Canadian Heritage committee  First of all I just want to thank you for having me before this committee. I'm really excited to be here and hopefully to share some of my experiences with all of you. I have been on the Canadian national boxing team for the past 12 years. I have travelled to provincial, nationa

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. When I was younger, I had never really considered myself an athlete. Like most parents, my parents tried to put me into different sports. I think the sports they chose were typical sports for a girl—baton twirling or rhythmic gymnastics—and I just didn't enjoy those sport ex

Canadian Heritage committee  Sixteen.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm going to be honest; it was very intimidating. When I first went to the boxing club I asked a friend to come with me because I knew that there weren't a lot of girls in the boxing club. I guess I knew this mostly because my brother didn't want me to go to the club with him. I

Canadian Heritage committee  No, we sparred with both.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. Initially, I had a very good coach who was working with me and who taught me a lot of the basics, but I will be honest that at the very beginning I didn't want to get into the ring. I just wanted to learn the sport of boxing for fitness. It wasn't until after about a year of

Canadian Heritage committee  There were a few people, in particular, I do remember seeing in the boxing gym. I remember seeing one girl who was training on a provincial team, I saw her sparring with the guys, and I remember looking at her and thinking, “That is so cool, I want to be that girl”. There was a n

Canadian Heritage committee  At that age, when a lot of girls are dropping out of sport, sometimes it could actually be from their bodies' changing. Maybe you're good at a sport when you're a lot younger, and as you get a little older, you're not so good at that sport, so then you just drop out of sport. Th

Canadian Heritage committee  I took my certification levels throughout my career. I've continued to do some coaching on the side. A lot of the coaching that I did.... I do some corporate events in Toronto now, where I'm coaching people in the advertising and media industry in boxing. I'm more or less doing t

Canadian Heritage committee  I would agree 100% with Lanni. I think the government should also be using the current Canadian national athletes we have. We have so many amazing, strong female role models in this country who can impact the community, so maybe we need to get them out there more doing more ini

Canadian Heritage committee  Actually, I think worldwide we're seeing more, but in Canada we're seeing fewer. When I first started in boxing we had really strong senior teams, junior teams, and youth teams. Then we thought, when the Olympics happened, that would increase, but I think it increased more on the

Canadian Heritage committee  I absolutely agree. I think someone did a bit of research recently on what female athletes are asked in interviews versus male athletes. It was actually kind of funny to watch the questions. When Genie Bouchard wins a match, it's not about “How did you perform in that match?” it'

Canadian Heritage committee  No. I think the more they show women in sport, the more viewership we're going to get. We have to get out there. Yes, sharing a story can be important, especially around the Olympics, when we're trying to get to know athletes we don't already know. We want to get them out there,

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, for us it actually comes down to our international committee that sets our qualification process. For us this time the top two in each continent had the opportunity to qualify. Then there was a world championship where you had to place in the top four. So everything was on a