As a child, professional Canadian soccer player Christine Sinclair says she admired Roberto Alomar of the Toronto Blue Jays.
She was so inspired by Alomar, she took the same jersey number as him 鈥� 12.
Despite the differences in sport, Sinclair remembers looking up to him, while she spearheaded her own career. The story has come full circle as now young women look up to Sinclair while she leads the next generation of Canadian soccer fans.
Her new book published November 2022, 'Playing the Long Game: A Memoir' which she and co-author Stephan Brunt wrote, dives into her rise to stardom, championing women in sports and her private life outside of soccer.
"It's a role I take very seriously," Sinclair said on CTV's Your Morning Friday about the young women she inspires. "It's nice to see that times have changed, that young girls now don't have to look up to male role models and male athletes to think anything's possible."
Sinclair has been an integral part of Canada's Olympic soccer teams, leading the women to a gold medal in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. She also captains the Portland Thorns FC, in the U.S-based National Women's Soccer League, which won the league championship this year.
Sinclair made history in becoming the top international goalscorer in the world. In the CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Championship she scored her 184th and 185th international goals, surpassing Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for most international goals scored.
The amazing feat happened just before the COVID-19 pandemic in March of that year. The disruptions of the pandemic touched every aspect of people's lives, including Canada's greatest soccer player.
She said writing the memoir was 鈥渇airly painless鈥� with the help of Brunt.
"He knew what questions to ask鈥� But honestly, it felt like therapy. Just reliving memories, reliving stories, the good, the bad,鈥� she said.
The most difficult part was writing about her family, she said.
Sinclair opens the book by talking about the pandemic and her experiences being an athlete when COVID-19 prompted lockdowns and restrictions, stripping her of previous daily routines.
"It was very difficult because 鈥o all of a sudden, just have nothing was very difficult," she said. Sinclair is used to a rigorous training and game schedule. "Then the Olympics got postponed, and then we're going 'are we ever going to play again?'"
ADVOCACY FOR WOMEN IN SPORTS
According to a 2020 report by , an advocacy group researching female participation in sports across Canada, prior to COVID-19, one in three girls would drop out of sport by the age of 16. This is in comparison to one in 10 boys.
As women get older, the notes they are more likely to drop out of sports than men, with only a 25 per cent participation rate at ages 19 to 23, compared to 49 per cent for men. Some barriers women face in participation include access to sports, quality, confidence and negative body image. Other issues raised by respondents included a lack of positive role models and quality coaching.
"To see young girls wearing Sinclair jerseys or (Ashley) Lawrence jerseys, it's really nice to see that these young girls can aspire to represent Canada and play professionally," Sinclair said.
Canada does not have a women's professional soccer team, the highest level young girls can aspire to inside the country is League 1, the semi-professional clubs in Ontario, Quebec and B.C.
After the Olympic gold-medal game in Tokyo, Canadian female athletes were calling for a professional women's soccer team to be established.
"I'm a firm believer that every opportunity that a young boy gets, a young girl should be able to have and that doesn't necessarily just have to be in sports," Sinclair said.
The Canadian soccer legend said a former teammate of hers, Diana Matheson, is one of the key people trying to bring professional soccer to Canada.
"Very few people make it professionally anyway, but there are no options here in Canada, which is sad," Sinclair said.
Since the pandemic, Canadian Women & Sport says it's impacted young women returning to sports. The states one in four girls who participated before lockdowns are not committed to resuming sports post-pandemic.
"If these girls don鈥檛 come back, that means over 350,000 girls won鈥檛 return to sport," the reads. "That is the equivalent of every girl aged 6 to 18 in Alberta opting not to play sports."
According to the , fostering an environment where young women and girls are exposed to sports helps increase the likelihood of a commitment throughout their life. Parents are the number one source of influence for girls to start and continue playing sports, followed by influence from siblings, physical education teachers and professional athletes, like Sinclair.
As of right now, Sinclair has not confirmed a timeline for retiring but did say she would focus on championing women in sport afterwards.
"Find something that you're passionate about," Sinclair said. "For me, it happened to be sports鈥� Give it all you've got, and sometimes those crazy dreams you have as a kid come true."
