Mary Spencer named to Canada's Most Influential Women in Sport and Physical Activity

Honourable Leona Aglukkaq also on prestigious CAAWS list

The Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS) announced today the twenty women selected to the Most Influential Women in Sport and Physical Activity list (MIW) for 2011. The objective of the list is to focus on women who are leaders and role models making a difference on the Canadian or international scene. The women on the MIW are influential women who contributed in a significant way to sport and physical activity in the year 2011.

“CAAWS publishes its Most Influential Women list to celebrate and honour Canadian women who are influencing change in their area of expertise of sport and physical activity," said CAAWS Executive Director Karin Lofstrom (Ottawa, Ontario). “These leaders share a passion for sport and physical activity—and use it to improve the lives of others. These women are game changers who motivate others to become leaders.”

Every year, the MIW list includes athletes, officials, coaches, politicians, professors, administrators and volunteers. There are some women who have been named to the list several times, such as Paralympian and coach Chantal Petitclerc; and some who are new to the list like Olympic boxing hopeful Mary Spencer, and Karen Rackel who is the first ever women President of the Royal Canadian Golf Association (in its 116 year old history). Nine of the women are making their first appearance on the MIW List, while Olympian Beckie Scott and Paralympian Chantal Petitclerc have each been named to the MIW list 6 times, and Olympian Charmaine Crooks has appeared a record seven times.
The Caaws Most Influential Women List For 2011 is:

Dr Jodi Abbott, Official and volunteer, Skate Canada, (Edmonton, Alberta)

Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, (Gjoa Haven and Iqaluit, Nunavut)

Stacey Allaster, Chairman & CEO, Women’s Tennis Association, (St Petersburg, Florida/Welland, Ontario)

Caroline Assalian, Chief Sport Officer, Canadian Olympic Committee (Ottawa, Ontario)

Claire Buffone-Blair, President and CEO, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame (Calgary, AB)

Canadian Women’s National Soccer Team (2011 team)

Charmaine Crooks, Board of Directors, Canadian Olympic Committee, (Vancouver, BC)

Dr Wendy Frisby, Professor, School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, (Vancouver, BC)

Wendy Gittens, Executive Director, Wheelchair Basketball Canada, (Ottawa, Ontario)

Andrea Grantham, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Physical and Health Education Canada (PHE Canada)

Dr. Vicki Harber, Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, University of Alberta, (Edmonton, Alberta)

Lindsay Hugenholtz, Deputy CEO, 2011 Canada Winter Games, (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Clara Hughes, Olympian and advocate, (Winnipeg, Manitoba / Glenn Sutton, Quebec)

Élaine Lauzon, Director General, Égale Action, (Montreal, Québec)

Anne Merklinger, Director Summer Sports, Own the Podium, (Ottawa, Ontario)

Kelly Murumets, President and CEO, ParticipACTION, (Toronto, Ontario)

Chantal Petitclerc, Spokesperson, volunteer and coach, (Montréal, Québec)

Karen Rackel, President of the Royal Canadian Golf Association, (Edmonton, Alberta)

Beckie Scott, Olympian and advocate, (Vermillion, Alberta)

Mary Spencer, Athlete and volunteer, (Windsor, Ontario)


The Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS) has named 20 women in its Most Influential Women in Sport and Physical Activity list for 2011, and Mary Spencer, Ojibwe, is one of the honorees.

Spencer, of the Cape Croker Ojibwe First Nation in Ontario, is Canada’s powerhouse pugilist. She’s an eight-time national champion, five-time Pan-American Games champion, and three-time world champion—that’s a lot of metal in her trophy collection, with some heavier elements expected to be added soon. Ringside pundits and experts see her medaling, likely taking gold, at the London Olympic Games this summer, when women’s boxing makes it debut.

Although a basketball star in high school who dreamt of one day turning pro, Spencer, 28, began boxing in 2002 at the age of 17. After a few months of testing the ropes she found herself at the Windsor Amateur Boxing Club, in Windsor, Ontario, training under three-time Olympic coach, Charlie Stewart. Her career record stands at an incredible 118-8. And the accolades she’s winning outside the ring are equally impressive.

