Player's Own Voice

Season FOUR woot woot! Kicks off with Marie-Philip Poulin, Captain of Team Canada, who is doing all she can amid the biggest shortfall in Canadian sports: Women’s Hockey faces roadblocks to play, left right and center at the moment. World Championships postponed, international play down to almost nothing... and years after the CWHL folded, still no professional game and league in Canada that elite players can agree to. Poulin is practically begging for some resolution to the unnecessary friction between PWHPA and NWHL . Host Anastasia Bucsis brings her friendly ‘human first, athlete second’ approach to the chat, and even though Pou is disturbed by the current situation, there’s room to laugh through the many good times that followed Canada’s four Olympic gold medals in a row .

Winter Olympics are unique for Canadian sports fans. They are one of the rare sweet spots, where national pride reliably lines up with winning results. We can swagger, a little, with apologies, when the games of snow and ice are underway. And maybe, with the Beijing Winter Olympics' fast approach, there's call to celebrate early. Catriona Le May Doan has just been named Chef de Mission for 2022. A reminder of what the speedskater accomplished as an athlete: For about five years, around the turn of the millennium, Le May Doan was the one sprinter no one could catch. She actually broke the record for breaking records! She's the only woman ever to set eight consecutive World Records in one distance. So with three Olympic medals around her neck, including back-to-back golds from 1998 and 2002, Catriona Le May Doan brings a lived experience of winning to her new role. She's also an author, hall of famer, and Order of Canada recipient. It would seem to be an understatement to say Canada's current crop of winter athletes are in good hands. Player's Own Voice Podcast host (and fellow speedskater) Anastasia Bucsis draws Catriona Le May Doan into friendly and funny talk about the road ahead for Team Canada, strategies for safe sport, and also some gentle ribbing about Le May Doan's mature passion for league hockey. Spoiler alert: nobody beats her to the puck, ever, but her stick work? Umm, next question please.

No matter how sporty your family happens to be, Kia Nurse has you beat. CFL dad, high performance basketball mom, brother in the NHL, cousin in the PWHPA… and Kia herself, professional and Canadian national team basketball star. When the Nurse family gets together, there isn’t much about the big leagues that they can’t discuss from first-hand knowledge. Which gives Kia the unique perspective from which to consider one of the weirdest years that professional sport has ever seen. From the logistical triumphs and setbacks of the ‘bubble’ seasons, to the Tetris puzzle of building teams amid anything but normal schedules, it has been one for the history books. Amid this year’s upheaval though, one constant remained: the WNBA stayed at the vanguard of social justice causes. Kia Nurse explains how and why her league has normalized good wages and benefits, and standing up against racial, and many other forms of injustice.

As goaltender for the national team, Karina LeBlanc was part of the generation that put Canadian soccer on the world map. Olympic medals, World cup expectations, the sky’s the limit. But for LeBlanc, it was never just about the play on the pitch. Even in the big wins- her team aimed beyond the game of the day. The really big idea is to make women’s football a force for global change. Helping young women, particularly, assess themselves in a new light, once they get the chance to participate in the world’s game. Since becoming Head of CONCACAF Women’s Football, LeBlanc has had the privilege and pleasure to see it happen again and again in the 41 countries that represent the FIFA association. A shy girl comes to the pitch for her first time, and within a few hours, sees herself as a player, with all the confidence, enthusiasm and strength that goes with it. Player’s Own Voice podcast host Anastasia Bucsis leads Karina LeBlanc through a refreshingly optimistic conversation about a career in sports that even now still feels like the best is yet to come.

The President of the Canadian Olympic Committee, Tricia Smith has presided over a four year - and counting - cycle for which there is no precedent. Smith was at the helm when Canada put athlete's health ahead of 'compete at any cost' thinking, which helped tip the international decision to delay the Tokyo games. But this pandemic year is certainly not Smith's first experience with interrupted games. Looking back to the boycott years in the 1980s, while she was an Olympic rower, Tricia Smith says the important thing to do now is remember the purpose behind the Olympic games. More than ever, she wants to renew efforts to keep politics out of the Olympics. The lawyer, businesswoman, and long serving defender of institutions that promote fairness in sport looks back over her 35 years in the Olympic movement and sees a mostly good, but still mixed bag of results. Gender equity would appear to be a winning battle. Inclusion for more athletes who come from less wealthy backgrounds? That's still a work in progress. Anastasia Bucsis, host of CBC Sports' Player's Own Voice podcast, leads the conversation through a friendly review of a long strange year indeed.

