Celebrating the Success of the Women and Sport: Wales Project

18.03.2026

On Monday 16 March students, players and historians came together at the National Library of Wales, to celebrate the culmination of the Women and Sport: Wales Project, by the Women's Archive of Wales. Since 2023, having received a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant, the Archive has been working on this ambitious and innovative project to record the history of the role of women in sport. 

Three years later the project has achieved this aim and a ceremony was held at the National Library to mark the occasion. Alongside the celebration, disks of films and photographs from the project were transferred to the care of the Library and also placed on the People's Collection Wales website. The resources are now preserved for future generations and accessible for all to see, as a lasting legacy of the project’s work. 

The collected stories reflect women from all backgrounds in terms of disability, ethnicity, language, age and sexuality, and represent as many sports as possible.

The films comprise 60 oral histories of past and present sportswomen. These interviews form the basis of the film Beth yw'r Sgôr? / What's the Score, which was premiered at the event. 

Over 500 photographs of community achievements by girls and women have been collected as part of the project, all of which have been digitised and added to the People's Collection Wales website. 

The resources record diverse sporting stories, and include the stories and memories of:

• Lynne Thomas, Llanelli - the first person to score a hundred runs in the Cricket World Cup.
• Nicole Cooke, Olympic cyclist.
• Joanna Morgan, jockey who beat Lester Piggot in horse racing.
• Gwynedd Lingard, who competed in gymnastics at the 1960 Rome Olympics, and danced the jive with Mohammed Ali.

Many of the accounts depict how women had to struggle with poor facilities, lack of financial support and misogyny to reach their potential and achieve their aspirations.

Catrin Stevens, the Project Manager said:
"We at the Women's Archive of Wales were acutely aware that women's sport had been undervalued and neglected by historians and in general. We wanted to make up for that and contribute to trying to achieve a better balance between women's and men's sport. 

Thanks to this project resources relating to women's sporting history in Wales have been recorded and preserved for future generations at the National Library of Wales. I really hope that by raising awareness of women's achievements in sport in Wales we will inspire other women to take pride in the history and emulate their successes."

Iola Baines, Curator of Moving Images at the National Library of Wales said:

“It is a pleasure to be able to add the outcome of this important project to the collection of the Screen and Sound Archive. Too often, we see significant gaps in film archives in terms of recording the successes and achievements of women in sport, as cameras over the decades have not given them half the attention as men's sports. This fantastic collection helps to fill those gaps, as well as being a glorious celebration of the contribution of Welsh women to sports, which will be available for everyone in the future to enjoy and draw inspiration from.”

Berian Elias, Peoples Collection Field Officer said: 

“It is a privilege to be able to add material from this project to the Welsh People's Collection archive, ensuring open access for all who wish to learn about the rich history and heritage of women's sport in Wales. These contributions fill an important gap in the archive and offer valuable resources to celebrate the role of Welsh women in the sporting world. They will also be a source of inspiration for future generations and encourage others to share their own stories.”

Another aspect of the project's work was to investigate the stories of pioneering sportswomen no longer alive. In collaboration with the Purple Plaques Committee, 3 plaques have been installed to represent the 40 women investigated. These are for:

• Irene Steer from Cardiff - swimmer and the first Welsh woman to win an Olympic Gold Medal,
• Agnes Davies from Saron, Ammanford - British snooker champion, and
• Mollie Phillips from Llanybydder - skater and Olympic judge.

** Mae'r datganiad yma hefyd ar gael yn y Gymraeg**

--ENDS--
The National Library of Wales Media Contact
Nia Wyn Dafydd, Promotion and Marketing Manager  
nia.dafydd@library.wales  / 01970 632871

NOTES FOR EDITORS

About the National Library of Wales
The National Library of Wales is a library for Wales and the world. Located in Aberystwyth, it is the home of the story of Wales.

Opened in 1907, the Library is the centre of research into the culture and heritage of Wales and the Celtic nations.

The purpose of the Library is to make our culture and heritage accessible for everyone to learn, research and enjoy.

We are a legal deposit library, which means we are entitled to a copy of every print publication in Britain and Ireland, but our collections also include the following:

• 8,000,000 books and periodicals (with around 4000 new items arriving each week through legal deposit and acquisition)
• 7,000,000 feet of film
• 250,000 hours of video
• 150,000 hours of sound
• 40,000 manuscripts
• 1,500,000 maps
• 1,000,000 photographs
• 70,000 works of art
• 1,900 cubic meters of archives
• Over 2.5PB of born digital archival holdings
• Over 6 million digitised objects

You will find further information together with a list of resources on the Library's website.