A multiple world cup medalist in the sport of Olympic Sailing, and an athlete on the Canada SailGP team, Isabella Berthold also leads a Next Gen Legacy Fund, focused on providing financial support to youth athletes in British Columbia.
Isabella is also a professional cyclist, racing a European focused UCI Road Calendar.
A former venture capital analyst, Isabella believes that responsible business, is good business. She believes that sport and sustainability can work side-by-side to develop innovative products and business models that drive real change, fast-tracking our journey towards a smaller carbon footprint.
Working in Venture Capital around health, Isabella, who captained Canada’s Women sailing in 2024’s Americas Cup in Barcelona, is passionate about sustainable cities, and the circular economy.
Isabella on how sports can learn from each other:
“Sailing and cycling both have their own challenges and I would love to bring both sports together in a room because I think they can solve each other’s challenges.
Sailing on the one hand has this amazing Olympic movement and gender equality has been at the forefront of that for a very long time. I never felt there was a disadvantage to being a female athlete, but it was quite difficult to pursue as a female on the professional side.
Whereas in cycling, so much work has gone into the professional side of the sport, where the top female cyclists and teams are earning fantastic salaries and things are very equal to the men’s side in terms of support, R&D etc. But it is very top heavy to just a few teams and then it quickly drops off, so you lose the foundations of your sport.”
Isabella on the challenges facing investment in women’s sport:
“On the business, sports marketing side, we have to overcome the challenges that we created ourselves. I think there has always been enough data to show that female athletes are highly influential on the marketing side and that the female fanbase is generally more engaged with the athletes themselves and the storytelling of the athletes.
But to get in the room of a lot of these brands, we needed a hook and the hook that I often heard was that you are getting really good value for your dollar….just as much reach, just as much exposure but for half the price or even less than men.
I think the challenge that we are now overcoming is that, that worked and we got in the room, but that was also the bar that we set for ourselves. So, we are always the cheaper spend.
But you wouldn’t have to look too far to find female athletes who are doing a better job of working with brands, but they are getting a lower level of compensation than men.”
Isabella on the role of Medical Tech and Data in women’s sport:
“I think if we drew a Venn diagram between medical Tech and Sport Tech, I think the circles are overlapping more and more everyday.
The medical world is informing so much on the research and data side and pushing to say we need to understand the human body more.
What the sports world offers is harsh environments to collect that information and its an exciting time to see what comes next.”