University of Toronto
Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education WINTER 2024 / VOL. 24, NO. 1
HIGH STAKES EXPOSING THE THE DANGERS DANGERS OF OF SPORTS SPORTS GAMBLING GAMBLING EXPOSING MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS The role of physical activity and sport in reconciliation
JUMPING THRU HOOPS Developing youth skills on and off the court
MOVING WITH IMPACT Sport & Rec integrates research into exercise program
BE THE CORNERSTONE OF A VIBRANT COMMUNITY Contribute to KPE with your time, skills and leadership. Volunteer opportunities include mentoring, governance, awards selection and event support. Connect with fellow alumni, KPE faculty, staff, students and Varsity Blues athletes. Take on new challenges while making a lasting impact on today’s KPE students. To learn about flexible volunteer options, contact alumni.kpe@utoronto.ca, or visit uoft.me/KPEalumnivolunteers. Share your preferred email address to stay connected to KPE and ensure you receive timely alumni news and invitations to upcoming events. Plus you’ll be entered into a draw for great prizes! Visit uoft.me/KPEemailupdate.
4 WINTER 2024 / VOL. 24, NO. 1
Inside Wilton Littlechild 4
Physical activity and sport in reconciliation
16
Moving with IMPACT Fit Tips on movement informed by faculty’s academic research
18 Jumping thru Hoops
Developing youth skills on and off the court
24 High Stakes
Exposing the dangers of sports gambling
28 In the Paint
How a Blues alum designed Canada’s first WNBA-themed basketball court
16
28
36 Clara Benson
The trailblazer behind the Benson building's name
Editor
Photography + Illustration
Sarah Baker
Dewey Chang, Aru Das, Fiorella Granda, Joel Jackson, Jump Thru Hoops, Tiffany Luke, Seyran Maddamov, Tricia McGuire-Adams, Selena Phillips-Boyle, NC 2.0, Katia Taylor, Eric Trussler, University of Toronto Archives
Associate Editor Jelena Damjanovic
Editorial Co-ordinator Catharine Heddle
Art Direction Joel Jackson
Contributors Jill Clark, Jelena Damjanovic, Bruce Grierson, Janet Gunn, Jordan Hall, Catharine Heddle, Heather Hudson, Gilbert Ngabo, Janet Row
Pursuit is published by U of T’s Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education www.pursuit.utoronto.ca
Editorial Comments sarah.e.baker@utoronto.ca
Address Changes alumni.kpe@utoronto.ca
The University of Toronto respects your privacy. We do not rent, trade or sell our mailing lists. If you do not wish to receive future editions of Pursuit , please email alumni.kpe@utoronto.ca
Publication Agreement Number: 40065214
Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to:
Pursuit is committed to preserving the environment. Paper used in Pursuit is 100 per cent post-consumer recycled and FSC® certified, which ensures all paper comes from well-managed forests and other responsible sources. www.fsc.org
Alumni Affairs 55 Harbord Street Toronto, ON Canada M5S 2W6
Printed in Canada
Message from the Dean
TRANSFORMATION IN MOTION W
elcome to the 2024 winter issue of Pursuit. In the previous issue, I shared the exciting news about the launch of the Faculty’s new academic plan called Transformation in Motion. I am delighted to share with you in this issue of Pursuit some examples of how our faculty, students and alumni have been advancing the strategic priorities and aspirations put forward in the plan.
With more than $5.5 million awarded in funding in the last year, our researchers are able to lead and partner on research projects supporting the four tenets of our academic plan: elevating health and wellbeing, igniting transformative inclusivity, activating partnerships and collaborations, and fostering innovation, discovery and achievement. We share some of these projects with you in this issue, including Sport4All, a partnership involving 66 national sport organization leaders, researchers and sport advisers who seek to build equitable, diverse and inclusive participation, access and quality experiences in youth sport – with a special focus on girls. Our cover story explores the efforts led by our faculty to tighten restrictions on sports gambling marketing in order to protect the young and vulnerable from gambling addictions and to protect the integrity of sport. United under the Campaign to Ban Advertising for Gambling, members of our faculty have taken their cause to Parliament Hill, lobbying gatekeepers and decision makers to curb the harm unleashed on the public and, in some cases, athletes.
Our Faculty hosted Wilton Littlechild – athlete, human rights lawyer and Truth and Reconciliation Committee commissioner – in a moving conversation about the role of sport and physical activity in reconciliation and restoration. And, in a further testament of the power of sport to bring people together and foster access and inclusion, the Goldring Centre drew big crowds for the launches of Prehistoric, a book by U of T alum Alex Wong exploring the origin story of the Raptors, and Undisputed, Donovan Bailey’s autobiography. Proceeds from the ticket sales from both events went to the newly created Indigenous and Black studentathlete bursary. We also share with you the story of a Varsity Blues alum turned designer and illustrator, who combined her passion for design and basketball to refurbish the Toronto Community Housing Don Mount Court in south Riverdale, making it the first WNBA-themed court in Canada. As you turn the pages of this issue of Pursuit, you will come across more examples of how members of our community are achieving Transformation in Motion. Propelling them on this mission are alumni like you. On behalf of our Faculty, I thank you for your ongoing engagement and support and hope you enjoy reading about our collective efforts towards building a healthier, happier and more just society. With best wishes,
Gretchen Kerr, Dean
Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education
2 pursuit.utoronto.ca
Photo/ Katia Taylor
Blues alum and creative director Fiorella Granda imagines Don Mount Court project as a celebration of the culture and growth of women’s basketball in Toronto and across the country. See story on page 24. Photo/ Courtesy of Fiorella Granda
Pursuit | Winter 2024
3
Field Notes
A CONVERSATION WITH WILTON LITTLECHILD
The role of physical activity and sport in reconciliation
Professor Gretchen Kerr, dean of KPE, and Wilton Littlechild, athlete, human rights lawyer and TRC commissioner, recently sat down to discuss the role of sport and physical activity in reconciliation.
