Astronaut and 2026 Australian of the Year Katherine Bennell-Pegg will headline the 2026 Women in Sport Congress (WISC) in Brisbane, igniting powerful conversations ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Hosted by the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), WISC is Australia's largest event dedicated exclusively to advancing women's sport.
Kicking off this Sunday on International Women's Day, the Congress will attract a record 400 leaders from sport, science, medicine, academia and industry - all united on a mission to elevate global support for female athletes.
The Congress will explore how to maximise an athlete's full potential at every stage of their career, from the first training session through to life after retirement, with key topics including puberty and performance, injury prevention, long-term athlete health, navigating parenthood and return-to-play.
Bennell-Pegg is among the lineup of elite speakers across the three-day program.
Her keynote will draw parallels between elite sport and human spaceflight, offering rare insights into how the world's most advanced performance systems can unlock new potential in women's sport.
"Human spaceflight and elite sport have more similarities than most realise," Bennell-Pegg said.
"Like elite athletes, astronauts are supported by large teams working to optimise performance in extreme environments. How the human body reacts to the space environment has led to research that benefits all of us here on Earth, too."
Fresh from graduating at the European Space Agency's Astronaut Centre in 2024 - one of just six selected from more than 22,500 applicants worldwide - Bennell-Pegg represents the ultimate in high performance preparation, resilience and precision.
"So much of what we discover - both in space and in preparation to go to space - has applications across many fields and industries, including sports science, health and wellbeing."
AIS Female Performance Health Initiative Lead and Olympic swimmer Dr Rach Harris said WISC has fast become one of the world's most-respected forums for advancing female athlete health and performance.
"This is more than a conference, it's a blueprint for the next era of women's sport," Dr Harris said. "We have trailblazers from across the globe travelling to Brisbane to be part of these critical conversations."
Joining the conversation is:
- Professor Shona Halson, internationally recognised sports scientist
- Kelsey-Lee Barber, two-time World Champion javelin thrower and Olympic bronze medallist
- Kaarle McCulloch, two-time Olympic cyclist and high performance coach
- Belinda Stowell, Olympic champion sailor and AIS Coach Development Lead
- Rachael Lynch, two-time Olympian (Hockeyroos) and High Performance Nurse for Wheelchair Rugby Australia.
The full schedule and list of speakers is available here: WISC - Women In Sport Congress, opens in a new tab
