1. From Advocacy to elections
Alexa Loo
For CFUW 50th Anniversary
My story of how I went from being an athlete to advocating for athletes to running for municipal election.

2. Began snowboarding and soon got a dream to go to the Olympics
My dream of the MT. Baker Banked slalom became bigger

3. Snowboard equipment
Old discipline was GS
In 98 when Ross went, GS – then changed – just as I got my first top 15
seemed like a Euro ply – they prefer to go slower.

4. Ignoring change doesn’t stop it
We refused to believe that the Olympic discipline was actually changing from GS to PGS

5. About the PGS event
Missing the 2002 games by .11sec

6. My sport career was a runaway train and I had to get control over it.
Canada Snowboard athlete rep
My first COC AC meeting, I was crying, I had just missed the Olympics
Having trouble getting funding, need around $30k year to support a good season.
Feeling sorry for myself,
Couldn’t help my sport or myself, until I got outside of my own misery and looked at changing the big picture.
I joined AthletesCAN

7. Get on Board Treasurer is an important role that rarely contested.
AthletesCAN I was voted onto exec as Treasurer first time running!
As an accountant, my skills are always wanted on a board. On a board made up of athletes who are mostly extroverted, alphas who are also lawyers, they want to talk and have the more visible positions.
Often easy to get onto a board if you pick your role carefully

8. Partnered with and learned from other women.
Honourable Carla Qualthrough
Minister of Sport and Persons with a Disability
Charmaine Crooks
Olympic medalist
There were strong women on AthleteCAN that I worked with to advance the status of athletes in Canada.
They were strategic, they were connected and brought new ways of thinking and approaching advocacy
As a young lawyer, Carla worked on Parliament hill and brought forward the idea of improving the status of athlete through legislation. By entrenching Sport in government policy, we gained a lot of credibility.
Sport grew from being a “recreational endeavour” to something far bigger with rights and responsibilities
Charmaine sat on a number of different athlete councils from the national, Panamerican, and International levels and brought a wealth of experience, connections and knowledge about other sport systems – more than one way to set up a system.
They can both work a room and they both do it very differently.

9. YET
I offer you a word
Yet
I’m not good with numbers, yet.

10. athletesCAN
Athlete Declaration – that Sport should be athlete Centered
Testified at Senate and Parliamentary hearings for Bill C-54.
The Bill was passed and is now the physical Activity and Sport Act.
Deliciously heartwarming, what does it mean?
We lobbied for a Minister of Sport – by ensuring that Sport was treated as a full Ministry, it gave us more credibility.
Then we lobbied the Minister of Sport to link sport funding to policy
- to ensure that sport was athlete centred by:
- instituting rules in to the SFAF that
- protected athlete rights, safety
- official languages
- code of conduct for coaches and officials
- established cutoff dates for team and games selection -
Objective of the ACT:
to increase participation in the practice of sport and support the pursuit of excellence in sport and
increase capacity in the Canadian Sport system

11. Changed the Face of Sport
Athlete representation on NSF boards.
In order for a sport to get funding from the Federal Government, it had to have an athlete representative as a full voting member of the Board of Directors.
Now the voice of the athlete was at the table!
We at AthletesCAN worked to train those athlete reps on the boards to be effective voices at the table.
Now we had a hand in setting the policy around
- team selection
- dispute resolution
- games selection
- discipline – we even beefed up our own snowboard athlete code of conduct to give us responsibility in not having sex with coaches – the coach should not have to fend off the advances of an adult athlete.
- injury clauses
- irony here – I lost my funding because of a bad injury cause in the preOlympic year.
- I accepted it, even though it wasn’t fair, as I had had the opportunity to change it and didn’t. - turned out ok for me.

12. Changed the Face of Sport
Athlete representation on NSF boards.
Successfully lobbied the Minister of Sport for more funding. More money for more athletes. $7 million/ year for 1,500 athletes.
Way easier to ask for money for sport in general than just for myself.
Spoke to the House of commons finance committee –
Lobbied the minister of sport for more funding
Hugely efficient.
Met people who were proud of their own personal sponsorship campaigns that brought in $35k
We raised $7 million! We changed the capacity of 1,500 athletes to fund their training and competitions.
Those funds went directly to athletes.
Funds also went to the sports themselves that had the better governance structures etc.