This includes her recent CAAWS recognition. The CAAWS list, which has been published for 11 years, includes athletes, officials, coaches, politicians, professors, administrators and volunteers. Spencer moved up a class this year from CAAWS’s 2010 Ones to Watch list.

“CAAWS publishes its Most Influential Women list to celebrate and honor Canadian women who are influencing change in their area of expertise of sport and physical activity,” CAAWS Executive Director Karin Lofstrom told The Globe and Mail. “These leaders share a passion for sport and physical activity – and use it to improve the lives of others. These women are game changers who motivate others to become leaders.”

Spencer is without a doubt a leader. Gen7, an organization that aims to encourage aboriginal youth to live, and encourage others to live, an active and healthy lifestyle through sport and physical activity, has noticed. The nonprofit has selected Spencer to be a Gen7 Messenger, a role that has her helping to develop the next generation of aboriginal leaders in communities across Canada.

The fighter sums up her philosophy of success in and out of the ring by noting that “Failure is determined by the things we allow to happen. Success is determined by the things we make happen.” Further, she’s grateful for the people in her life that helped her succeed in achieving her goals. They went out of their way to help her and from this she has learned that when you help someone, not only are you helping them, you are also helping yourself become a better person.

“I feel like there is a very good reason why I have the experiences that I do and that reason is so that I can share them with others,” she observed. Spoken like a true champion.

For more on Spencer as she trains for the London Games, visit her official website, MarySpencer.ca.


Sources: http://www.caaws.ca/influentialwomen/e/, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/02/17/she%E2%80%99s-a-knockout-ojibwe-boxer-mary-spencer-is-a-leader-with-influence-95544

Mary Spencer fights the good fight, mentors Cape Croker kids

If there's anything I admire in this world, it's a gal who knows her roots and honours her father by continuing his mission, and if she can throw a mean right hook, well, that's pretty cool too!

Here is a story about Canadian Olympic gold medal hopeful Mary Spencer who regularly takes time out from her busy life to travel many hours to Cape Croker reserve near Wiarton, Ontario, where she hangs with the kids, brings boxing equipment and generally continues the benign tradition of her dad, who was Ojibway and was the United Church minister on the reserve.


By Randy Starkman
TheStar.com Olympic Sports Reporter


Mary Spencer is a true freedom fighter

WIARTON, ONT.—For Canadian gold medal hopeful Mary Spencer, the road to the 2012 London Olympics runs right through the Cape Croker Indian Reserve.

The three-time world champion, in heavy training for the Olympic debut of women’s boxing next summer, somehow finds the time to drive 10 hours here and back from Windsor — at least once a month — to hang out with “her kids” on the reserve.

On a recent visit, one perfect summer’s day, Spencer and the native children she mentors go out for a run, paddle canoes, play volleyball and tuck into a barbecue together. It’s as though Christmas has come early to Cape Croker, and not just because the champ has brought four cartons of new boxing gear.

From the moment she arrives, Spencer draws the kids like a magnet. They crowd around, vying for attention, peals of laughter echoing along the shores of Georgian Bay. The youngest literally hang off her as they splash in the water.

“I’m a leech!” cries Breanna Watkinson, who attaches herself to Spencer during a swim. But they all seem to get some quiet time with her, too, teens and younger ones alike, including 8-year-old Halle Johnston, who skips rocks with Spencer as they wait for the canoeing to commence.

Spencer asks Johnston about school: “I like it, but there’s bad kids there. They call me names.”

“But you don’t listen to them, do you?”

The visits have an extra meaning for Spencer because her father, Cliff, who is Ojibway, was a United Church minister at Cape Croker when Mary was younger.

“I feel like this is my own version of it, that I can come out and hang out with the kids and be there for them if they need advice or show them stuff, teach them stuff,” she says. “It’s almost the same thing. That’s the way I kind of see it, a ministry of sorts.”

A ministry it may be, but there is no preaching. Mary has an easy rapport with the children, many of whom she’s known for years.

“Do you ever swear?” Daisy Jones asks as they come out of the water.

“No,” says Spencer

“I don’t believe you,” says Jones. “You said the word sh-ts.”

“That’s because you guys were trying to drown me,” laughs Spencer.

While the visits are exhausting — for all involved — Spencer says she easily gets back just as much as she gives. Spending time at the reserve replenishes her spirit in a way little else can.

