When the women crowded into a small room in the Athletes Village for their first meeting, no one knew what to expect and there was no hint that something extraordinary was about to happen. But almost immediately, a powerful connection was established.

This book is testimony to these remarkable women. Check it out.

Stories of Resilience and Courage

To honour and to celebrate, the Canadian Journal for Women in Coaching proudly profiles five of these women throughout Women’s History Month in March 2022 – inspirational, accomplished, and wonderful role models for the next generation. – Sheila Robertson, Journal editor.

Bev Priestman on delivering gold – March 28, 2022 by Sheila Robertson

Heather Hennigar Champions an Integrated Support System – March 11, 2022 by Sheila Robertson

Lisa Thomaidis Closes a Chapter – March 09, 2022 by Sheila Robertson

Michelle Darvill: Coach of the Year 2021 – February 15, 2022 by Sheila Robertson

“This is a story with many dimensions, but one indisputable conclusion: when circumstances become opportune, women coaches can flourish in university sport as full-time paid employees. Admittedly, benefactors such as Sheryl and Dave Kerr, whose generosity has made McGill University’s Women in Sport initiative possible, are rare. However, what is unfolding at McGill could, and should, prompt other Canadian institutions to investigate a similar approach to furthering opportunities for the many skilled women coaches in their ranks. All advocates of women coaches can be encouraged by the career pathways being developed at McGill.”

Download the Article: https://coach.ca/sites/default/files/2020-07/CJWC%20-%20July%202020-en.pdf

The goals of the Media Guide for Athletes and Coaches are simple: to help athletes and their coaches feel comfortable, poised, and articulate in dealing with the media, to learn the fine art of effective self-promotion, and to raise their media profile.

Complementing Ringette Canada’s initiatives are two new tools, one nation-wide that focuses on increasing retention and advancement of female coaches. The other is Alberta-based and aims to increase gender equity and leadership diversity in sport organizations.It is crucial to recognize the role of partnerships in these developments with Ringette Canada and the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) working together, the CAC and the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS) jointly developing the Female Coach Mentorship Model, and the CAC and Alberta Sport Connection supporting the Women in Sport and Leadership Impact Program. Funding for the latter two came from Status of Women Canada.

The Journal Editorial Board is encouraged by these developments and will monitor the movement from policy to progress. – Sheila Robertson, Journal editor

To read the full article in the  Canadian Journal for Women in Coaching.

A Piece of Canadian Sport History is a newly-launched, free website that covers the period 1977 to 1982, five critical years in Canadian sport. The website features news, articles, profiles, and results from Champion magazine, all focused on Canada’s Olympic athletes.

Sheila Robertson, the magazine’s founding editor, developed the website in order to ensure that the material is available to anyone with an interest in that dynamic period in Canada’s sport history. “Sheila’s Blog” provides occasional commentary on current events. (http://canadiansporthistory.ca/sheilas-blog/).

During Sheila’s tenure as editor of Champion, Canadian sport stood at a critical juncture. The 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal had brought unprecedented attention to Canada’s athletes and coaches. To ensure the best possible results for the first-time host country, more money than ever before was poured into the sport system ─ from $5-million a year in the late 1960s to $31-million by 1977. Media interest in Canada’s ‘amateur’ athletes surged.

What next? How to build on the successes? How to move forward to ensure the successes were lasting and positive? How to keep the athletes and their performances in the public eye? How to avoid the perils of an increasingly politicized international sport environment?

The stars aligned with the appointment of Iona Campagnolo as Canada’s first full-time Minister of State, Fitness and Amateur Sport. Vibrant, committed, and dynamic, her time in office coincided with that of Dr. Roger Jackson, Olympic gold medallist in rowing, as director of Sport Canada. Throughout the system, impressive numbers of Canada’s best young athletes were transitioning into the sport system; many, including Anne Merklinger, CEO of Own the Podium, Dr. Bruce Kidd, Richard Pound, and Sue Holloway, are today’s leaders.

Not everything was rosy. Doubtless the greatest challenge came when Canada joined the American-led boycott of the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980. The boycott was arguably very costly to Canada’s athletes and coaches and produced immediate and lasting repercussions. As swim coach Dave Johnson said in Sheila’s 2012 book, “Shattered Hopes: Canada’s Boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games”: “We had a tremendously strong program in that era and I honestly think that not going to the Olympics in 1980 pushed us back a long, long way. It took a really long time to recover …”

All of this, and much more, is reflected in Champion; it was, unquestionably, the voice of amateur sport in those times.

Today, the Champion articles continue to be relevant. They provide an understanding, a context of where sport in Canada has come from when we consider where we are today, and where we want to go. Of concern is the fact that many of the same challenges remain, including doping, retirement, funding, technology, athlete advocacy, gender equality, women in coaching, and the ethical application of advances in sport science and sport medicine.

A Piece of Canadian Sport History website was designed and built by Susan Dodge of Dodge Ink Web Solutions.

