Five Canadian women’s sport trailblazers share their secrets to resilience
There’s undeniable momentum in the realm of women’s sports around the world.
New women’s professional leagues and teams are coming to life, while established ones are experiencing unprecedented growth. They are reaching new heights in ticket sales, television audiences, revenues, franchise valuations, fandom and media attention. The athletes are enjoying new levels of fame.
Canada is part of the boom. The long-awaited six-team Professional Women’s Hockey League is into its successful second season, filling arenas and already exploring expansion for as early as next year. The Northern Super League, Canada’s first-ever women’s pro soccer league, is preparing for its historic April 16 kickoff. The Toronto Tempo is taking shape as the WNBA’s first franchise outside the U.S., readying to take the court in 2026.
The Globe approached five Canadians who are shifting the landscape of women’s sports, to seek advice about perseverance in pursuit of one’s goals. They include former and current professional athletes, as well as women who have led, mentored, inspired – or helped build entities from the ground up.
This is their mini-master-class about resilience.
On facing uphill battles and not giving up:
“There’s a few things that I talk about when I talk about resilience. One is why are you doing it? What’s the goal you’re chasing? Whether it’s your loved ones, or you’re trying to build something, or you’re trying to make an impact, what’s driving you? Because at the end of the day, that’s what’s going to keep you getting up in the morning, even on the really bad days.”
On her ‘why’:
“I went from playing soccer professionally and for Canada, and it’s easy to be passionate about sport. But after you’re done playing sport, it can be difficult to find something else you’re as passionate about. I was lucky – building a women’s professional soccer league in Canada became very personal to me. I have so much belief in it. There’s a really clear vision here of being one of the world’s top women’s professional soccer leagues, and that is my why.”
On handling setbacks and criticisms:
“In the last two and a half years, I’ve been trying to sell this vision, to build something that hasn’t been built before. I had to operate in a little bit of a delusional headspace, like, ‘Of course it’s going to happen, because we’re going to make it happen.’ So any detractors or setbacks were just part of the journey. Some setbacks bothered me, but certain noes or criticisms would just add fuel to my fire, because those setbacks were the reason no one had tried to build this league before. It became like, ‘Yeah, we’ll show you.’”
On overcoming obstacles:
“Reframing things is always helpful. An obstacle is essentially something you would not have chosen for yourself. It gets you off the course you were on. So you’re automatically in a new position with a new perspective. Facing injuries in soccer, that meant I wasn’t on the field any more. I was in the gym, on the bike, or in the stands watching instead of training. But that gave me a new perspective I hadn’t experienced before. I’d been a starter most of my career, now I was seeing what the other side of it looked like for the other 10 players on the team that weren’t starting. That gives you an opportunity to see things differently, to learn and grow.”
On facing uphill challenges:
“This team is essentially a startup, so everything is difficult. When I’m dealing with something hard, I tell myself, ‘Someday, this is going to be my favourite part of a journey, and the thing I look back on most fondly.’ Once you’re able to get through it and look back, more than likely, it’s going to be one of the things you’re most proud of.”
On dealing with obstacles:
“A lot of it is mindset. Sometimes I’ll get in a rut, or face a problem that seems big, and I have to create a different mindset, and say to myself, ‘If all you see is the negative and the barriers, you’re never going to get to the solution.’”
On making decisions:
“You are never alone in making decisions. Use your network. If you feel like you haven’t developed that network yet, there’s no time like the present. You’ll be so surprised how many people want to help. It fulfills others too. People want to feel like they contributed and added value. If you ever feel like you’re on an island, that means that you probably haven’t reached out to enough or the right people yet.”
On avoiding burnout:
“It’s so individual. People say you need time to be by yourself to reset, and take time for self-care. I tried that and it was terrible for me. I am an extreme extrovert, so the way that I reset is by spending time with people in a way that is full of joy. I like going to an incredible concert and singing at the top of my lungs and dancing. It’s like a clearing of the mind and a reset. Also, during the pandemic, I went on a lot of walks, where I would I listen to a podcast or call people to talk in a way that wasn’t just surface, but you could share stories. … Some people prefer to be alone to reset. It looks different for everybody.”
On facing uphill battles:
“My late grandfather had this saying: You do it, you die, or you run away. It always reminds me that you can either quit or find a way to keep going and keep pushing in the pursuit of what you eventually want. Your journey is never going to be linear but there’s always a way and there’s always that light at the end of the tunnel.”
