From the Editor: The growth of women’s sports is for future generations

I never felt older than I did at my youngest sister’s elementary school graduation.

It’s not just because she’s growing up — though she is, and I may or may not have shed a tear.

I felt old because I watched a generation of kids announce their dreams like I never did. I didn’t have endless dreams. My reality was limited to what I saw around me.

The walls of her school’s gym were lined with every graduates’ portrait — 10 years in the future. Some of the drawings were of doctors, lawyers, and movie stars.

But some portraits were of women’s athletes.

I didn’t grow up with women’s sports teams. I grew up in the era of the Vancouver Canucks’ infamous 2011 Stanley Cup run, which a true fan will never let go of.

Today, girls grow up with women athletes to look up to and dream of becoming. I didn’t have Marie-Philip Poulin, Quinn, or Marina Mabrey to look up to.

Yes, women’s sports have always existed (and kicked ass, mind you), but they weren’t in my city. I couldn’t watch a WNBA game live like I could a Canucks, Lions, or Whitecaps game.

Vancouver welcomed its first major women’s sports team when the Northern Super League’s Vancouver Rise kicked off in 2025. The Rise went on to win the NSL championship and took home the inaugural Diana B. Matheson Cup.

Young girls in the city have a soccer team they could dream of joining. They weren’t just inheriting history — they were helping create it.

Yet, the momentum didn’t stop there.

The PWHL’s Vancouver Goldeneyes’ history began on Nov. 21, 2026. The Goldeneyes became the first PWHL team to win its inaugural game on home ice. Canada lives and breathes hockey, and girls can watch some of the world’s best hockey players compete at home.

After decades of celebrating men’s teams by default, Vancouver is building a professional sports landscape where women’s teams aren’t just an afterthought, but leading the conversation.

This shift in women’s sports is happening across the country. The Toronto Tempo’s inaugural season began early this summer — the first team outside of the U.S.

The Tempo will play two games in Vancouver’s Rogers Arena next month. Canada’s team will take on the Portland Fire — a franchise that also returned this year — on Aug. 21, and the defending champions, the Las Vegas Aces, on Aug. 23.

One of the portraits at my sister’s school was of a young girl wearing a Toronto Tempo jersey. Despite playing on the other side of the country, the Tempo represent a future for girls in Canada who dream of the court.

Every new franchise, sold-out arena, and little girl wearing a women’s sports jersey makes it harder to argue that women’s sports are niche or temporary.

I love women’s sports not for the 8-year-old me that wanted to be a basketball star, but for the generation of young girls that dream of being a Tempo star, a Rise midfielder, or a centre for the Goldeneyes, not a Canuck.

When I looked around that gym, I realized those portraits weren’t just childhood fantasies. They reflected a generation growing up with possibilities that simply didn’t exist for many of us.

Every new women’s sports team gives another young girl permission to dream bigger.