CSC WCIP Goals

• Provide women intern coaches with ongoing mentorship from a qualified mentor coach, with a national or international coaching development opportunity, and enhanced professional development and learning opportunities
• Connect all participating women intern and mentor coaches in an ongoing supportive network
• Increase the number of high performance women coaches in Commonwealth sport in Canada

Intern Coach: Lisa Mensink

“I intend to build upon relationships I have developed through the CSC WCIP and share my learnings with young, aspiring women coaches.”

Sport: Triathlon

Occupation: Lisa has been the lead performance coach at the Kronos Triathlon Club since 2015.

Mentor Coach: Carolyn Murray

Athletic Background: Lisa, who has dual Canadian and Dutch citizenship, was a competitive swimmer from the age of 10 through her years at the University of Calgary (U of C). Stroke wise, she was a jack-of-all-trades, but focused primarily on the breaststroke and individual medley, and always placed well on the 100-metres and 200-metres freestyle relays.

An Academic All-Canadian CIS swimmer and Olympic Trials semi-finalist, Lisa started triathlon in 2002 as a way to stay fit and progressed to the World Triathlon World Cup/World Triathlon Series (WTS) in 2006. As a full-time racer on the World Cup circuit until 2012, she posted 49 starts. Lisa began representing the Netherlands in 2007 and competed for that country at the 2008 Olympic Games; bruised and bloodied after being caught up in a crash during the cycling stage, she nevertheless finished the race.

Lisa’s notable triathlon career placings include 11 top-20 World Cup/WTS finishes between 2007 and 2011; the bronze medal at the 2009 ITU Aquathlon World Championships; a top-10 finish at the 2009 European Triathlon Championships; and four podium finishes at Continental Cup races between 2006 and 2009.

Education: Lisa has Bachelor of Science degrees in Applied and Environmental Geology and in Environmental Science, specializing in Geology, both from the U of C.

Coach Education: Lisa is an NCCP Certified Competition Development Certified Coach, an NCCP Certified Swimming Fundamentals Coach, and a Coach Developer/Evaluator.

Why a Coaching Career? With Calgary as her homebase while training for her own triathlons, Winnipeg-born Lisa started coaching as a substitute coach for the local Kronos Triathlon Club. She found that, regardless of ability, she truly loved helping athletes push their limits and achieve their goals. For her, coaching is about creating confidence in her athletes and showing them the path to personal athletic success.

Coaching Experience:  In 2009 Lisa started as an assistant/substitute coach of the Kronos Triathlon Club and moved into the head coach position in 2014.  She became lead performance coach in 2015, a position she continues to hold. She was the Team Alberta team manager for triathlon at the 2017 Canada Summer Games and the triathlon head coach for the 2019 Western Canada Summer Games. Triathlon Alberta selected Lisa as head coach for the 2021 Canada Summer Games scheduled take place in Niagara, Ont., in August 2022.

Importance of the CSC WCIP: Lisa explains that coaching remains a largely male-dominated profession and she believes it is important for there to be more women coaches as role models for athletes and for women who aspire to pursue a coaching career. The more women in high-performance coaching the better, she says, citing four reasons. One, women holding positions in athletic leadership and sport coaching maters because they provide diversity in their approaches to coaching; two, their presence demonstrates that coaching is a feasible profession for women; three, they provide athletes with coaching styles and perspectives that differ from male coaches; and four, young athletes, regardless of gender, benefit from having a variety of role models.

After the CSC WCIP: “I hope to continue my coaching career and develop young athletes to reach their full potential. I intend to build upon relationships I have developed through the CSC WCIP and share my learnings with young, aspiring women coaches.”