Growth in women's sports might be loud and messy at times, but it's part of the journey
'Fears and doubts are part of a champion's journey,' says Olympian Marnie McBean
There is no doubt that Canada is on an upward trajectory of the development of leagues and expansion teams, creation of jobs in women's sports and generally more attention to women's participation in the global ecosystem.
The PWHL is in its second year with plans to expand on the horizon, the NSL is set to launch next month in Vancouver, and the WNBA's Toronto Tempo will tip off in April 2026.
Building those leagues and creating new spaces isn't always easy or glamorous. In fact, what we are seeing now has been building for years and in ways that might not be so obvious to everyone. Some of the current success we see has been laid on the foundations of learnings of yesterday.
Whether it has been the collapse of other leagues, the intense research and marketing it took to convince people to say it's time to invest, it is still not an easy path. There have been bumps, there will be bumps and nothing will be seamless. It never is. I have been thinking about how much grace will be afforded to new ventures in women's sports.
Earlier this month, I sat down in the CBC digital studio with one of the most storied Canadian Olympians, Senator Marnie McBean, to talk about the growth of sports and well, women. I wanted to know what she thinks about barriers and limitations that might continue to exist.
McBean was Canada's chef de mission for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and has been an avid mentor for many athletes. She has witnessed this country's ebbs and flows, and has a unique perspective on what she sees around her. The self-deprecating and humble Olympian insisted I call her Marnie as we shared recipes about her famous ribs and talked about ideas she has for food shows. Then we got down to business.
The three-time Olympic gold medallist talked about the growth of women's sports and how she and her wife, lawyer Deanah Shelly, are thrilled their nine-year old daughter is in soccer, skiing, basketball and even Girl Scouts. She told me that her daughter feels there are no limits to where she can go. That is something that is remarkably new for girls in Canada. I have a 23-year old daughter and she knows this country without a women's domestic league in soccer or hockey.
WATCH | Olympian Marnie McBean on growth of women's sports:
Beyond the leagues and beyond the teams, there are journeys that women embark on. It's not the same for everyone but there are certain similarities that women experience and McBean reflected on that.
She highlighted an issue that is equally important: the mental barriers that sometimes get in the way of women's advancement. McBean admitted that her own journey was not easy but she didn't suffer from harassment or severe systemic barriers that racialized or marginalized counterparts may face. She came out as gay as an adult.
"I had the advantage of being a 34-year-old woman who had this strength in my own character, so when I realized who I was . . . I just started telling people," she said in a 2014 interview.
During our conversation, McBean reframed success and failure in a way that left me mind-blown. McBean spoke about the fears and doubts that we encounter on a journey, be it building something, creating something as we battle an innate fear of failure.
"Fears and doubts are part of a champion's journey," she said simply.
After our conversation, I kept replaying those words in my head. As a woman in a predominantly male industry, I feel like I don't give myself the grace to fail. In a recent conversation with my performance coach, Bob Babinski, he told me about his own misses on an assignment and how he has channeled those experiences into learnings. But are women given the grace to fail in the same way? Do we actually support women and girls in new initiatives or even in older projects? Would Canadian society forgive mistakes in new leagues? Or from new teams?
McBean reiterated the importance of living beyond those fears.
"The best way I can help you and help other women is to normalize the fears and the doubts we have and the questions that we have in our head," she said. "Am I good enough? Am I ready for this? Is it my turn? Those fears and doubts are a normal part of a champion's path."
It is normal to doubt and to question. Maybe I question excessively — a trait that is common to my profession. We need to manage those fears and doubts.
"In the process of the journey it's a lot about volume control. We question ourselves quite a bit," McBean said. "We're waiting to be all the way ready. Sometimes you gotta go forward when you're not all the way ready. You are ready as you need to be to take a step forward. Turn the volume down on fear and the doubt. And turn the volume up on the 'I have been training', 'I have skills', 'That person is an idiot and has been doing it so I will'."
Sometimes in the building of women's sports, we can lose perspective on the essential mental micro pieces because we're so focused on the macro. McBean's reframing of how doubt serves us is important. We react or think about something in a certain way because there is meaning attached to it but we need to have grace with our own inner dialogue.
WATCH | NSL players reflect on Charmaine Hooper's influence on Canadian women's soccer:
Tennis legend and women's sports advocate Billie Jean King famously said pressure is a privilege. Couple that with McBean's words and we have a brilliant formula for the mental performance required to create, support, and grow women's sports in Canada.
We want to see women's sports grow in Canada. We want to see opportunities for all young girls. We need to recognize the internal noise and turn down the volume if need be. Growth might be loud and messy but it's part of the journey and we'll take it.
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