13. Competere To strive together
I ran for boards and won – that is how it all began, but it wasn’t the only way that I moved the dial in sport.
Competing for board positions or just making sure that an effective voice is at the table and that they have the support they need to be effective.

14. Supporting role
In 2004, my friend, Lilo, invited me to be her seeing eye guide at the Paralympics. – my “Olympic experience”
She was on Governing board of IPC
Also went to meetings all over the world, IOC, - learned a ton
I wasn’t a voice a the table – or at least I wasn’t suppose to be. But I got another woman’s voice to the table and I supported her and thereby improved international sport
I also had a low stress role of being at the table next to her without a need to grandstand or be political.
I could watch, learn, I could see what worked and what didn’t, I could ask questions
I made connections, traveled the world and gained confidence and credibility – many of the players at the IPC table also sat at other tables. The more you are seen at the table, the more your presence is accepted and expected. Soon, people were forgetting what my role was and treating me as part of the board.
“Can’t drink” story.

15. COC Athlete Council
Changed from a representative board of 95 to a functional, governance board of 12.
Challenged the COC to do the same
I had been at my first COC AC meeting in 2002, and was hugely frustrated.
After gaining some experience with boards, I was ready to make a difference.
Story of sitting around table once a year with 95 ppl, just complaining.
new governance model
Changed the governance and then I ran and won
As someone pointed out, I was the only one on the board without an Olympic medal – good and bad.
I suppose you are going through a similar thing with requiring members to have a university degree or not.
New energy, new responsibilities,
- change in top 16 criteria for 2006 and 2010 games
- money for medals
- improved games preparation for coaches and athletes

16. FIS Athlete Council We implemented the coloured bibs for finals
Improved the fairness for athletes and watchability for spectators –
We had an AC for FIS – nonfunctioning
I used my relationships that I had built through IPC work.
Contacted Pernilla Wiberg
I used my understanding of process developed through my training as a Chartered Accountant
-changed nomination process for FIS AC
One cycle – effective, functioning athlete council.
I had moved on and left a better system in my wake so that others could be effective.
I didn’t need to determine the specifics, I wanted to increase the capacity of others to get their goals accomplished.

17. Building bridges The Bridge Builder BY WILL ALLEN DROMGOOLE
An old man going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening cold and gray,
To a chasm vast and deep and wide.
Through which was flowing a sullen tide
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.
“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“You are wasting your strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day,
You never again will pass this way;
You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide,
Why build this bridge at evening tide?”
The builder lifted his old gray head;
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followed after me to-day
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been as naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”
One thing that I am proud of is that I pulled people – especially women up behind me.
They developed their leadership skills by taking on my former roles as athlete representative as I moved on in the sport political system.
I gave myself permission to not do all of the heavy lifting and in the process, helped to create more leaders and leverage my efforts.

18. Uniquely talented superheroes
Your legacy?
Drones
Uniquely talented superheroes
Will you leave behind a legacy of people who can do one thing? Or people who can share your vision and bring their own energy and perspective to it and move the dial their way?
What do you need to let go of?
What do you need to do?

19. Turning the dial What does success look like?
What does turning the dial look like?
- If we look at how far we have come, did any piece come overnight?
- what are the steps to success?

20. Roles Effect policy change Improve capacity Be at the table.
Support someone else to be at the table.
Change the table – with governance change.
Improve capacity
In the system.
Of individual people.
I got me feet wet by working with women and supporting them
I helped Lilo get re-elected at the 2004 Paralympics
Who will you champion?

21. UNited we stand

22. Divided we are Trumped

23. I put my time where my mouth was.
When I ran for council in 2011, women told me that they wouldn’t vote for me that time because I did not know how hard it was to have a kid.
Who are you championing?

24. REsources Political parties – they will train you.
Support someone’s campaign.
Attend Council meetings or watch Legislature or Parliament tv.
Why not you?
Mark Tewksbury – beaver cheer, Why not me?