The game had the perfect timing. It was on my birthday and I wanted nothing that year so I asked my parents to take me. Just a 21 year old out with her parents at a soccer game. As you will, Canada. When we were there my mom and dad both observed that the stands were packed with young people watching the women's soccer team and how good that was. Young girls don't have a lot of female role models and there was a team of them playing sports. Perfection.
The linchpin for the team is Christine Sinclair. She grew up on the team and will forever be the one all others are compared to. Way back when she was featured in Owl magazine (issue since recycled). But it is how she carries herself that is more important than anything she does in sport. There was an article in Walrus about her and it talked about how she refuses to be marketed for her looks. This was presented as a bad thing because it means she is leaving money on the table. It is a great thing. Quietly, uncompromisingly Sinclair is making a silent statement to young girls and women everywhere: be you and let people see you for you.
Male athletes are marketed for their talent alone everyday, yet the expectation is that female athletes are only marketable if they are conventionally pretty. Sinclair refuses to let anyone do that to her. Instead, she only allows herself to be marketed as a peer to her male counterparts. In a recent SportChek commercial, she was featured alongside other athletes: male, female, professional, amateur, abled and disabled. The theme of the commercial was "all sweat is equal". Every single athlete was presented as equal.
A lot is written about Sinclair the player and what she means to Canada and soccer. Not a lot is written about how her uncompromising personality and her stance on how she is marketed. It sends a message, even without it being known to females: I am equal and I am going to be known as an athlete. Unflinchingly going against the norm and staying true to oneself is more important than any legacy left on the field of play. Unknowingly there will be a generation of girls who see themselves as not needing to be sexualized to be seen as the best because they have someone who was willing to be themselves and while doing that they were also able to be one of the best at what they do.
At the end of the day, the legacy of one player will not be determined by a World Cup. Instead, that legacy will silently be determined by young girls learning that you do not have to change for others to like you. Be yourself. Be uncompromising. Do what you love. Do it with every ounce of your being. Do not change. The smart people will accept you and love you for being you.
