Quinn will step onto the soccer pitch Friday in Japan and make history as the first transgender, non-binary athlete to win an Olympic medal.
The Canadian women’s soccer team will play Sweden for gold, with silver going to the defeated side. The Canadians have won bronze at the previous two Olympic games.
It’s an achievement friends, teammates and advocates call a profound leap forward for inclusivity and reminder of the power of sport to champion equality.
“It just shows that trans people belong in sports, and they belong in sports at the highest level,” Harrison Browne, a friend of Quinn’s said in an interview.
“To have somebody break down that barrier … a young kid playing a sport can say ‘I want to be an Olympic soccer player because I saw Quinn do it.”‘
Browne, the first openly transgender player in professional hockey, came out in 2016 and says he will be watching Quinn on TV.
Browne has been friends with and corresponded with Quinn for years.
Quinn came out as transgender almost a year ago, and uses they/them pronouns. In an Instagram post last September, they wrote: “I want to be visible to queer folks who don’t see people like them on their feed. I know it saved my life years ago.”
The 25-year-old midfielder from Toronto joins others making headlines for inclusivity at the Tokyo games. Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand is the first openly transgender Olympic weightlifter and Alana Smith, a non-binary skateboarder has represented the United States.
Quinn won a bronze medal with the women’s team in the 2016 Rio Olympic games but had not come out as transgender at that time.
Olympic hardware will be another accolade in an impressive career on the pitch. They played college soccer at Duke and worked for the campus chapter of Athlete Ally, a national organization promoting inclusivity in sport.
Quinn is the highest-drafted Canadian in the National Women’s Soccer League and plays for the OL Reign.
Reign defender Lauren Barnes said Quinn has been a force at midfield and on the backline while bringing a “a goofy, competitiveness” to the squad.
“We are so proud of what Quinn has done on the pitch and can’t wait to watch them compete for a medal on the biggest stage,” said Barnes.
“More importantly, we couldn’t be more proud of who they are off the pitch. They are a pioneer and will be an idol (and) role model to so many youth athletes.
“That legacy will live on far longer than any game of football.”
Many U.S. states are looking to ban transgender women and girls from competing in women’s sports, citing unfair competition and advantages.
Advocate and researcher Kristopher Wells said the pushback in the U.S. and elsewhere reflects the duality of sports.
He said athletic competition can be a beacon of equality and meritocracy but also a battleground for social and cultural opponents.
“The visibility that Quinn brings to this Olympic platform really emphasizes the very best of what sports is all about,” said Wells, an associate professor and research chair for public understanding of sexual and gender minority youth at MacEwan University in Edmonton.
“Sports has often been considered the great equalizer in society, but it hasn’t quite lived up to that promise,” he added.
Wells noted many LGBTQ youth still drop out of organized team sports early because of intolerance.
“Sports has often been called one of the last bastions of tolerated homophobia in our society, so the more we see LGBTQ athletes not only participating but standing on the Olympic podium receiving medals, it’s quite a significant moment.”
Browne said it’s not just the spotlight moments surrounding Quinn, but the less obvious — but nonetheless critical changes — such as Olympic announcers using they/them pronouns.
Browne, who identifies as male, says he was ready to quit hockey before he came out.
“It was too hard to hear the wrong pronouns, hear the wrong name all the time,” he said.
“Just being able to be yourself and not having to hide behind a mask takes such a weight off your shoulders and you feel like you can just simply focus on the sport.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 5, 2021.
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
MacKenzie Weegar wasn’t bitter or upset as he watched friends live out their dreams.
The Calgary Flames defenceman just hopes to experience the same feeling one day. He also knows the road leading to that moment, if it does arrive, will likely be long and winding — much like his own path.
A seventh-round pick by the Florida Panthers at the 2013 NHL draft, Weegar climbed the ranks to become an important piece of a roster that captured the Presidents’ Trophy as the league’s top regular-season club in 2021-22.
Two months later following a second-round playoff exit, he was traded to the Flames along with Jonathan Huberdeau for Matthew Tkachuk. And less than two years after that, the Panthers were hoisting the Stanley Cup.
“Happy for the city and for the team,” Weegar said of Florida’s June victory over the Edmonton Oilers. “There was no bad taste in my mouth.”
