Friday is International Women’s Day and, depending on where you look, the official campaign theme varies from “inspire inclusion” to “invest in women, accelerate progress.”
The variation doesn’t matter, says Allison Sandmeyer-Graves, chief executive of Canadian Women and Sport, an organization pushing to create a more equitable sport system for girls and women.
“Whatever the theme, the way that it’s marked on March 8 every year feels like a celebration and a great opportunity for connection and conversation,” she said. “But, for International Women’s Day to really have the power that I believe it could and should have, it also needs to be a call for action.
“It’s very easy to get lulled into a sense that things are better. There is real effort being made, we are seeing progress, but we have not solved the challenges that exist within sport yet. There is a lot of work left to do.”
The Star is marking the day by highlighting 24 women who have taken up that call, women who not only excel in their own corner of sport but are directly making a difference to others, especially women and girls, by creating more — and better — sport opportunities. They build grassroots organizations, invest in professional women’s sport, coach women and girls, drive policy toward a more equitable future and empower their peers through their actions and achievements.
Lindsey Crampton
Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities makes sport for children and youth more affordable and accessible and Crampton is a force in advancing gender equity at Jumpstart. As associate vice president of community operations and chapter engagement, she was instrumental in developing Jumpstart’s Play to Lead, a program that promotes sport participation of women and girls and champions diversity in sport leadership.
Paige Crozon
Crozon is a big part of Canada’s 3x3 women’s basketball team as they work to qualify for the Paris Olympics. She’s also the manager of the Living Skies Indigenous Basketball League, which breaks down barriers to sports participation through a cost-free Saskatchewan-wide basketball program for youth, and the assistant coach for the University of Lethbridge women’s basketball team. As a single mom, she does it all with her six-year-old daughter Poppy in tow.
Stacy Ganogiannis-Reid
School sports are the most accessible way to learn and play with peers and, as a high school teacher at Toronto’s East York Collegiate Institute, Ganogiannis-Reid opens that door to so many girls. She has coached girls basketball and volleyball teams since 1995, girls soccer since 2001, coed track and field since 2016, and many other teams, including boys. She’s Ontario’s 2023 female school sport coach award winner.
Jayna Hefford
The four-time Olympic gold medallist led women in their battle for a sustainable paid women’s hockey league and is now senior vice-president of hockey operations at the newly formed Professional Women’s Hockey League. Launched on New Year’s Day, the league gives players the professional environment they deserve and lays the groundwork for future women’s pro leagues.
She is Hockey Canada’s first female chief executive and took the role at a time of crisis when there was a need to overhaul the organization’s culture to restore public trust. With her track record of innovation and championing gender equity at Curling Canada, Henderson is well positioned to tackle institutionalized sexism and misogyny and drive the organization forward by making the sport more accountable, inclusive, and safer for everyone.
Jamillah Jean
What started as a pandemic activity for her family — hiking and exploring the outdoors — became a social enterprise dedicated to delivering outdoor adventures tailored to BIPOC and marginalized communities. As founder and chief executive of Hike Mtl, Jean is reducing economic and social barriers to activities like hiking, canoeing, skiing and snowshoeing, promoting healthier lifestyles and making nature feel like a place for everyone.
The former university basketball player saw inequity in the women’s game and took steps to change that by founding HoopQueens. Her non-profit supports, empowers and provides opportunities to learn and grow basketball at all levels. Its junior program for girls fosters love of the game and the summer league, launched in 2022, is the first paid women’s basketball league of its kind in Canada.
As one of the few women to have made it to a national wheelchair rugby team, Labelle is a trailblazer. She was the only woman on Canada’s mixed gender team when they won silver at the 2023 International Wheelchair Rugby Cup and was co-captain of Canada’s first women’s team, which won bronze at the 2023 Women’s World Cup. She is dedicated to making the team for the 2024 Paralympics in Paris.
Stephanie Lam
Less than a third of recreational golfers in Canada are women and girls and Lam is working to close that gap. Since joining The Pulpit Club in Caledon as an associate professional, she’s been the force behind the dramatic expansion of its women’s golf programs. Female memberships and ladies’ day participants have surged under her commitment to delivering a quality, inclusive experience.
The Toronto mom started the Tween Girls’ Hockey League so seven- to 16-year-old girls could learn the fundamentals with paid female coaches in a non-competitive environment. Then she took on city hall, challenging its ice allocation policies that favour established boys groups and make it hard for girls and other equity seeking groups to get their fair share. A city report on what changes are needed is now in the works.
