Cycle Sisters offer women from Muslim community open water opportunities

A London-based charity, set up to encourage women from the Muslim community to take up cycling, is now offering further sporting opportunities, including open water swimming.

Cycle Sisters has seen its two-wheeled community grow to more than 1,500 members across several of the capital’s boroughs since its creation in 2016, and now they are building on that remarkable success in other sporting disciplines.

They are putting on swim lessons for beginners … as well as providing a pathway for more experienced participants to take a dip in some of London’s most iconic outdoor blue spaces.

What’s more, their community can also access running sessions as part of the charity’s spin-off, Tri Sisters, which aims to encourage members to try their hand at triathlons.

Though London-based, their achievements have not gone unnoticed on the national stage and they were recently nominated for the Swim England Aquatics Champion title at the prestigious Sporting Equals Awards.

Deryn Ellis, communications and media lead for the charity, said: “We’re quite new to the world of swimming so to be nominated for the award was incredible. It means a great deal to be recognised, especially by a key stakeholder like Swim England.

Making swimming more accessible

“I think the nomination kind of validates the efforts and the impact that we’ve made in such a short space of time in making swimming more accessible for Muslim women.

“We’ve got 1,500 women within our network, all from different backgrounds in terms of sport. Many of those who have taken up cycling would have described themselves as not very sporty before.

“However, we’ve found that many of the women who came into the community have gone on to want to participate in other sports, so in 2023 we set up our Tri Sisters project to support those who want to get involved in triathlons.

“One of the biggest barriers to women from our community was the swimming, so at the beginning of this year we started women-only swimming lessons and open water coaching sessions.”

The swimming and running sessions have proved so successful that 20 Tri Sisters took part in this year’s London T100 triathlon and others have completed the London Marathon.

Deryn added: “I went along to the T100 and spoke to some of the women who took part. I remember speaking to one woman in particular who told me that a year earlier she didn’t even want to put her face in the water. She took on the T100 as a way of challenging herself, specifically with the swimming.”

Breaking down barriers

The success stories did not end there, as six Tri Sisters members were awarded London Classic medals having completed the iconic marathon, Ride London – a 100-mile cycle sportive – and the two-mile Swim Serpentine event.

“We’re proud of the fact that Cycle Sisters has provided so many women with an opportunity to explore other sports,” Deryn enthused. “We have so much support from other organisations, like Swim England, Fund Her Tri and London Marathon Events. The guidance and advice they have given us has been invaluable.

“They reached out to us after hearing about what we were looking to do in the swimming space and the guidance and advice they have given us has been invaluable.

“We are encouraged by the progress we have made in a relatively short period of time. We’ve broken down so many barriers for women from the Muslim community but there is so much more we want to achieve.”

Mike Hawkes, Swim England’s head of diversity and inclusion, said: “Cycle Sisters and their spin-off, Tri Sisters, is a remarkable success story as they have provided so many women with opportunities that just weren’t there not too long ago.

“Their nomination for the Swim England Aquatics Champion award underlines just how far they have come this year alone, and we are looking forward to continuing to support their swim project.”