His sole focus, he insists, is squarely on eventually getting the Flames to the same spot. The landscape, however, has changed drastically since Weegar committed to Calgary on an eight-year, US$50-million contract extension in October 2022.
Weegar has watched a list that includes goaltender Jacob Markstrom, defencemen Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin and Nikita Zadorov and forwards Elias Lindholm and Andrew Mangiapane shipped out of town since the start of last season — largely for picks, prospects and young players as part of a rebuild.
Despite that exodus, he remains committed to the Calgary project steered by general manager Craig Conroy.
“It’s easy to get out of all whack when you see guys trying to leave or wanting new contracts,” the 30-year-old from Ottawa said at last week’s NHL/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas. “I just focus on where I am and where I want to be, and that’s Calgary.
“I believe in this team. The city has taken me in right away. I feel like I owe it to them to stick around and grind through these years and get a Stanley Cup.”
The hard-nosed blueliner certainly knows what it is to grind.
After winning the Memorial Cup alongside Nathan MacKinnon with the Halifax Mooseheads in 2013, Weegar toiled in the ECHL and American Hockey League for three seasons before making his NHL debut late in the 2016-17 campaign with the Panthers.
He would spend the next five years in South Florida as one of the players tasked with shifting an organizational culture that had experienced little success over the previous two decades.
“There’s always going to be a piece of my heart and loyalty to that team,” Weegar said. “But now I’m in a different situation … I compete against all 32 teams, not just Florida. There’s always a chip on my shoulder every single year.”
Weegar set career highs with 20 goals — eight was the most he had ever previously registered — and 52 points in 2023-24 as part of a breakout offensive performance.
“I think my buddies cared a lot more than I did,” he said with a smile. “All I hear is, ‘fantasy, fantasy, fantasy.'”
Weegar was actually more proud of his 200 blocked shots and 194 hits as he looks to help set a new Flames’ standard alongside Huberdeau, captain Mikael Backlund, Nazem Kadri, Blake Coleman and Rasmus Andersson for a franchise expected to have its new arena in time for the 2027-28 season.
“You have to build that culture and that belief in the locker room,” said Weegar, who pointed to 22-year-old centre Connor Zary as a player set to pop. “Those young guys are going to have to come into their own and be consistent every night … they’re the next generation.”
Weegar, however, isn’t punting on 2024-25. He pointed to the NHL’s parity and the fact a couple of teams surprise every season.
It’s the same approach that took him from the ECHL a decade ago to hockey’s premier pre-season event inside a swanky hotel on Sin City’s famed strip, where he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the game’s best.
“From the outside — media and even friends and family — the expectations are probably a bit lower,” Weegar said of Calgary’s outlook. “But there’s no reason to think that we can’t make playoffs and we can’t be a good team (with) that underdog mentality.
“You never know.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept 17, 2024.
Jose Maria Celestino da Costa was named vice-president and head of soccer operations while Marianne Brooks was appointed vice-president of partnerships, Kelly Shouldice as vice-president of brand and content and Joyce Sou as vice-president of finance and business operations.
The new six-team women’s pro league is set to kick off in April.
“Their unique expertise and leadership are crucial as we lay the foundation for not just a successful league in Canada, but one that stands among the top sports leagues in the world,” NSL president Christina Litz said in a statement. “By investing in top-tier talent and infrastructure, the Northern Super League is committed to creating a league that will elevate the game and set new standards for women’s professional soccer globally.”
Da Costa will oversee all on-field matters, including officiating. His resume includes stints with Estoril Praia, a men’s first-division team in Portugal, and the Portuguese Soccer Federation, where he helped develop the Portuguese women’s league.
Brooks spent a decade with Canucks Sports & Entertainment, working in “partnership sales and retention efforts” for the Vancouver Canucks, Vancouver Warriors, and Rogers Arena. Most recently, she served as senior director of account management at StellarAlgo, a software company that helps pro sports teams connect with their fans
Shouldice has worked for Corus Entertainment, the Canadian Football League, and most recently as vice-president of Content and Communications at True North Sports & Entertainment, where she managed original content as well as business and hockey communications.
Sou, who was involved in the league’s initial launch, will oversee financial planning, analysis and the league’s expansion strategy in her new role.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