The two-time Paralympian in boccia is the only woman in the world to have achieved the No. 1 ranking in the individual BC4 category when the event was mixed gender. She won double gold at the 2023 Parapan American Games, taking top honours in the women’s category and the pairs event with teammate Iulian Ciobanu. She’s looking to medal in Paris this summer and grow the sport in Canada.
Tasia McKenna
A program manager with Canadian Women and Sport, McKenna is working to create meaningful and systemic change for women and girls through gender equity programs at the community, provincial and national levels. With extensive experience in basketball as a player, coach and leader, she’s dedicated to creating a fairer sport system, with an emphasis on women, girls and gender diverse individuals from equity-deserving groups.
Nadine Powell
A former lawyer, Powell volunteered as a coach for years before making soccer her full-time focus. She’s a leader in the North Toronto Soccer Club’s coach development program, coaches U13 and U17 girls competitive teams and was the only female coach to lead a coaching clinic at the BMO Girls Play ON event last summer.
Carla Qualtrough
Qualtrough was appointed Canada’s sport minister again last summer and announced a commission to begin this year to probe systemic abuse and guide the future of sport culture, policy and funding. The former lawyer, sport administrator and Paralympic swimmer holds the reins at a pivotal time with a need to bring provinces on board so change reaches the millions of youth playing sports outside Ottawa’s narrow jurisdiction.
Jane Roos
CAN Fund’s #150Women is a philanthropic community of women celebrating and lifting women. Thousands of women, with their donation of $150 or more, are giving aspiring female Olympians and Paralympians the opportunity to succeed through $8,000 grants to pay for equipment, coaching, flights to competitions and more. As founder of CAN Fund, which raises millions in aid annually for Canada’s exceptional athletes, Roos has created a platform for women to empower each other.
Trina Ross
The paddler from the Pimicikamak Cree Nation in Manitoba, is a trailblazer and role model for younger generations. She was the only Indigenous paddler representing Canada at the ICF Dragon Boat World Championships in 2022, and came home with eight medals. She received the 2023 Tom Longboat Award as the top female Indigenous athlete in Canada.
She is the co-founder and chief executive of AFC Toronto — the first women’s professional soccer team in the city — set to kick off in 2025 in Project 8’s Canadian league. As an early investor in the team, along with business partners Brenda Ha, the chief operating officer, and Jill Burgin, the chief marketing officer, Ruken is committed to backing women and helping make professional women’s soccer a reality in Canada.
Humaira Sedu
Founder and executive director of Muslimah Athletic Club, she’s eliminating barriers and increasing opportunities for Muslim women and girls to learn and play sports in a supportive environment. Her flagship hockey initiative includes ball and ice hockey clinics, training camps, and a nine-week Rookie Skates program that delivers free, beginner-level training in skating and ice hockey with an all-female coaching staff.
The two-time Olympic artistic swimmer took two years off after Tokyo to pursue her degree in podiatric medicine before returning to sport in spectacular fashion. She won gold in the women’s solo free at the 2024 world aquatics championships — a first for Canada since Sylvie Frechette won in 1991 — and silver in the solo technical event.
Melanie Squire
Squire is co-founder and program director of Iroquois Roots Rugby, an Indigenous-led program that brings rugby to First Nations youth in Ontario. Last year, in Six Nations of the Grand River, they held the inaugural Iroquois Cup for U16 girls — the first tournament of its kind in the country — and the touring girls team won a championship in the U.S. The group created Iroqit Sportswear because commercially available uniforms were too expensive and didn’t fit their players.
As director of research and evaluation for MLSE Foundation and MLSE LaunchPad, Warner is driving research and gathering data on how sport can be a force for good, create positive outcomes for youth and increase access and equity to sport. Her works pushes policymakers and funders to improve sport for youth who face discrimination and girls and young women who drop out of sport at alarming rates.
Katie Watkins
As director of facility and programs at Variety Village — Toronto’s accessible sports and fitness centre — Watkins brings the love and power of sport to children with disabilities, a badly underserved community. Her passion for inclusion helps break down barriers for people of all abilities, especially girls, through developing programs that empower children to grow from participants to athletes to competitors.
Brandie Wilkerson
The Olympic beach volleyball player is an ambassador in the Sport Your Period campaign. The visible red dot she wears on court challenges stigma and normalizes playing sport while menstruating, which is vital to keeping more girls and women in sport as research shows nearly one third of teens and women skip sport because of their period.
She is head coach of Canada’s women’s volleyball team and, at the women’s world championships in 2022 and major tournaments in 2023, she was the only female in the head coaching role. The job is intense, time-consuming and travel-heavy, but Winzer’s excellence in the role while raising three young children proves what’s possible.
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