Own the Podium CEO Anne Merklinger pose for a portrait on May 19, 2017 at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility in Ottawa.Dave Chan
When Tricia Smith was younger and on her way to athletic glory, her mother offered some advice, "Don't beat the boys at school. It makes them feel bad."
Beating the boys didn't motivate Smith. She simply wanted to be the best she could be. It turned out that attitude helped take her to a place she never imagined at a time when a meaningful number of power brokers in Canadian amateur sport are women – and there's no reason to feel bad about it.
Through Carla Qualtrough, Anne Merklinger and Smith, women occupy three top positions of influence as Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, CEO of Own The Podium and president of the Canadian Olympic Committee, respectively. All three were athletes. Qualtrough competed as a visually impaired swimmer at two Paralympics and won three medals. Merklinger swam for the Canadian national team and curled in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Smith was an Olympic silver medalist in rowing before becoming a lawyer. All three worked their way through a male-dominated system to help shape sports and inclusiveness in this country.
And they're not alone. Alonside them: Karen O'Neill, CEO of the Canadian Paralympic Committee; Lorraine Lafrenière, CEO of the Coaching Association of Canada; Susan Auch, CEO of Speed Skating Canada; Eva Havaris, CEO and secretary general of Equine Canada; Michele O'Keefe, president and CEO of Canada Basketball; Katherine Henderson, CEO of Curling Canada; Caroline Sharp, executive director of the Canadian Fencing Federation; Debra Armstrong, CEO of Skate Canada; Penny Joyce, COO of Diving Canada; and Jasmine Northcott, CEO of Water Ski & Wakeboard Canada. To name some, but certainly not all.
"I just did a quick calculation, and in terms of executive directors and CEOs we're just under 40 per cent in the COC membership," Smith said from her Vancouver legal office. "Right now all of us are very much on the same page on where we'd like to see sports go. We all believe and live the Olympic values, and it's all about what the leadership team respects – friendship and teamwork."
That so many women have advanced to a position of authority within Canadian sports is due, in part, to the federal government having made diversity a crucial element in its operations. It was recently reported in The Globe and Mail that 57 per cent of the judges appointed in the past 1 1/2 years were female. Some saw that as filling a quota rather than hiring the best person. In sports, the heightened presence of female administrators is ground-breaking in its scope. Women are involved in every level of sports, from the field of play to the head office. They support one another, call each other for advice. They also mentor younger women and girls to help open doors for a new generation of female leaders.
"We're a close-knit group," Merklinger said. "It's quite a deliberate network that's been established."
It's a group that knows just how vital it is to have women at the highest level of administration. At the Summer and Winter Olympics over the past 15 years, Canadian women have been making more and more trips to the podium. Speed skaters Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes, who also raced in cycling, have each won six career medals, one better than male counterparts Marc Gagnon and François-Louis Tremblay. Trampolinist Rosie MacLennan became the first Canadian woman to win individual gold in back-to-back Summer Olympics (2012, 2016) while 16-year-old swimmer Penny Oleksiak became the first Canadian to win four medals at a Summer Games (2016). Aurélie Rivard won three golds and a silver in the pool to become Canada's most decorated athlete at the Rio Paralympics.
Such accomplishments have created springboards for advancement, nationally and internationally. Former wheelchair athlete Chantal Petitclerc was named to the Senate last year. Nathalie Lambert was appointed chairman of Short Track Speed Skating's technical committee. Former cross-country skier Beckie Scott is now chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency's athlete committee. These are high-performance athletes who have found a way to better their sport and other women.
"How has this happened?" asked Allison Sandmeyer-Graves, CEO of the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport. "As with many of these complex, incremental things, you can point to a lot of different influences, some of them are just the broader shifts in society. There's been emphasis on women grabbing leadership roles in all kinds of sectors, not just sports. Sports doesn't live in a vacuum. It is impacted by those movements. Specifically, certainly the professionalization of sports organizations has contributed to that. Boards are placing value on the diversity of perspectives as a way of advancing their organizational progress. Then, of course, women have really been pushing for change and working hard to position themselves for those roles."
That's the case not just at the highest plateau, but at the entry level, too. Women have proved to be the backbone of minor sports, driving their kids to and from games and practices, volunteering for events, organizing socials and fundraisers. They are collaborative by nature. There's a willingness to build a partnership with other groups rather than always compete for the same results.
"Women have played a pivotal role at the community-sport level, and it's no surprise, the,n that it's trickled up to the provincial and national level," said Qualtrough, adding that more women are enrolling at universities offering sports-administration programs. "Women are taking these courses and getting these jobs to run major events, to lead major organizations in a board capacity. It used to be all the positions on the national sports organizations' boards were middle-aged white guys. It doesn't happen anymore."
It was the Marcel Aubut scandal of a year and a half ago that shone a klieg light on what one of those aged white guys was doing. As COC president, Aubut was a showy figure whose style and connections attracted sponsorship revenue. It also led to allegations of sexual harassment; that female staffers felt uncomfortable in his presence. Having already been warned about his ways, Aubut squandered his second chance and ultimately resigned.
It immediately became a talking point across the nation. Olympic gold freestyle skier Jennifer Heil called for a discussion on the abuse of power in amateur sports. She said it extended beyond Aubut's alleged harassment to "female coaches who get passed over even though they are as qualified as their male counterparts." (Women comprise 25 per cent of reported coaches and 29 per cent of reported technical officials, according to the Coaching Association of Canada. Those who took the National Coaching Certificate Program were 66 per cent men, 34 per cent women.) Smith took over as the COC's interim president until an election could be held. A year ago, she was voted in on a fulltime basis.
"For me it was all about identifying what had happened," she said of the Aubut incidents. "Having experts come in; there were recommendations made [to help women come forward and deal with being harassed]. It was an extremely challenging time. "
Changing attitudes remains a noble pursuit, one that requires both sexes to alter their pre-conceived notions. Women need to be more self-assured and go after higher positions, while men need to encourage their female counterparts. As speed-skating executive Susan Auch put it: "The reason we are not there yet is partly because women, when they think about doing something, they think really hard about whether they're actually going to do a good job or if they're qualified, whereas a man, when he has the opportunity, will jump into it.
"It's why you don't see very many women at the top – we don't always assume we can do it."
But as sports become more complex, as the demands and expectations grow, the need for new ideas continues to escalate. It's not about beating the boys; it's about doing what's best for the athletes and their program .
"In order to move some of the bigger agendas forward, whether it be a policy perspective, more funding, more priorities, [it takes] strong emotional intelligence to be able to engage with partners, to be able to mobilize and create consortiums," said the CPC's Karen O'Neill. "I think it's a sense of timing for what's needed in sports and the readiness of so many women at so many levels. It's new for sports; it's good for sports.
"I don't think any of us take it for granted for one moment."