Women in Leadership: Interview with Claire del Negro, FIL Vice President for Sport

Berchtesgaden (FIL) The US/British Claire del Negro is Vice President for Sport at the International Luge Federation, FIL. The 1984 Olympian in luge was a coach, team manager, Olympic team leader, international programme manager, executive director at both USA Luge and USA Bobsled and Skeleton, and Sliding Sports Director of luge, bobsleigh and skeleton at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. On International Women's Day, we asked about her work and the status of gender equality at the FIL.

Ms. Del Negro, you have been Vice-President for Sport at the FIL since 1998 and represent the international sport of luge in matters of gender equality. When you appear in international meetings, for example at the IOC, on the topic of gender equality, what are the most current issues?

Claire del Negro: “The IOC has set the challenge across sports globally to create gender equality at all levels of sport. The directives started with athlete quotas, which many sports have now achieved, and the conversations are now expanding into gender equality in all levels of organization ranging from the highest decision-making bodies to volunteer sport officials".

How can this be done?

Claire del Negro: “For each sport this has to be achieved in a way that fits the culture of the sport and IOC has allowed each IF to seek out its own solutions to reach these goals. Many of the IOC meetings are a great forums to exchange best practices and explore the various ways we can all achieve this desired goal.  To date, FIL has not achieved gender equality in our athlete quota numbers although we are on track for the future, but in most other areas we are well on track with increasing opportunities for women in our sport”.

You work together with your Sports Director Maria Luise Rainer. Is Olympic sport already very much in the hands of women at the FIL?

Claire del Negro: “Well, that is one way to see it, as we both hold very influential positions in FIL. I’m very lucky to have Maria Luise to work with on a regular basis, she does an incredible job for our sport, but I would actually say our sport is in the hands of a very competent team of staff, coaches and volunteers which is made up of both men and women.  In regards to our overall team, I’d like to highlight that our TV coordinator, our Junior Technical Director, our Deputy Executive Director and of course you, our Press Chief, are all women in key management positions. I think FIL has done a good job of promoting women in this regard”.

As of the Olympic season 2021/22, the new discipline women's doubles will also be raced in the World Cup. How has this new discipline presented itself so far?

Claire del Negro: “For luge, we didn’t want to jump into equalizing our gender count too quickly, as this would have meant the possible dissolution of the doubles discipline, which although open to all genders, is mainly practiced by men. To meet the challenge the FIL decided to add a new discipline for women.  The timelines to add and evolve Women’s Doubles as a new discipline were very tight, but we made a huge effort to introduce the discipline in a way that encouraged organic growth.  First at the Youth level, which we introduced successfully at the Youth Olympic Games in January 2020, and then we planned to expand to the Junior World Cup during the 20-21 season, and to General Class in the 21-22 season.  As you know, we lost the opportunity to launch it at the Junior level due to the pandemic which cancelled our Junior season this past year.  However, we are hoping to continue on our planned path as we enter into the next season.  It is important we keep our “foot on the gas” if we want to reach our goals”.

Will the quota places for men and women be equalised at the Olympic Winter Games?

Claire del Negro: “For the 2022 Games, the discipline Womens Doubles is not yet integrated. We have gender equalized the number of racers in singles with a quota of 35 men and 35 women, and balanced the remainder of our 106 limited quota with 18 Doubles, which we know will be filled mainly by men. It is our intention to apply for the discipline Womens Doubles to be added to the program for the 2026 Games in Milano-Cortina to overcome this overall inequality. We are working intensively towards this goal win our current planning and we feel hopeful that it will be well received by the IOC Program Commission and the IOC Executive when we reach the application phase which will be coming up shortly after the Games in Beijing”.

What are your plans for the future of international luge sports?

Claire del Negro: “I am excited to be part of building and executing our new strategic plan that was recently approved by the Congress. The development of our core sport is one of the five priorities of the plan.  We now have to dig into the details of how we will deliver this. The plans overarching goal is to keep our sport vibrant and relevant in an ever-expanding and competitive field globally. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but if we concentrate on each pillar of the plan, we can make some big strides to stay attractive to our athletes and audiences in a constantly evolving communications and technology landscape.  We also can’t ever take for granted our status in the Olympic program and its relevance to the growth of our sport.  We must use every resource at our disposal to move forward with our venues, our sport formats, and our nation development”.   

What still needs to happen in the field of gender equality in international luge in the coming years?

Claire del Negro: “I think it is important for the future of Gender Equality in the FIL that we not only continue on the trajectory we are on, but that we engage our member nations to have these same goals.  It is only by increasing womens’ participation at all levels in all our sport within all our nations that we can ensure there is a future where capable women will be interested and prepared to pursue opportunities at the athletic level, coaching and administrative level, and at the political level. My goal is to make sure those opportunities exist and to encourage women to reach out and grab them”.

Good luck for your future work and thank you for talking to us today on International Women's Day.

2nd photo: IOC/Flickr