‘Women’s sport will keep growing, as long as we keep winning’ – The Telegraph

In a Manchester studio, Ella Toone is having the final touches applied to her make-up. As her high ponytail is fixed into position, Hannah Botterman ambles in for the TWS photoshoot, hands stuffed in the pockets of her gilet, and slouches in a nearby chair. A different make-up artist glides over to the England rugby player and begins making a fuss of her short curls. “I only need gel in my hair,” Botterman gently protests, allowing laughter to ripple around the chilly room. 

Moments later, Keely Hodgkinson, cocooned in a long winter puffer coat, walks in and introduces herself to everyone. Before the Olympic 800 metres silver medallist slides on to a stool next to Toone, she shares a warm embrace with the Manchester United and England midfielder. 

The pair have been friends since childhood and the smiles that spread across their faces are telling: their feats over the past year are reminders that women’s sport, once on the periphery, is now firmly front and centre.

Toone had been on the pitch for just six minutes when she chipped Germany’s goalkeeper in the Euros final five months ago, before Chloe Kelly’s extra-time winner sealed the Lionesses’ place in English sporting folklore.

Weeks later, having already secured world and Commonwealth silvers, Hodgkinson won 800m gold at the European Championships to cap an extraordinary breakthrough season. 

Botterman, meanwhile, was part of the Red Roses squad who claimed a fourth consecutive Women’s Six Nations title and went on a record-breaking 30-match winning streak, before agonisingly falling short in their Rugby World Cup final against hosts New Zealand last month.

‘After the Euros life changed for all of us’

For Toone, life is now unrecognisable to the one she knew before that historic day at Wembley. “I can’t walk down the street without being recognised any more,” she says. “Everywhere I go, I can see people looking at me. I suppose that’s what we wanted. We wanted football to be loved and watched by everyone. After the Euros life changed for all of us, yet that’s what we wanted for women’s football.”

Hodgkinson watched the Euros final the night before her 800m heat at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where she was eventually pipped to gold by Kenya’s Mary Moraa in a frantic race. Weeks later, the 20-year-old would cruise to the European title in Munich.

“I definitely perked up after my very busy schedule watching the final,” says Hodgkinson. “After the Commonwealths, I got asked about it in every interview the next day. I went on Question of Sport and Ella’s goal was one of the questions.”

“We wouldn’t have been mates if you’d got that one wrong!” Toone jokes.

Where did Botterman watch the final? “I was in the pub with my grandad and my mum,” she says. “Loved it, it was sick. It was so good, not just for women’s football but for women’s sport in general.” She turns and addresses Toone, as if personally thanking an old friend. “It went mad after that, so cheers.”

Women’s football fever meant tickets for the Lionesses’ October fixture against the United States at Wembley sold out in less than 24 hours. The day after the 2-1 victory, Botterman and the Red Roses began their World Cup campaign in Auckland. They would later fumble a pressure line-out in the dying stages of a high-octane final watched by a record crowd of 42,579 at Eden Park.

Making it a double for English women’s teams was always going to be tough, but does Botterman still view 2022 as a success? “If I’m honest, probably not,” she says. “The 30 unbeaten games was massive and it was a big achievement. But we wanted to win the World Cup. To not win it was tough. It’s not been a terrible year, but that probably puts a damper on it a bit. You have to take pride, but ultimately we wanted to win it.”

Despite the 13-hour time difference, the impact of the Red Roses reverberated back home. “I was in England camp before the final and my dad texted me saying, ‘Ella, ring me’,” says Toone. “I thought, ‘Oh God, something’s happened.’ I rang him and he said, ‘Ella, I’ve been thinking, the Red Roses play tomorrow, so if you score today, get a few of the girls to pretend you’ve scored a try’. I actually scored in the game, and he rang me after and said, ‘You didn’t do that goal celebration! That would have been great for women and for sport’.”

Toone’s tale is indicative of how female athletes are more visible than ever and living out their dreams in their own, authentic way. Toone has become renowned for her false lashes (“I got them done yesterday, otherwise they would have been a nightmare,” she says) while Hodgkinson was pictured doing her make-up on the track as she and her coach, Jenny Meadows, discussed race tactics ahead of the Olympic final in Tokyo last year.

“It makes you more relatable,” Hodgkinson says of the importance of female athletes being able to express themselves. “There’s always going to be people out there who aren’t going to like how you are, or how you come across. But there are going to be little girls who will really look up to you.”

For Botterman, a proud gay woman who never had female sporting role models growing up, that mantra is especially important. While the explosion of social media has boosted the profile of female athletes, it is also a place where they are too easily vilified.

“If a video is put out by England Rugby, a lot of the time, there’ll be a comment, ‘I thought this was the women’s team?’ When the whole trans thing [ban] was going on with the RFU, I got a lot of s— from that,” says Botterman. “I obviously present quite masculine, but I play a women’s sport. It didn’t bother me. I didn’t really care about it.

“In a rugby team now, we have girls who do their lashes and do make-up before a game, and on the flip side of that you have someone like me. There are so many different body types and personalities, and it’s important we show all sides.”

‘We just want equal opportunities for young girls’

Hodgkinson nods in agreement. Only a few days ago, one of her training partners received a comment on social media instructing her to lose weight so she could run faster. “We get that in athletics too. If someone doesn’t present themselves in the most feminine way, they’re like, ‘Why are they in the women’s event?’ It’s like breaking the mould of ‘What is a feminine athlete? What is the right way of being a woman?’ There isn’t really one.”

The trio agree that harnessing the momentum generated by sporting success this year is equally crucial for addressing historic inequalities in women’s sport. For example, Botterman’s annual England salary is matched by what men pocket for a single Test. “In rugby, the club game has a long way to go,” says the Saracens prop. “Internationally, in some aspects it’s equal but again there are quite a few inequalities. It’s great that the RFU pays us, but there’s still a disparity.”

The impact of the Euros is being felt in the Women’s Super League, where crowds are up by 200 per cent on last season. “For us, we’re not asking for the same pay as men,” says Toone. “We know we get different sizes of crowds. We just want equal opportunities for young girls in football. We’ll never stop pushing for what we feel is right and we know that we should.”

Hodgkinson, who was roped into playing on the girls’ team that a 15-year-old Toone set up at their secondary school (“Ella did all the work. Everyone else was there to make the numbers up,” she laughs), has been sheltered from such stark inequalities. 

“Athletics is slightly different to football and rugby because men and women are on at the same time,” she says. “What I would say is, at school everyone knows who the fastest man is. It’s Usain Bolt. Nobody could name you the [then] fastest woman, but Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is probably more established than Usain Bolt.”

Toone and the Lionesses will hope to back up their Euros success with a first World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next summer. Hodgkinson will be looking to upgrade her Olympic silver to gold at Paris 2024, while Botterman will have another shot at a World Cup in 2025 – this time on home soil with a potential sell-out at Twickenham for the final.

So what will be the secret to maintaining this momentum? “Keep winning, that’s the answer,” smiles Toone. “Everything we’ve achieved across different women’s sports has been put on the map. But for all of us, it’s about not taking our foot off the gas. I really do think 2023 will be even bigger.”