Sports lawyer turned rower, Victoria Evans, will be taking on an awe-inspiring challenge in aid of Women in Sport – and attempting to secure a new world record in the process! Victoria is currently preparing to become the fastest female to solo row across the Atlantic, in an official Guinness World Record attempt on a route that only 15 women have completed.
In fact, more people have climbed Mount Everest or been to space than have rowed across the Atlantic. Victoria plans to take on the Trade Winds I route from east to west, attempting to beat the current world record of 49 days, 7 hours and 15 minutes.
The route crosses 3000 miles of ocean, from Gran Canaria to the finish line in Port St. Charles, Barbados. Along the way she will row for 12 hours a day with a max 6 hours sleep, along with undertaking all of the logistics of navigation, cooking, maintenance and more.
Victoria founded Sea Change Sport as part of her mission to change gendered mindsets in the sports industry and tackle the root causes of why so many women and girls currently miss out on the benefits of sport, from grassroots to elite levels.
She says: “Sport is one of the most powerful vehicles for change,” she says, “but millions of women miss out because the industry is not designed by them, or marketed to them.”
“We should be tackling the matter at an industry level; lobbying for changes in policy, culture and quotas to ensure that women’s voices help shape the future of sport, and that opportunities for women in sport vastly increase.”
Like many women, Victoria did not truly discover sport until her mid-20s. She explains, “Growing up, sport was a male-only domain. A lack of role models, inclusive marketing or opportunities meant it wasn’t until later in life that I came to it.”
However, having worked with a number of sports brands and federations, she witnessed some of the inequalities in the sector. Having experienced depression and an eating disorder, discovering sport in her mid-20s was a game changer.
Victoria is now just six months away from this epic challenge, and has been training intensively for the past two years. Her story was recently featured in The Telegraph, and she is successfully raising the profile of women in trailblazing sporting endeavours.
We are absolutely delighted that Victoria has chosen Women in Sport as her benefiting charity for this phenomenal undertaking, and are deeply grateful for her hard work and dedication in helping us raise both funds for and the profile of women and girls in sport.
Good luck, Victoria!
