Women's History Wednesday Profile: Debbie Jevans

“Sport is, without question, a powerful good”

The Olympics are a time for the world’s best athletes to compete for pride and for country. Every four years, athletes that have dedicated and sacrificed for years, pour everything into a match, or a race. Some compete for days, while others, only for seconds. It is also a time when sports fans live through the stewards chosen to bring honor to their country. Fans around the world tune in and log on to root for their fellow countrymen.

With all of that on the line, not to mention sponsorships, media, and logistics, one can only imagine that the person responsible for such an event has a lot of responsibility. For the 2012 London Summer Games, for the first time ever, that person was a woman.

Debbie Jevans served as the Director of Sport for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). She also served as CEO of England Rugby 2015, and today, continues to be an influential woman in “a man’s world”.

London Olympics

Before her appointment as the Director of Sport for LOCOG, she worked with the International Tennis Federation as the director of the Women’s Game. Jevans was on the Olympic bid team since 2003, and was able to see the vision of her team come to fruition at the 2012 closing ceremonies. In an interview with World Radio Switzerland, Jevans was asked about the legacy of the London games, her response was that the use of the new facilities post-Olympics was the legacy her and her team focused on. “When it came to the Olympic park and the infrastructure around it, the plans were in place for what was going to happen post-Olympics, with the venues for example, and then we overlaid what was required for the Olympics over its long-term use.”

Jevans and her team hoped to bring lasting value to London, she continues, “ … I think if you go to Stratford, or East London now, where the Olympic Park is, it's just an amazing facility. You’ve got the venues, you’ve got Westfield Shopping Center, extra homes. A number of which are affordable, and that’s foreign investment in an area that 50 years ago, or even 10 years ago … was pretty derelict, and it’s wonderful now.”

However, Jevans believes that the 2012 London Games could have done a better job building a “participation legacy”. After the London Games, The Guardian reported that 29 sports saw a difference in participation, 20 reported a decline in once-a-week participation figures.

England Rugby 2015

Following the London Olympics, Jevans was announced as the Chief Executive Officer for England Rugby 2015, where she formulated a team, and the business plan, in preparation for the 2015 Rugby World Cup hosted by England.

When Jevans began planning for the Rugby World Cup, she carried over some lessons her Olympic planning experience, “We maybe could have planned that participation [legacy] with all the sports better in the build-up of the seven years we had to the Olympic Games. I took that across to rugby and we're working very closely with the RFU to ensure legacy is part of the delivery plan." Although Jevans stepped down just months prior to the 2015 competition, she was an integral part of the successful planning of the tournament.

Athletics and Business

As a former athlete, and someone who has been around the sporting world her entire career, Jevans is a strong advocate for athletes in business, “ … one things that business is waking up to, which gives me great pleasure, is athletes, or people that participate in sports are used to performing under pressure, they’re used to communicating … and they’re good team players, and that translates into leadership and business as well.”

Debbie strongly believes that all kinds of diversity are important in business, “... I do not understand why you wouldn’t want diversity, equality, around a table. That’s what the world is …”. Included in diversity efforts must be opportunities for women, “ … I do fight for more women to have roles in leadership, but in my mind, that has to come from the top.”

Sport England, an organization working to improve lives through sport, has set a goal of having 25% of its board member ben women by 2017. Jevans, the current Vice-Chair of the Sport England is helping the organization reach that benchmark. That does not mean, however, that she is satisfied, “Is 25% ambitious enough? I don't think so. Surely we've got to be aiming at 50%, to reflect the population.” In fact, in her time with as CEO of England Rugby 2015, she was able to double that projection among her staff. She attests her ability to reach diversity to a strong focus on expanding interviewing and recruiting efforts. Additionally, she was able to attract top talent by being more flexible, “The barriers so often cited as reasons why women cannot progress in their careers - such as motherhood - are outdated. The workplace is changing, it is dynamic and flexible. In a modern world it needs to be. The leadership of any ambitious organisation has to be open minded."

However, Jevans believes that businesses might need pressure to shift, “ … if things don't change, we need to be slightly draconian and force people to do it. I'm not a quota fan because I think it's a cop out, but having looked at what's happened over the last five years where there's been no changes in a demonstrable statistical sense, we do maybe need to do that to force businesses and federations – at the same time demonstrating how they're changing their culture and what that career pathway is for women and demonstrating that there aren't any glass ceilings. The two need to work in hand in hand."

Social Transformation through Sports

Jevans has been given exceptional opportunities as a former athlete, and as a woman, to break through barriers in business. Debbie is eager to see the world change through athletics. She wholeheartedly proclaims that..

“ … sport is, without question, a powerful good, and I would argue that it’s one of the few things that cuts down any political, racial, or religious barrier, and we should continue to see it as a powerful good.”

There is a part of sports that is absolutely a powerful good. However, sports can only remain as such if those who own, operate, report on and participate in sport continue to uphold its core values. Teamwork, perseverance, dedication and competing with honor. Sports are subject to society as much as anyone, or anything else. If athletes, especially those on the Olympic stage are to represent the best of us as people of the world, we must support them when they bring to light our errors as a society.

From Jackie Robinson to Billie Jean King to Jesse Owens and Venus Williams, athletes often represent more than themselves. They inspire us to openly be who we are, to reflect on personal biases and hopefully transcend color, gender and political barriers. These athletes, and many more throughout history have forced us to have a dialogue. At MyWSports, we hope to continue those difficult, but necessary conversations.

Follow Erica Ayala on Twitter @elindsay08