International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day is a global day to recognize, honour and celebrate the important and inspiring achievements of women. Today, on this international day of celebration, Canada Soccer wishes to recognize four incredibly accomplished women who have had a long-lasting impact on soccer in Canada: Women’s National Team captain Christine Sinclair, WNT Head Coach Bev Priestman, Canadian FIFA referee Carol-Anne Chénard, and Canada Soccer’s Board of Directors Vice-President Charmaine Crooks.

From our Women’s National Team winning an historic gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, to Canada Soccer’s Board of Directors featuring five women for the first time in Association history, to making tremendous advancement in women’s programs for coaches and referees, this year has been an important one for all the amazing ground-breaking women who are a part of Canada Soccer.

Christine Sinclair
Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team captain Christine Sinclair was honoured as a recipient of The Best FIFA Special Award on Monday 17 January 2022. Sinclair is an Olympic Games champion and three-time medalist as well as a five-time FIFA World Cup participant, Concacaf champion, and the world’s all-time international goalscoring leader. She has also won two NWSL Championships with Portland Thorns FC as well as previously two WPS Championships across a stellar professional career at the club level.

Bev Priestman
Bev Priestman, Head Coach of Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team since 1 November 2020 and led Canada Soccer to its first-ever Olympic Games Gold medal in Tokyo 2020. Named IFFHS Women’s World Best National Coach in 2021, Priestman has coached Canada’s U-17 and U-20 women’s squads and was Assistant Coach for Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team under Head Coach John Herdman. She also coached England’s Women’s National U-17 squad and was Assistant Coach of the England Women’s National Team from 2018 to 2020.

Carol-Anne Chénard
Carol-Anne Chénard is a recipient of the Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement Award recognizing the 15+ years she served as a FIFA international referee along with the many years she spent on the local pitches of Ottawa. Chénard has represented Canada as an international soccer referee at a long list of major international tournaments, including the 2011 and 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cups and the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games, where she featured as the Referee for the Rio 2016 Gold Medal match. She is the longest serving Canadian women’s referee on the FIFA international referees list and this year begins a role as a VAR Referee for Major League Soccer.

Charmaine Crooks
Representing Team Canada on the world stage for nearly 20 years, Charmaine Crooks is Canada’s first female five-time Olympian in athletics. She is an Olympic silver medallist, Pan American Games gold medallist, 11-time national champion (400m/800m), BC Sports Hall of Fame inductee. Crooks, Order of Canada memberand is the Vice-President of Canada Soccer’s Board of Directors as the first woman and first person of colour to serve in the post.