Navigating a male-dominated environment and carving out a path in a newly created role has had its challenges. But with the guidance of senior coaches and Cycling New Zealand’s commitment to empowering women in sport, Elyse is overcoming obstacles and gaining momentum as a respected coach.
Nicole Murray remembers the panic when she realised she’d forgotten her prosthetic before the 3000m individual pursuit qualifying ride at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
It was a mistake that could have mentally unravelled the Para cyclist before one of the biggest races in her career. But instead, the level-headed approach of her coach, Elyse Fraser, put Nicole straight back on track.
“Elyse just laid it out: ‘Here’s our Plan A, here’s Plan B; we’ll just deal with it and move on’. And that was exactly what I needed. And it’s exactly what I did,” says Nicole, who went out and rode a personal best time on her way to winning the bronze medal (this time with her prosthetic retrieved from the athletes’ village).
“With her life experience outside sport, Elyse has a great perspective on what is a terrible situation. Yes, it means a lot to us, but it’s still sport at the end of the day. She’s still so supportive, and she will do everything to help us win.”
A former police officer, Elyse took that day at the Vélodrome de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in her stride. Much like she has with her rapid rise in the world of high performance coaching.
Since joining Cycling New Zealand in 2023, through a residency experience as an endurance development coach, Elyse has been given unexpected opportunities as lead coach on two of sport’s largest stages.
Soon after the Paralympics, she coached Bryony Botha and Ally Wollaston, who won four medals from the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Denmark (including Ally’s two world champion titles). Elyse had the full support of Cycling NZ’s lead women’s endurance coach, Paul Manning, who “stepped back to thrust her forward to lead”.
“I’ve done so much personal development, courses and classroom learning, but then to get hands-on experience like this was incredible,” Elyse says.
A ‘people person’ in a highly technical sport, Elyse has brought her distinctive skillset of empathy, honesty and equanimity to cycling, and a broader understanding of the issues female athletes face.
Her story follows an extraordinary three-year path from a place in HPSNZ’s Te Hāpaitanga coaching development programme, to a residency at Cycling New Zealand, then on to a fulltime role developing the next generation of high performance athletes in the sport.
But it hasn’t been without its personal challenges.
Elyse Fraser describes herself as a “hyperactive kid” who played multiple sports, but her true passion was rowing.
But after rowing for the NZ university team while studying psychology and PE at Otago, Elyse couldn’t see herself taking the sport further, so tried cycling at the age of 25 – and made an immediate impression on the sport.
Making the national women’s endurance track squad, she took a year’s leave from her job with the Police to be part of the high performance programme in Cambridge. But it was a difficult time.
“I had big demands placed on me and I didn’t feel I was well looked after,” says Elyse, who after racing in Europe, returned to Christchurch.
Then a promising young road rider approached Elyse to coach her. “I was blindsided, because I’d never considered myself as a coach,” she says. “But her story really aligned with mine.”
When Elyse’s partner, Andrew Williams, also a cycling coach, encouraged her to do it, she took the challenge on. Other young female riders then approached Elyse, who built up to a team of 12 athletes.
Her work was recognised by Cycling NZ, who invited her to a national training camp as a “very junior assistant coach” – her first insight into the high performance coaching landscape.
Elyse was then invited to work with Richard Smith, who was running a pilot of HPSNZ’s Core Knowledge programme, supporting NSOs with early-stage HP coach development. She met other coaches in the region, and Amy Taylor, the interim high performance director at Cycling NZ.
“Amy gave me a lot of time, and I was able to safely share my story and goals with her,” Elyse says. “She was very encouraging, pushing me in the right direction and putting opportunities in front of me. She was helping navigate Cycling NZ through a tumultuous time, and she was a pioneer for women in cycling, for coaching and leadership.
“I remember sitting with Amy at the top of the velodrome, looking down on the Cycling NZ pit and she asked, ‘Do you actually see yourself there?’ and I said ‘No’. At the time, there were athletes and all-male coaching staff; there may have been a female physio. And I said: ‘I really don’t understand how a female can fit into this landscape and be accepted and supported along that journey’. That visibility piece was really missing.”
