By scoring the game-winning goal that won Canada our first-ever medal in women’s soccer at the 2012 Olympics, Diana Matheson had already succeeded in putting our country on the map for the sport. But she decided there was more to be done — and in 2022, she spearheaded the launch of Canada’s first professional women’s soccer league. It’s finally here: the kickoff of the Northern Super League (NSL) happens in April, including a Toronto game on April 19. Ahead of the launch, we caught up with Diana to get the scoop on her gold medal–worthy romance with her wife, Anastasia Bucsis, former speed skating Olympian and current CBC Sports host and analyst.
How they met
We met at a Canadian Olympic foundation fundraiser. We had a great night, and following that, she texted and reached out several times, but I am a terrible texter and was a bit oblivious, and we kind of lost touch. I was probably smitten from the beginning, but she’s very much heart first, while I’m very much a thinker, so I think it clicked for her sooner, and it took me longer to catch up. But we reconnected at the Milton velodrome, watching a friend, cyclist Georgia Simmerling, do a trial up there.
The first date
We count that as our first date. We actually had dinner with Georgia and her partner (Olympian Stephanie Labbé), and they ended up leaving early, so we ended up talking for hours. We looked back and later realized that it was on Feb. 14 — so unbeknownst to us, we had our first date on Valentine’s Day!
The proposal
Anastasia proposed — at some point, she called dibs on proposing! We had just gone out for a date to a favourite spot in the city and had some charcuterie and a nice glass of wine or two. She had arranged for my sister and her husband to come by our house while we were out, and she had them set up some beautiful flowers and candles up in our den at home. When we got home, she called me upstairs in a weird tone that I couldn’t place. I was like, am I in trouble? I went upstairs, and she was down on one knee.
The wedding
We got married in Montana. She’s from Calgary, so we looked for some venues in and around the foothills of Alberta, but we have some friends that live in Montana, so we started looking around there too. We did the city hall wedding here in Toronto, just with friends and family. And then about a month later, on Aug. 31, 2023, we got married in Montana. Our sports friends are all over Canada and the U.S., so we wanted to try to bring everyone together. We had a golf event, a brewery event and then a beautiful ceremony at this river mountain venue just outside Missoula. We had our honeymoon a year later, after the Paris Olympics — we went to Croatia!
The secret to success
I think we’re both just really good at supporting each other. We’re both ambitious and have dreams within work and our careers, and we support each other in doing those things but also just love spending time together, as well, and we’re looking forward to the many years ahead.
Balancing careers and a relationship
Coming from high performance sport for both of us, when you’re chasing a dream, that balance is sort of a myth. You do the best you can! We’ve had the busiest two and a half years of our lives, with Anastasia building her career and hosting the Olympic Games on CBC, and with us building the NSL and all the stress and uncertainty that comes with that. But we’ve just tried to get better at managing that stress and finding the things that we can do together that bring us energy, but in a way that feels restful and restorative.
The future together
We plan on expanding our family, whatever that looks like. And right now we’ve got a small condo in Toronto. Maybe in the future we’ll have a little bit more of a patch of land somewhere that we can build up as well.