Malindi Elmore is either Canada's greatest gift to mature athletes, or she's yet another taunting for every runner who is racing the calendar more than the clock. In January of this year, the now 40 year-old mother of two shattered the Canadian Marathon record, running 2:24:50 in Houston. While endurance running fans were letting that sink in, even more amazing facts emerged. This was only the second marathon Elmore had ever run. An even more unlikely detail: she was done with running, burned out, disillusioned, finished, fully ten years earlier. So how does a decade-retired middle distance runner smash a national endurance record? On Player's Own Voice podcast today, Elmore says the secret was in really truly no longer caring about the results. As soon as she started running for her own pleasure, on her own program, with her own young family in the mix, her times started to plummet. She's qualified for the Tokyo Olympics now too, sixteen years after she competed in the 1500m in Athens.

The NHLPA and the hockey writers association are in full agreement: Leon Draisaitl is the best player in the league this year. With Hart and Ted Lindsay trophies in his collection now, the superstar from Cologne, via Prince Albert ( and how many people follow that route to stardom?) is reflecting on the circumstances of winning individual honours, while his Oilers fell out of the Stanley Cup running sooner than anyone might have expected. In sum, Draisaitl is grateful for the accolades, but he’d trade them in a second for an Edmonton cup. Draisaitl joined Player’s Own Voice host Anastasia Bucsis from Germany, where he is both training and relaxing. In a topsy-turvy period for the seasons of all professional sports, Draisaitl can say with certainty that when the call comes to get back to play, ‘you better be ready’.

When Ted-Jan Bloemen was a young speedskater, he struggled to find his place in Holland’s fabled star system. He was a good skater, in a place that creates the absolute best . Ted-Jan never found that mix of coaching, practice and competition that great performances demand. It’s hard to overstate how much strength of mind it took for him to leave the Dutch team behind and come to Canada, in pursuit of better results. It’s also hard to overstate how incredibly well that decision worked out for him. Ted did not just thrive in Canada, he became one of the top two or three endurance Speedskaters in the world. Smashed the 10,000 m record. Olympic Gold. World Champion. And this is an area that Canada had never ever done particularly well in. Ted-Jan Bloemen made the world look at Canada’s speedskating system in amazement. His success here has also opened doors for the next generation of Canadian Speedskating greats. Young athletes have an example to follow now, and a program that has proven to work. As he tells fellow speedskater Anastasia Bucsis in this episode of Player’s Own Voice podcast, The Dutch system has so much talent, it can afford to let a prospect get away. For someone like Ted, who needed a little more time to find his wheels, Canada’s openness to developing a promising talent was just the ticket.

If there were awards for weathering setbacks, the Canadian Women’s Softball team would clean up. The National squad has found creative workarounds for obstacles since at least 2008, the last time Softball made an appearance in the Olympics. Now that the sport is back on the roster for Tokyo 2021 the team has high hopes to rewrite their fourth place finish. That left a sour aftertaste for veterans - and yes, thirteen years later, there are still four women on the team with personal stakes in winning bigger at the Olympics. For team Captain Victoria Hayward, the answer is in big picture thinking. Canada’s National Team also plays as 'The Wild of Southern Illinois', where international softball competition is fierce, which is exactly what you want to sharpen team skills. Today Hayward talks about the latest innovation, a 56 player new softball league, which is truly revolutionary for the sport. 'Athletes Unlimited' combines the best of fantasy league and the best of traditional play, to create a model that has already caught on like wildfire with fans. Players are drafted each week, scoring combines team wins and individual contributions. Players get points for hitting singles, and stealing bases...and profit sharing is meted out accordingly too. It’s a head spinning idea, but it has already brought more money and attention to the game than it has seen in many years.

Jessica Tuomela is an extremely competitive para Triathlete. She was a world leader in swimming before adding the bike and run to her game. Tuomela won the Tokyo paralympic triathlon test event. And while all athletes are bumping up against pandemic-related challenges, the completely blind competitor’s sport is tackling existential questions. Para triathlon brings guides and athletes into extreme close contact. It’s one big scrum of bumping, breathing and sweating all over one another. Not safe. An answer might be in turning the events into time trials, but losing the mass start and sight or sound or any other sense of close competition would be a head spinning change for most para-triathletes. And while the Sault Ste. Marie native ponders the possibilities, she still has to keep honing the extreme competitive fitness that got her to the top of the sport last year. How to do that, when elite guides and training partners can barely travel? Tuomela jokes about it, but her intensely independent streak (did someone say incredible stubbornness?) is serving her well.