On overcoming setbacks:
“Writing things down and saying things out loud is very powerful. Those are the words that you put on yourself and put out into the universe. And having that main-character energy, understanding your life is a story that would be very boring without any setbacks or bumps in the road, that there’s a reason for what you’re going through, it’s a part of the journey and it’s going to make the end goal that much sweeter.”
On working for things over time:
“When something is meaningful to you, there are certain things that don’t seem like sacrifices – they’re just steps necessary to be taken to get that overarching goal. We hear about overnight success stories but they definitely don’t feel like overnight when you’re going through them. Those people you see in the media who have achieved great things, there’s so much hard work that goes into it – thousands of hours. Understand that to be an expert at something, to achieve something that you really want, you’re going to want to put in hours of hard work.”
On being proud of yourself:
“If you think back to five- or 10-years-ago-you, you would be very proud of that person and the way they handled themselves and persevered and were resilient. So if you’re feeling discouraged, think about future-you looking back on you today and just being like, I’m so proud of that person. I keep that in the back of my mind knowing that I’m doing the best that I can with the information that I’m given.”
On dealing with setbacks:
“I tore my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) when I was going into the Final Four of my senior year in college. I played basketball all my life, [it was a] major setback in that I could no longer play. Going through that recovery process and rehabilitation to come back and play professional basketball, I focused on the little wins. Whether it was, ‘Today I took one step bending my knee correctly’ or ‘Today I got out of bed and I didn’t trip’ – I celebrated as if it was my Super Bowl and reminded myself that it is the small things that equate to the big wins and that if I overlooked the little ones, I wouldn’t fully appreciate how amazing it would be to come back and play basketball.”
On playing the long game:
“It’s tough to train your mentality to play the long game, especially when we live in a society of instant gratification. It’s sometimes hard to picture your end goals coming to fruition. But it’s all investment. I think especially in women’s athletics, that’s the way we need to think of ourselves, our sport, our organizations: as an investment. We’re often asked to prove ourselves in the now. We need to believe in ourselves and believe that we are worth the investment, that we will prove it, and it doesn’t need to be now – the work will be done.”
On staying motivated through difficult times:
“When things get difficult, I lean into my why. When I first started playing basketball, my sister was a big piece of my motivation. I wanted to make sure that I was someone she could look up to. As I got into a higher level of sport, that expanded to young girls and boys across Canada. Would I be someone they could be proud of? Now I have a son, Maverick, and my why has shifted to him: Would the decisions I’m making and the goals I’m trying to achieve make him feel honoured that I’m his mom? The paths that we’re paving are not just for me. The why is more than myself.”
On the limits of resilience and perseverance:
“In athletics, we’re often put on this pedestal of blood, sweat and tears. We’re [seen as] superwomen. I appreciate the words of strength that people pour into me but I would be remiss if I didn’t remind people of the strength in vulnerability and the strength of leaning into your circle. It’s okay to not always be strong, to not always be resilient, to not always have the strength to persevere. One day at a time is enough. You are bigger than the now. You are not defined by one moment, one day. You are so needed, you’re so wanted.”
On facing uphill battles:
“There’s always a way. Sometimes if the door is closed then you go through the window. You just have to be strategic and you have to keep the faith.”
On problem-solving and overcoming obstacles:
“When you’re faced with a challenge as an entrepreneur, the most important thing is to stay calm. Panicking or spiralling is not going to help. What are the facts, what is the exact challenge, what are the opportunities that come with it? It’s a matter of not getting caught up in the bad but focusing on the outcome you want to achieve and putting your energy towards that. When we’re faced with a challenge, we kind of want to say, ‘This is terrible, there’s no way out.’ As opposed to, ‘Okay, let’s buckle down, get our pen and paper out, who are the experts in this space I can call to help, what are the resources I can use, how do we overcome it?’”
On bouncing back from setbacks:
“The good news is time is always going to move forward and it will lessen how you’re feeling about it. You’re going to have more things you have to focus on. Life keeps going. So let’s turn our eyes to what we can do and what’s next, not focus on the negative and the things you can’t fix and that have already happened.”
On her ‘why’:
“Women’s sports is a good business to be in. Also, this is a huge impact business. We’re creating something that’s never been there before as an opportunity for these women athletes. Our Canadian women had to literally move out of our country to continue their careers. So it’s a huge opportunity for them. And it’s going to be inspirational for all of the younger girls and kids who are thinking, ‘You know what? I can do that someday.’”
Editor: Idella Sturino. Interactive editor: Lucina Lo. Visuals editor: Sarah Palmer.
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