Future of women's sport in Canada looking bright, advocate says
With Toronto getting a WNBA basketball crew, a sports activities advocate says this illustration in sports activities can have a long-lasting impression on younger ladies throughout Canada.
An official league affirmation is predicted to come back later this month, however quite a few reviews have indicated the crew might hit the courtroom by May 2026.
This additionally comes on the heels of an extraordinarily profitable inaugural common PWHL season that noticed quite a few information damaged in attendance and viewership.
A complete of 392,259 followers attended video games at venues that included numerous NHL rinks, highlighted by a ladies’s hockey report crowd of 21,105 turning out on the Canadiens’ Bell Centre for a Montreal-Toronto showdown final month.
And with the Caitlin Clark impact bringing record-breaking attendance to Edmonton, curiosity in ladies’s sports activities is ramping up.
Lesley Hawke, an advocate for ladies in sports activities and athlete psychological well being, says that is the “most exciting time for women’s sports in Canada.”
“To have another women’s professional team come into play is the best thing that can happen for us … and it’s just going to continue to give us the exposure that we need, and that we deserve in Canada,” she informed CityNews.
“It’s just going to be on the rise, and it’s going to continue to rise, which is the best thing that can happen for women’s sports.”
Hawke famous that this illustration won’t solely generate extra curiosity in sports activities amongst younger ladies however may also stop younger athletes from dropping out, because it provides them one thing to work in direction of.
Girls drop out of sports activities at greater price than boys; followers of girls’s sport growing
A analysis examine from Canadian Women and Sport, which centered on sports activities participation for women aged six to 18, discovered that one in three ladies depart sports activities by late adolescence, a lot greater than the dropout price for teenage boys which is one in 10.
It additionally discovered that sports activities participation for Canadian ladies dropped steadily from childhood to teenage years, with round 62 per cent of ladies not enjoying in any respect.
Watch: Why are ladies dropping out of sports activities?
In 1992, simply over half of girls aged 15 or older have been taking part in sport. That dropped to 35 per cent by 2010. According to the 2020 report, 18 per cent of girls aged 16-63 are at the moment concerned in sport.
The report states the limitations that affected ladies’ continuation in sports activities as low confidence, destructive physique picture, perceived lack of ability, or poor perceptions of belonging and feeling unwelcome.
However, one other report launched in April 2024 that included Canadians aged 13-65 discovered that 67 per cent of Canadians take into account themselves followers of girls’s sports activities.
This quantities to 17 million Canadians. Of that quantity, 41 per cent, or 10 million, take into account themselves “avid fans,” often watching ladies’s skilled sports activities and main occasions just like the Olympics, Paralympic Games, and the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Of these included within the examine, barely greater than half (53 per cent) are males, and the steadiness of followers are ladies (46 per cent) and gender-diverse individuals (1 per cent).
The report additionally says that eight in 10 followers of professional ladies’s sports activities are “excited about the future of women’s sport in Canada,” and if given the chance, “are eager to engage further in various ways.”
Hawke says having an expert crew provides ladies one thing to aspire to, like males’s groups and the way they encourage younger boys.
“Now we have soccer, we have basketball, we have hockey, we have so many sports that we can look to play in a professional league for now like … It’s incredible,” she stated.
“And that’s just going to continue to, I believe, is going to get more young women into sport, too, which is something that we definitely need across the board.”
