Erin McLeodPhoto illustration: The Globe and Mail. Source photo: Naomi Baker/AFP/Getty Images/AFP/Getty Images
After taking part in four World Cups as a player, Erin McLeod has traded in her goalkeeper gloves for a microphone for the 2023 tournament, leaning on her 19 years of experience with the Canadian women’s national team to provide in-studio analysis for TSN. Still playing professionally at 40 years of age, for Icelandic team Stjarnan, McLeod has been blown away with the level of play this year. “I think it’s been fantastic,” she says. “I just think it’s been such a testament to where we are in women’s sports in the world right now. The gap even between the best teams in the world and the lower-ranked teams is decreasing – anyone can win on any given day.” She took time out from her overnight studio work – watching all the action unfold half a world away in Australia and New Zealand – to answer our weekly sports questionnaire.
What is your chief characteristic?
I would say my passion in everything that I do, and no one questions when I’m passionate about something.
There are obviously positives and negatives to that level of passion. Have you found that?
Absolutely. I think a big part of playing sports for so long is it’s kind of the emotional-intelligence side of things. And passion for me, it helps me with motivation and the desire to get better and succeed. I feel very fortunate. I have to give props to both my grandmothers who seemed to have this internal drive. I just wake up very driven every morning to make a difference or to improve. I’ve been very lucky in the sense that I’ve got to follow things that I loved. I’ve always made sure soccer is a big part of my life – and family and arts – and I haven’t always made a huge chunk of change from all these things, but I’ve been able to pursue my dreams. I think that makes me fortunate.
Where would you most like to live?
Currently I’m living in Iceland with my partner. In a perfect world, I’d love to live there and also somewhere in Canada. My family’s currently stretched from coast to coast. Half my family’s in Victoria, the other half is in Halifax, which I’m a little mad at them for. I’m an equity-diversity-inclusion-accessibility consultant in Halifax for the Halifax City Soccer Club, so I’ve started to get to know the community there a little bit and especially the soccer community and I’m really keen about making a difference there and I’ve been enjoying it so far. So leaning toward Halifax, but you never know.
Who are your favourite writers?
I’ve fallen off the reading train a little bit, but I’m definitely into artists. Doing something for the first time, for me, that concept is mind blowing and amazing. I’m more on the creative side and I am especially drawn towards Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring and Shepard Fairey and Frida [Kahlo] and a lot of artists that were not only fantastic artists, but who they were, [with] the activism side of things. I do a lot of art and we’ve tried to combine that because that’s something else I’m very passionate about.
What kind of art are you into?
Painting and sketching mostly. I’m really inspired by a lot of activist artists. So that and then combined with like, I love da Vinci and Michelangelo and Raphael, so more of traditional art. That’s kind of my jam. I like to blend classical with a newer street-art kind of look.
What’s your favourite occupation?
I love so many things, I don’t know. Right now I’m a goalkeeper coach part-time at the club that I’m also playing for in Iceland. And as I said, I’m an [Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility] consultant, which I’m so passionate about. Getting accessibility to young people – because people say sport’s for everyone, but you also have to get there – and once you’re there feel valued. I think we have a long way to build with sport. I also, with my partner, have been coaching young kids with intellectual disabilities, speaking of accessibility, which has just given me a different perspective on sport and people. So I love that but I do also love art. If I could be an artist and then do all those things on the side, I wouldn’t be mad about it. And to be honest, with TSN, commentating on the World Cup has been a gift because I find that so many of these female and gender-diverse athletes are so inspiring. I guess the opportunity to tell their stories, I’m inspired; they’re literally changing their countries, the way they view gender and sports and for me that’s just so powerful. And the level of the game, I’m just in awe and beaming every time I get the opportunity to be on-set, so I also love that.
Who are your heroes in real life?
I think James Baldwin. He’s an author, a Black author in the sixties, an activist writer and he actually he wrote Giovanni’s Room, which I think was the first time really it was about two gay men. And he identified as homosexual and was not accepted with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and part of the civil-rights movement because of his sexuality. He was just this incredible writer who actually ended up living in France. I think he’s really inspiring because even though he’d been rejected so many times he was still able to write such beautiful words. I think Maya Angelou, for me, is someone who, just her culture, wisdom, she focused more on how you make people feel and how significant that is. [Former teammate] Karina LeBlanc is one of my heroes, playing with her for so long. For me, she epitomizes Maya Angelou – her character and the energy with which she played with people around her – was just always really inspiring.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I think my greatest achievement was probably after the 2012 Olympics. I was part of the Canadian Olympic Athletes’ Commission with Adam van Koeverden, who’s doing some obviously great work in Ottawa, and together I’ll never forget the conversation. I was walking around downtown Toronto, and we successfully added sexual orientation to the non-discrimination clause in the Charter of Rights for athletes. That would probably be my No. 1. I’m very proud of my sporting accomplishments and the team accomplishments, but I think that was kind of the first time that I recognized as an athlete, if you use your voice, you can make a change for more than yourself and for me, I’m especially proud of that moment.
As a broadcaster now, what word of phrase do you most overuse?
Fantastic. I do it all the time. I use fantastic and wild like probably 45 times each in every broadcast especially with, like I said, the level of the women’s game.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
I’m extremely happy with my partner and we have a dog together. A life in Iceland. For me happiness is a life of purpose and I just feel now, I’m still playing pro in Iceland but I’ve retired from the national team. I’m moving toward recognizing I still have so much to learn, but that I want to make an impact. I want more people getting into sport. I want more accessibility, more representation. In that sense I do feel I have become more and more of an activist but also a humanist. And so living my life dedicated to what I think is one that brings me a lot of pride. My partner shares that as well and it would be nice to have a family at some point and all those things. But yeah, I think dedicating every day to, even if I’m helping one person, that’s enough for me.