For more information:
Sheila Robertson
Tel: 613.692.2993
Email: sheila.robcom@gmail.com

At the higher levels of international sport, much has been written (and some lip service paid) about the importance of gender equality. But words without action are worthless, and sport remains far from a level playing field for millions of girls and women around the world. WE are therefore encouraged by the actions of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) for its recently launched Gender Equality Strategy (GES), which covers many areas of relevance to girls and women throughout the Commonwealth.

Particularly interesting to Journal readers will be the prominence given to initiatives intended to benefit women coaches, from aspirants to experienced, through an innovative coaching internship program coinciding with the 2018 Commonwealth Games. We will monitor the progress of this bold undertaking, hoping for its success and hoping also that other world sporting bodies take notice and emulate the CGF. (Disclosure, CGF Vice-President Bruce Robertson, the author of the GES, and I are married). − Sheila Robertson, Journal editor

Read the full article in the Canadian Journal for Women in Coaching.

From time to time, various media outlets drag out the claim that prior to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Canada was the only host nation to fail to win an Olympic gold medal on home soil, and not only once but twice. The first occasion was the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal and the second the Olympic Winter Games in Calgary 12 years later.

In Calgary, Canadian athletes produced brilliant performances: silver medals for figure skaters Brian Orser and Elizabeth Manley, both in the singles event, two bronze medals for skier Karen Percy in downhill and super-G, and the bronze medal for ice dancers Tracy Wilson and Robert McCall. Unfortunately, the excellence of these results was somewhat tarnished by the gold medal failure taunt.

Canada’s performances at the Montreal Olympics are traditionally cast as a national embarrassment, but the situation was far different from Calgary.

In this case, the so-called “fact” – not winning a gold medal − not only perpetuates a faulty legend, but sadly, it is also usually stated without context, and certainly without analysis of the reality of those Games for the women swimmers.

The search for the truth goes back to the 1972 Munich Olympics where the women’s swimming team from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) won two individual silver medals, one individual bronze medal, and two relay silver medals for a respectable total of five medals. One year later, at the 1973 World Aquatic Championships, they won a total of 18 medals: eight individual gold, five individual silver, three individual bronze, and two relay golds – a staggering improvement in just one year.

The East German women continued their domination at the 1975 worlds, winning a total of 19 medals of which eight were individual golds and two were relay golds. At the 1976 Olympics, they won 10 of the eleven available individual gold medals and one relay gold.

In view of the not-so-recent and widely reported revelations about systematic and rampant drug use throughout the East Germany sport system, lasting from 1973 until 1989, it is entirely reasonable to suggest that Canada’s so-called failure to win a gold medal at the 1976 Olympic Games is anything but a national embarrassment.

What would have happened if this state-sponsored doping had not been a factor? We will never know for sure. Certainly, the East German women were excellent swimmers in their own right, but would they have been so dominant without drug enhancement (of which it appears they themselves were not aware)?

In 1976, the medal tally for Canada’s female swimmers was one individual silver, four individual bronze, and two relay bronze medals, for a total of seven medals. If the East German women’s team had been disqualified for doping, Canada could have won three individual gold, four individual silver, three individual bronze medals, and two relay silver medals for a total of 12 medals.

Cheryl Gibson and Becky Smith won silver and bronze respectively in 400 metre individual medley behind Ulrike Tauber of the GDR. Gold and silver could have been theirs. Nancy Garapick won bronze medals in 100 metre and 200 metre backstroke, behind Ulrike Richter and Brigit Treiber of the GDR. Two more gold medals. Also noteworthy is the fact that in the 100 metre backstroke, Wendy Hogg and Gibson were fourth and fifth; it could have been a Canadian sweep – gold, silver, and bronze.

Shannon Smith won the 400 metre freestyle bronze, behind Petra Thumer of the GDR and Shirley Babashoff of the United States (USA). Smith could have taken home the silver. Wendy Quirk was sixth in 100 metre butterfly, behind Kornelia Ender, Andrea Pollack, and Rosemarie Gabriel of the GDR, first, second, and fifth respectively. She could have been awarded the bronze medal. And in 200 metre butterfly, Quirk and Gibson were fifth and sixth, behind Pollack, Tauber, and Gabriel. With Karen Thornton of the USA taking fourth (and elevated to gold), Canada could have won another silver and bronze medal.

In the relays, Becky Smith, Gail Amundrud, Barbara Clark, and Anne Jardin won bronze in 4×100 metre freestyle relay, behind the USA and the GDR, and Jardin, Wendy Hogg, Robin Corsiglia, and Susan Sloan won bronze in 4×100 metre medley relay behind the GDR and the USA. Both teams could have won silver medals.

If the East Germans had competed clean, would Canada have won all 12 medals? The truth probably lies somewhere between the 12 we could have won given a full disqualification, and the seven we did win. We will be never certain, but what we do know is this: Canada would almost certainly have won at least one and likely three gold medals in Montreal.

If ever the obvious injustice is righted, Canada will no longer be dubbed the country that failed to win gold during a home Olympic Games. It is long past time for this to happen, if not officially then at least let Canada’s outstanding 1976 performances be portrayed with fact rather than myth.

Bruce won silver and bronze medals at the 1972 Olympic Games and was the 1973 world 100 metre butterfly champion. Sheila is the author of several books, including Shattered Hopes, Canada’s Boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games.