Women in sports conference opportunity for industry members to learn, collaborate

Canadian Olympians took part in a panel discussion on Wednesday to inspire young female athletes.

Katherine and Michelle Plouffe, the twin sister Olympic basketball players, were in their home city of Edmonton on Wednesday to speak to other women in sports.

They were hosted by School Sport Alberta’s Beyond Boundaries: Women in Sport Conference.

“From our last conference, we had a lot of positive feedback of women having shared experiences that they didn’t really realize were out there. A lot of them were having the same issues in their schools,” event organizer Shelbea MacLennan told CTV News Edmonton.

“We really want them to connect, feel the shared experience, network with each other, and learn some leadership skills and how we can retain girls in sport.”

According to the Canadian Women and Sport agency, half of Canadian girls stop participating in sports by the age of 17.

MacLennan says one factor is representation and visibility.

“We’ve done a lot of work so far, but as a lot of women in this room would say, there needs to be some more support throughout organizations and administrations… I think we need to be like the (Professional Women’s Hockey League) and the (Women’s National Basketball Association). We need to have more spaces that they can play in, not just certain hubs around the country,” she said.

“The PWHL takeover is coming to Edmonton in April and was here in December, and we saw huge spectators (for) that, so I think it shows that women’s sports is wanted and that people will want to come out and see it.”

The Plouffe sisters, who now play on French teams, participated in a panel discussion at the conference. Other speakers included Madeline Herbers; Daniela Stabile, Concordia University’s men’s basketball head coach and first female head coach for a men’s basketball program in Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference history; and Tashie Macapagal, head coach of the Pandas volleyball program and Team Alberta.

Wednesday was National Women and Girls in Sport Day.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Klippenstein