“I think about when I was a kid . . . little things that somebody probably didn’t think would make a big impression on me, but it did,” she said. “So, I’m hoping these are the kinds of days that these kids are going to remember. . . . They’re having a lot of fun while doing things that are good for them.”

Spencer says her obvious bond with the young ones here comes naturally.

“Coming back to Cape Croker is special for me just because some of these kids are my cousins, their parents knew my parents or know me. I feel like I’m at home when I’m here.”

It’s all a far cry from Spencer in the ring, a fearsome opponent who has been known to send a message with more than her fists. She won her third world title by dismantling reigning world champion Jinzi Li of China last fall in the Barbados 14-2 in the final — a feat made more impressive by the fact she moved up in weight class from 66 to 75 kilos, because there are only three women’s Olympic divisions.

Rather than go out and celebrate, Spencer had a plan. She made sure she woke up first thing the next morning to go for a run around the hotel complex where the athletes were staying, hoping opponents would see her.

“My whole reasoning for that is, I want them when they get in the ring with me to be okay with losing to me, to be okay with giving up when they should be pushing harder,” she told the Star at the time. “I want them to think I’m supposed to win.”

To the other boxers, Spencer is simply the reigning world champ and the one to beat. But there is another part of her identity she would like the world to know about.

“I remember every time I used to represent a native team, whether it was a basketball team or a volleyball team, there was just that sense of pride,” she says. “I think other native athletes need to feel that sense of pride when they see me competing, the same way other Canadians do. There should be something special for aboriginal Canadians.”




That something special is evident to 8-year-old Halle, who was on the receiving end of the pep talk about bullies at school. What’s so special about the boxer’s visits to Cape Croker?

“She’s fun, she’s cool and she’s awesome,” says Halle.

Jennifer Johnston, Halle’s mom, says what Spencer provides, apart from the laughs and chats, is inspiration.

“The kids really love her. I see a huge difference in the kids that do go. She’s a good inspiration to the children here. They look forward to having her,” she says. “Every month, they make sure they ask when she’s coming and they’re waiting for her, they’re waiting at the door with open arms and great big ‘I love you’s.’ ”

The boxer is slowly drawing more kids out to the group. On this day, 5-year-old Madeline Linklater turns up because she wants to meet Spencer after seeing her featured on TSN. She shyly hands Spencer a note and picture she has made in a handmade envelope. It wishes her good luck at the Olympics and shows a podium with a medal and boxing gloves.

Spencer keeps it real with the kids with an easy laugh and a self-deprecating sense of humour. They talk about anything and everything.

Some of the kids struggle with motivation and get into trouble, something that Spencer can definitely relate to having grown up in a housing project in Windsor. She’s reluctant to delve into her misspent youth too deeply, but admits she skipped more classes than she ever attended and even failed gym.

Her transformation happened the moment she stepped into a boxing ring.

“Boxing for me was almost supernatural,” she said. “I started boxing and it was like ‘Okay, this is what you’re going to do and you’re going to make sure you become a champion.’ Day one, I wanted to be a champion. I was serious about being a champion.

“Some things took time to change, like my group of friends. That took a bit of time. . . . If you’re doing something right, other things just won’t mix with it. Eventually things just turned around.”

It’s a powerful story, one that takes on more resonance for the kids here as they realize she is just like them. They are following her every step of the way, and recently went to watch her fight in Wasaga Beach. The community has started talking about trying to raise money to send some of the children to the London Olympics, although they say it’s unlikely to happen.

But the kids will be in London, anyway, just as they were in Barbados when Spencer went up against the reigning world champion from China.

“As I was walking up to the ring, I was imagining that these kids were in the stands, that they were watching this fight and I needed to win because they needed to see me win, they needed to know that I was going to win,” Spencer says.

“It just carries that extra weight when you’re trying to reach out to someone or trying to do something. . . . I remember thinking about them going into that final, so of course it fuels the fire.”

As this day draws to a close, Spencer reluctantly pulls herself away from “her kids.” After they’ve all jumped off a concrete pier into the cool waters of Georgian Bay, the fighter prepares for the five-hour-plus drive back home to Windsor.

The young ones and teens, exhausted after being put through their paces, are loathe to see her go.

But they know she’ll be back.


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