Overview

• On July 22 2025 at Windsor Castle, Princess Anne invested Dr Anita White as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her decades-long campaign for gender equity in sport.
• Dr White traced her advocacy to captaining England to the 1975 hockey World Cup, a victory that exposed sport’s “old grey men” leadership and spurred her reform efforts.
• Penny Briscoe, director of sport at the h ParalyParalympic Association, was selected as chef de mission for Los Angeles 2028, marking her sixth assignment in the role.
• During the investiture, White and Briscoe discussed strategies to recruit more women into high-performance coaching positions.
• White pointed to top-level advances—like the Lionesses’ profile and the rise of female sports presenters—while cautioning that sustained effort is needed to achieve full parity.