When an athlete stands on the Olympic podium, a spectrum of emotions come into play...not all of them joyful. For Brittany MacLean, Canadian national record holder in the 400m, 800m, and 1500m freestyle swim, the Bronze medal in Rio was a serious eye opener. Objectively, she knew it was a huge achievement, but inside? The normally exuberant young woman felt mostly disappointed and depressed about the experience. MacLean took that insight, and built a deep understanding of problems that many athletes face. When competitors pour all their energy into one goal, it can be dangerous. Self- worth gets caught up in results that are beyond an athlete's control. And even if everything goes perfectly, careers come to a halt, eventually. What self esteem can athletes retain, once they stop doing the sport that defined them? MacLean has come to grips with her own depression, and continues to grow from it to this day. Just because this is a time in history when extraordinary numbers of people are suffering mental health setbacks, does not mean that our own problems are any less deserving of respect and attention.

John Morris has deep perspective on Canadian curling. Morrises have been making waves at Briers since the 1930s. Gold in 2010 in Vancouver, Gold again in 2018 at Pyeongchang, he has played with all the Canadian greats. For Morris, it’s about staying motivated. That’s partly why he needs new teammates- if he can’t face new challenges, solve new puzzles, he just can’t compete with maximum intensity. And that intensity question will make things interesting now that Morris has signed on with Skip Kevin Koe. How will the easygoing team leader, and the ultra intense second get along? Morris says his broom-snapping days are behind him now, but there’s no denying, he remains one of the most focussed and competitive athletes on the ice. You need a mix of personalities to keep a team balanced, is how he puts it. With the Oympic trials starting to nudge onto the horizon, you can be sure Morris is already plotting his shots. Given the depth of talent in the Canadian game now- he’s quick to admit, Olympic curling is almost a relief compared to the effort involved in rising to the top of domestic competition.

Brock McGillis loves a good old hockey game. His passion for playing the sport drove the goalie all the way to the bigs. But McGillis is a gay man in a sport whose culture does not readily accept queer males. So he turned his own miserable experiences, butting up against 'bro' culture, into a working practise- helping leagues become more inclusive. McGillis believes cultures can learn and change. He is determined to mend environments where racism and homophobia are the unspoken norm. As he explains to Anastasia Bucsis, host of Player's Own Voice podcast, inclusion goes far beyond outward displays of rainbow stickers, and BLM hashtags. It's all about teaching influencers in the locker room and the boardroom to see and hear beyond their often insular surroundings. Humanizing "the other" is a great first step. As the first gay man to openly be out in Pro Hockey- McGillis has made himself a clear mission- to use advocacy and education to help sports change for the better.

Speed skater Jackson Tomlinson recently won two golds and a Bronze medal at the Special Olympics National Games. But the wins, delightful though they are, aren’t really what turns his crank. The Milton, Ontario native, like many young men, just loves going extremely fast. He calls speed skating ‘ Nascar on Ice’, which is a good phrase for anybody to coin, regardless of where they land on the spectrum of neuro-diversity. Tomlinson talks shop with his speed skating ‘spirit animal’ Anastasia Bucsis, herself an Olympian long tracker, and host of Player’s own Voice podcast. When he describes the confidence he gained on ice, and how it followed him into other areas of life, the young man is a living argument for the many societal benefits of inclusion.

Kendall Coyne blazed her way through the speed skating skills contest at the 2019 NHL all star break, and her performance is still creating ripples in the proverbial hockey pond today. Girls who watched that high profile performance were inspired to get into the game. Adults were reminded yet again of the intensity and excellence of the women's game in North America. And For Coyne herself, the attention was a watershed in her understanding of how platforms can be used to greater ends. She is a six time IIHF champion, and a gold medallist at Pyeong Chang, so her personal trophy collection needed no further polishing. But seeing the attention that high visibility events can create- spurred the Chicago native to help drive professional women's hockey towards a bigger and better future.