Oh Canada – What an Inspiration!

A sea of red shirts, maple leafs everywhere and a crowd of 54,000 plus people chanting “Canada” – Canada Day celebrations on Parliament hill? Nope! June 27th in Vancouver.

While the Canadian women are out of the running for the FIFA World Cup, they are certainly first in the hearts of many.

The biggest turnout for a soccer game ever in Canada – this has to mean an increase in respect for women’s soccer. Building on the momentum from the Women’s World Cup, we hope will inspire little girls everywhere to try soccer… or running, dancing, climbing, or any other sport that they want to try.

Christine Sinclair and the women’s side were champions in the eyes of my daughter and thousands of other fans who stayed on their feet cheering long after the game had ended. What does it mean to run ‘like a girl’?– I hope for Canadian girls it will now mean to run like Christine Sinclair.

My daughter who plays house league soccer saw her personal hero, mid-fielder Alyssa Chapman, keep going after England scored. She saw determined, strong players who gave a great game even if they didn’t win in the end. She told me with shining eyes that it inspired her to try harder when it’s her turn to play in the fall.

Inspiration, perseverance, motivation and respect – these should be the legacy from women’s involvement with sport, no matter what level they play at. Canada as a nation needs to support our girls and boys to keep trying, to keep playing, to keep active. If they do then we all win.

Samantha Hartley-Folz
Project Manager WoW, Manager of Knowledge Translation
June 2015

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