British Cycling Champion Inspires Colleagues

Our Women’s Colleague Inclusion Network started 2025 with great energy. Eager to lay out their goals for the year ahead, one of the key focuses identified was marking International Women’s Day with a bang.

Along with accelerating action through their important discussions and coming together to review and contribute towards our charity’s Parental Leave and Menopause Policies, the Network was keen to invite an inspirational guest speaker to their March meeting to honour and celebrate International Women’s Day.

Taking the next step in our relationship with British Cycling and following on from the exciting work our Partnerships Team has been doing with the organisation, which includes people we support attending the National Track Championships and a stage of the Tour of Britain. We invited riders of the British Cycling Women’s team to join us for our special celebrations, with Katie Archibald accepting with enthusiasm.

The two-time Olympic Champion, six-time World Champion and 20-time European Champion joined our Women’s Network session, which saw record attendance for this year. She kicked off the meeting with an introduction to herself, the world of track cycling and her career highlights – which include becoming the first-ever female Olympic champion of the Madison alongside Laura Kenny, when it was introduced at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Katie then opened the floor to questions from our Network members. The hour flew by, with colleagues asking questions on resilience, female empowerment, the importance of teamwork and much more.

Combining the Network’s thoughtful and meticulous questions, with Katie’s passion and positive outlook, provided for an incredibly inspirational session. Much of Katie’s words, advice and experiences, could be translated into colleagues’ day-to-day work and personal lives. Touching on shared experiences for most women, the group quickly found common ground with their special guest speaker, leading to an hour of thought-provoking conversation.

Our Women’s Network Members were captivated by Katie’s stories and experiences, here’s what some of them had to say.

“So happy I joined this group, the session was brilliant and so inspiring! Thank you so much Katie and thank you to everyone else! Looking forward to seeing what this group can do.”

“Wow, that was incredible, what a woman!”

“This was just a fantastic session, thank you.”

We would like to extend a big thank you to Katie and the British Cycling team for playing such a big role in our International Women’s Day celebrations, and for being a part of our Women’s Network achieving one of their goals for 2025.