processes, and whose lived experiences are considered when systems are built.
This presentation examines how I have taken the values and advocacy that defined my sporting career and applied them through business to pursue systems-level change in cycling through Hosking Bikes. It explores business not simply as a commercial venture, but as a vehicle for structural influence, one capable of shaping participation, culture, representation, and belonging.
Importantly, this session will connect these experiences to the realities faced by women across other sectors, including emergency services and fire management. It will explore how systems built around historical norms can unintentionally exclude women, why representation alone is insufficient without structural change, and why moving from intent to impact requires women not only to participate within systems, but to actively shape and redesign them.
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