Amy put Elyse forward for Te Hāpaitanga Cohort 2 (Para cycling coach Laura Thompson was in the inaugural cohort). That started a “fast-track series of events”.
At the first Te Hāpaitanga residential workshop Elyse attended, she struggled to answer the question: What’s your philosophy and your values?
Eighteen months later, she’d found the answers. “I know who I am so much better now. My values guide what I do. Especially when things get tough, and I want to go into my passive mode.
“My first value is honesty. Another is being empathetic; being tough on issues but gentle on people. And then equanimity – being really balanced and trying not to let my emotions override things.”
Elyse also discovered the power of gaining a network of women coaches from multiple sports. “The connection and the community you gain is indescribable,” she says.
“We had a full spectrum of experience in our cohort. There were a few women at my end, who were new to an HP or pre-HP landscape, and really finding our feet and our confidence. So having that support and those tough conversations was life changing.
“You really have to lean in. You don’t know what you don’t know, so you have to jump in with both feet.”
Elyse’s mentor was Richard Smith. “It was great as I already had a connection with him,” she says. “We made gains quickly. We still meet for coffee, and I know I can always approach him.”
Two other cycling coaches have since joined the Te Hāpaitanga sisterhood – Rushlee Buchanan (Cohort 3) and Tessa Jenkins (Cohort 4). “We’re building our own network directly for our cycling environment,” Elyse says.
When Elyse finished her Te Hāpaitanga programme mid-2022, she saw the Women in High Performance Sport residency experience advertised. She told Sally Miller, Cycling NZ’s head of People and Culture, it was something she was aiming for. “I wanted learning in action experience on the ground,” she says.
Women in High Performance Sport partners with NSOs to support succession planning by helping to transition highly valued individuals into high-performance roles, providing targeted resources and professional development support. With Cycling NZ’s commitment to women coaching and wanting to give them the opportunity to work in an HP environment, it was a priority to support Elyse to keep her in the sport.
Elyse successfully secured a one-year residency at Cycling NZ’s headquarters in Cambridge, but there were snags. “My life and my job were still in Christchurch,” Elyse says. “The Police gave me 18 months of unpaid leave, and my supportive partner said, ‘Go! You can’t lose this opportunity’.”
Over the previous five years, Elyse had worked through the apprehension of returning to Cycling NZ after her testing years there as an athlete. “But I felt I could make an impact from the inside, rather than looking in and being frustrated. I was proud of what I’d achieved with the athletes I was coaching, and I thought I had something to offer more people,” she says. “Cycling NZ was going through changes. And I felt ready, I’d done the work.”
In June 2023, Elyse became the Cycling NZ development endurance coach, for both male and female riders. It was revolutionary for the sport.
“At that point we didn’t have a pathway. There were high performance athletes at the top, then people doing their bit in the regions. I worked with Fionn Cullinane, the sprint development coach, and we took the HPSNZ framework and made it work for bike riders – developing athletes in the pre-HP space ready to shift into HP,” she says.
“As a cyclist, I’d stepped straight into high performance from rowing. If I’d had that middle ground where I could feel out the system and the system could get to understand me as well, I think it would have gone better for me. But it just didn’t exist at the time.”
Then other opportunities arose.
Five months out from the 2024 Paralympics, Brendon Cameron – the lead Para cycling coach – asked Elyse if she would work with Nicole Murray, who was looking for additional support in coaching.
“Nicole wanted someone who understood the more human side – someone rich in empathy, who could deliver clear and concise information trackside,” Elyse says.
She worked in a coaching team with Nicole’s long-time coach, Damian Wiseman, who continued to write her training programme. “I was leading the coach interaction space outside of that, and as a unit we sat down and fleshed out what it would look like and how it would play out. We got the communication to a really good place, and everyone was happy,” Elyse says.
