Momentum: Diana Matheson trailblazes in women’s sport beyond retirement

Team Canada fans remember Diana Matheson as the player who scored the bronze medal-winning goal for the Canadian women’s soccer team at London 2012. That team, and that goal, ended a 76-year Olympic medal drought for Team Canada in summer team sports.

Matheson added another Olympic bronze medal to her collection at Rio 2016 and retired in 2021 after 15 years on the national team and over 200 international appearances for Canada.

Though her on-field career may have concluded, Matheson was not done influencing women’s sport in Canada. She has worked tirelessly to help develop the Northern Super League (NSL), Canada’s first professional women’s soccer league. The NSL is part of a growing tide of expansion in Canadian women’s professional sport. This past year saw the success of the PWHL’s inaugural season, as well as the announcement of a WNBA franchise in Toronto.

“It’s not about moments anymore. It’s about a movement,” Matheson said on a recent episode of Momentum, a Team Canada podcast. “If you only see women play soccer during the Olympics, then it’s really hard to sustain momentum. You need professional environments for players to train in every day, and for fans to see them play every week, to sustain that. And we have that now.”

Some of the obstacles that women’s leagues have to overcome include cultural biases and misconceptions about women’s pro sports, including that they “don’t make money,” that “no one watches,” that “no one cares.” Data is proving all of those statements false–especially in Canada, where Matheson says fans are extremely invested in the success of Canadian women and Canadian women’s teams.

“Women’s sport is only going to keep growing over the next two decades, and it’s going to grow faster than men’s sport in that time frame,” Matheson said.

Matheson says that her best advice to athletes is also applicable in the boardrooms of the sports industry where she now finds herself, and many situations beyond.

“Go for it–whether you feel you’re 100% ready or not. Especially us women. We know there are stats out there that men apply for a job when they have two out of ten of the traits, women wait until they have eight or nine. Trust that you’re good at what you do. Trust that you can surround yourself with the people that can help you. I think it was Marnie McBean who said to us at my first Olympics: ‘If not you, then who? If not now, then when?’”

To listen to Diana Matheson’s full episode, check out Momentum wherever you get your podcasts.