How Emma Benany is redefining power and control as the first female head coach of Egypt’s rowing teams
The 35-year-old made history as the first women’s head coach to lead a men's and women’s team at the same time, and coached Egypt to a historic medal at the 2023 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals. She told us about her journey.
Emma Benany is a woman on a mission.
"I’m happy to break this stereotype or this prejudice against women that they cannot coach men," she says in an interview with Olympics.com,
The Egyptian was only 30 when she got started as a rowing coach.
Developing the coaching knowledge and expertise was way easier for Benany than navigating the gendered perceptions that she was not cut out for a such a difficult role.
“People would say things here in Egypt like, ‘how could you win and your coach is a woman’?” she adds, just weeks after leading the Egyptian team to their first ever medal at a World Rowing Championships, where Omar Elkomaty took bronze in the Coastal Under 19 Men's Solo race.
“Women 'cannot coach men' because we're 'softer' or that our personality is not as 'strong', so you wouldn't be 'able' to control the team,” Benany continues, sharing some of the misconceptions that she faces in her role.
But nothing would hold back Benany, whose potential and ambition was further boosted by support from the International Olympic Committee through the Women in Sport High-Performance Pathway programme (WISH), allowing her to cement her position at the helm of the team.
“It means a lot that I’m the first female head coach for any rowing team in Egypt.”
Emma Benany's passion for rowing, inspired by the River Nile
As an athlete, Benany had made good memories in track and field as well as on the football pitch.
But she put all that away when curiosity drew her to rowing. Walking past the Nile every other day, she admired the rowers who would dot Africa’s longest river.
The connection was instant when she decided to take on the oars as a fitness routine. She stayed on and rose to become a member of the Egypt national rowing team.
“I absolutely fell in love with it,” she recalls of how rowing offered her the possibility to experience silence right within Cairo, the bustling capital city of nearly 10 million people.
“I fell in love with the magic of being close to the water early in the morning, like having those breaths with the team and the big chill of the early morning.
“I went there every single day, and after a year and a half, I was recruited to be part of the national team.”
The then-20-year-old was able to travel around the world as a rower, competing at the World Championships, regional, and continental events for over 10 years.
She lived a dual life of a rower and an assistant coach towards the end of her athletic career before one of the officials encouraged her to fully step into coaching.
“I came back from a World Championship very exhausted, very tight, very burnt out. And it was so difficult to get back to the mental state of training or racing in this way. So, I started assisting the coach with the women's crew,” she tells Olympics.com of her transitional period.
“Then a coach from the World Rowing federation was visiting, and he noticed me, how I was working and assisting the girls on the team and thought there was potential.”
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021, only 13 per cent of the accredited coaches were women. The IOC decided to ease the path by supporting coaching education to give women more opportunities.
Benany, 35, was among the first cohort of beneficiaries of this programme that supports the implementation of the IOC’s Gender Equality and Inclusion Objectives for 2021-2024, specifically advancing women’s representation in sports leadership roles.
“This programme that is supported by the Olympic Solidarity helped increase the development, the technical knowledge, but I think mostly also with the networking – with the connections just being on the radar.”
It was a game-changer. She decided to make waves in the emerging discipline of coastal rowing. An event in coastal rowing, beach sprint rowing, will debut at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Emma Benany on changing attitudes as as a female rowing coach
The growing popularity of rowing in Egypt also heightened scrutiny of her role in the national team.
“We have had female assistant coaches, but never a head coach,” Benany says. “People would say I cannot coach men because I wouldn't be able to control the team.
“I’m happy to break this stereotype or this prejudice against women.” – Emma Benany
She picks up on the power and social dynamics that she's had to disregard that hold a lot of women back from coaching at the top.
“I'm happy to be reidentifying or redefining the meaning of control or redefining the meaning of power, of respect, of teamwork.
"We've been stuck in these toxic masculine environments where also, somehow women start to act in the same [way as men] as if they also have to adhere to male social dynamic in order to fit in,” Benany adds.
Her love for rowing led her to co-found Cairow, a water sports academy that also took on amateurs willing to learn the sport, and aims to develop rowers for the future.
“I'm happy to see change in all forms - developing the community and the social ties through the sport - and to introduce good sportsmanship, whether in the competitive forum through my role with the national team as a coach, or through my role in Cairow, my school.”
"We have only five rowing clubs in Cairo and six more in different areas, so overall 11 rowing clubs, which is extremely little, yet we have the Nile spreading out throughout from the South to the North-most point in the country,” she continues of her analysis of the growth of rowing, which is believed to have originated in Egypt.
Historic models and carvings on Egyptians tombs suggest that the ancient Egyptians would row along the Nile to travel and transport goods along the river, 20 per cent of which runs south-north across Egypt.
There are even rowing hieroglyphs mentioning Amenhotep II, the Pharaoh who ruled Egypt between 1427-1401 BC, describing him as an extraordinarily strong and a great sportsman outstanding at horse-riding, archery and rowing.
“Rowing was a very royal sport and something only a few people would do exclusively. It was never like the sport of the people. It was a sign of royalty to be rowing in Egypt,” Benany agrees.
“Interestingly, it was the first National Federation to be formed in Egypt even before football and other popular sports.”
Emma Benany shares advice for female athletes and coaches
Benany is a role model for African women, that they too can get ahead in becoming a coach, even in a sport with high technical demand.
What advice does she have for athletes considering coaching as a career, or coaches looking to reach the same heights as her?
“Number one, because a lot of people in our rowing career wouldn't really give attention to learning English. It's very important that you have this tool because this is the tool you rely on so much, because all the networking, all the international communication, all the data and all the knowledge on the websites is documented in English," she offers.
“Number two, do not wait until you actually quit your career as an athlete in order to prepare yourself as a coach. You have to be reading, watching videos, be curious and be part of any coaching workshops and gain the knowledge, ask questions, let it be an ongoing process so that your coaching career does not always start when your career [as an] athlete stops.”
Coaching may have been a natural choice because it complements her other profession and passions well.
As a primary school teacher, the Egyptian is used to applying a range of communication skills and guiding teams to achieve their goals. The art and design graduate has also worked in contemporary art and dance. She might be deeply involved in her sporting role for now, but she still finds time to put her personal touch on bodies, as a tattoo artist.
“I find one word to define a person or career very limiting, because in the end everything is like a holistic development of you as a person. Everything you do, everything - your hobbies, your music, everything.
“If you work in sports, you're not only a sportsperson, you are a person who also takes decisions about everything. You're a person who has to have a good eye for arts. You're a person who has to know how to deal with people - psychology…so a well-rounded person.”