“Nicole was amazing at the Games. She narrowed in on performance and was so professional.”
And Elyse was everything Nicole needed from a coach at the Games, the Paris bronze medallist says. “She was level-headed in the moments where I was panicking. She picked up on it, without us having to speak about it,” says Nicole.
“She has such great energy all the time. She bounces stuff off us and keeps us all in good spaces. She recognises what role to play for each person – she can easily be a friend, but she’s not afraid to lay down the law.
“I’ve worked with a lot of coaches through my career and I enjoyed having a female coach. It’s also about having a balanced workplace – everyone bringing different strengths. But it helps when you’re working with a female coach – there’s less that needs to be said.”
Four weeks later, Elyse was coaching New Zealand’s two female riders at the world track championships.
Earlier that year, she’d spoken to Cycling NZ about the next step in her development, and they backed her bid to attend the pinnacle event. That’s when lead women’s endurance coach Paul Manning presented Elyse with a game-changing opportunity.
“I don’t know if many other coaches would have done this, but he said, ‘You’re the coach, you’re leading. I’ll be in the background managing if you need me’,” Elyse says.
Manning saw it as the ideal next step in her high performance journey. “I took a step back and thrust her forward to lead. It was a fulfilment of her journey to that point and a good test at that level,” he says.
“It was a huge opportunity, but nothing to be afraid of. We talked about how she just needed to impose herself a little and own the trackside. She’s done very well, and she’s certainly crammed a lot in, in a short space of time”.
At the end of Elyse’s year-long residency, Cycling NZ made her role permanent. But it wasn’t the end of her connection with Women in High Performance Sport.
“Once your residency is over, you keep up monthly meetings with the residency experience cohort, which just gets bigger,” she says. “We’re sharing the learning across more people.”
She’s continued working with Helene Wilson, HPSNZ’s Women in High Performance Sport Lead.
“We know women are relational,” Helene says. “And if we don’t keep those connections up, then we won’t be successful at what we’re doing. The learning that happens personally is just as powerful as the learning you get from being around high performance coaches.”
Among the missions Elyse is still coming to grips with is “a big job description”. Her role entails developing athletes; coaching other coaches; “supporting up” by helping the high performance coaches; and special projects, like the Paralympics opportunity.
“To do everything really well is a lot. And I set myself high standards,” she says. Surrounded by an all-male coaching team brings its own set of challenges, but there are positives, too.
“Female coaches have a different skillset, a different approach and a broader understanding of some of the issues affecting female athletes. The wider life stuff that’s going on doesn’t always come out with a male coach – opening up to a female coach can make a difference,” Elyse says.
In her personal development, Elyse has honed her leadership style, embracing “courageous authenticity”.
“It’s about stepping into your voice, your truth, having conversations that are meaningful to you. Not sitting back and saying nothing when things don’t sit right with you. I’m now able to speak to people about what needs to happen,” she says.
“I’m more comfortable working in smaller groups, or one-on-one. I still have to learn to deliver to a whole team.
“But I’ve learned to be vulnerable and honest about how I’m finding things and the gaps I see. Cycling NZ as a whole is shifting. Sending me to worlds showed they’re willing to invest in their people and make positive change for the future.”
One area Cycling NZ could continue exploring, Elyse says, is coach development. She’s now pushing up-and-coming female coaches forward for opportunities like she’s had.
She’s now a mentor to Tessa Jenkins, who’s recently travelled with Elyse to development camps for young Kiwi riders in Malaysia and Melbourne.
“Elyse is awesome. She’s super approachable, no matter how busy she is. But I think that’s what makes her such a good coach – her ability to manage people and assess priorities,” says Tessa, who was a school cycling coach, encouraged to do Te Hāpaitanga by Elyse.
“Her experience and knowledge is really critical in helping the development of the young coaches. Attending world champs and planning the development of our riders is pretty inspiring – especially for females, because she’s really the first female coach we’ve seen come through.
“She inspires me to keep seeing what’s out there.”