W
ilton Littlechild was only six years old when he was taken away from his grandparents’ loving care in the Ermineskin Cree reserve in Maskwacîs, Alberta, becoming one of the more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children in Canada forced into residential schools between 1867 and 1998.
“The residential school policy was a direct assault on the Indigenous families, because children were separated from their parents, and it was a direct assault on our culture, because we weren’t allowed to speak our language,” said Littlechild at a recent event hosted by KPE. “The policy was to kill the Indian in the child.
At the time, Littlechild could only speak Cree, but English would become the only language he was allowed to speak for the next 14 years that he spent in the residential school system, a network of boarding schools for Indigenous children funded by the Canadian government’s Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches, designed to isolate Indigenous children from the influence of their own cultures and religious traditions in order to assimilate them into the dominant Canadian culture.
“If you spoke your language or manifested your culture in any way, you were to be punished. Many times, I was beaten across the back with a hockey stick.”
4 pursuit.utoronto.ca
To run away from the abuse, he started running, literally, around the school compound every night. “I didn’t know why I was doing it, and often times I’d break down and cry, but after I finished the run, I would feel Photo/ Katia Taylor
Field Notes better,” said Littlechild, who served as one of the three commissioners of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). Following the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement of 2007, the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history, there was a call for the establishment of the TRC to facilitate reconciliation among former residential school students, their families, their communities and all Canadians.
Littlechild has worked for over four decades with the United Nations to advocate for Indigenous sport and the global Indigenous rights movement. In 1976, he became the first Treaty First Nation person from Alberta to become a lawyer, and he became the first to be elected a member of Parliament in Canada in 1988.
“It had a tremendous influence,” said Littlechild, who recalled looking through old residential school photographs and noticing the only children smiling were the ones in hockey team pictures.
When they met afterwards, Littlechild gifted Pope Francis a vest and invited him to come to Canada to apologize, but he didn’t get a reply. The second time they met, Littlechild had a message for Pope Francis from Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, with whom he had had a meeting earlier.
In 1990, he helped create the “My love of sport initially came from wanting to run North American Littlechild recalls away from the abuse, but then it gave me a way out – Indigenous Games, that skating was and in 2015, the it gave me an opportunity to go to university and play, World another source of Indigenous relief from the abuse. Games. In 2016, to compete and travel the world.” – Wilton Littlechild Friday nights were he was named movie nights, so as Grand Chief of soon as the lights went out, he would get his skates, sneak the Confederacy of Treaty Six Nations. Through it all, he out and skate until the movie was over. continued to promote sport as an important component of reconciliation and community building. “Sport became my escape and my salvation,” said Littlechild, who went on to become a successful athlete, politician and In fact, he believes a shared love of sport and a common human rights lawyer. Speaking with Professor Gretchen Kerr, acquaintance from the sport world were in part responsible dean of KPE, in October 2023, Littlechild shared his views for bringing Pope Francis to Canada to apologize to the on the role of sport and physical activity in reconciliation. Indigenous people, which was one of the calls to action set by the TRC. “My love of sport initially came from wanting to run away from the abuse, but then it gave me a way out – it gave me “As commissioners on the Truth and Reconciliation an opportunity to go to university and play, to compete and Commission, we heard more than 7,000 survivor testimonies, travel the world,” he said. and one thing we kept hearing over and over again was that they wanted an apology from the faith groups that ran the Littlechild attended the University of Alberta, earning a residential schools,” said Littlechild. The Catholic Church, bachelor’s degree in physical education in 1967, followed however, was still holding back on apologizing. by a master’s degree in 1975. While studying at U of A, he was on the Golden Bears hockey and swim teams, and he As it happened, Littlechild was invited by Canada’s governor worked as the student manager of the university’s football general to attend Pope Francis’s first Mass in 2013. While and basketball teams. He also founded and coached the first he was listening to the pope’s homily, he thought to himself all-Indigenous junior hockey team in Alberta and organized that this would be the pope to finally apologize, after several referee and coaching clinics across the province. In 1967 previous attempts at getting the leaders of the Catholic and 1974, he received the Tom Longboat Award, which Church to do so had failed. recognizes the most outstanding Indigenous athletes and their contributions to sport in Canada. “He was talking about walking on Mother Earth gently, taking care of the animals who feed us ... it was like listening to one Kerr was interested to know how his background in physical of our Elders talking about respect – of ourselves and one education influenced his role as a TRC commissioner. another,” said Littlechild.
“Finding that balance between looking after your physical health and your mental health, and being proud of who you are culturally, provides a wholesome foundation for life,” said Littlechild, who also emphasized the important role of spirituality.
“Bach told me, ‘Say hi to Pope Francis, we’re buddies, you know, and tell him I support you,’” said Littlechild. “I did, and there was a big smile on his face. We stayed for four hours engrossed Pursuit | Winter 2024
5
Field Notes
“Once you have the apology and you forgive, then you begin to heal from the traumas that you suffered as a child. Once you have that sense of healing, you begin to feel a sense of justice” – Wilton Littlechild
in a conversation about the impact of residential schools, and as we were leaving, he said, ‘Goodbye, I’ll see you in Canada.’” It was Littlechild’s birthday that day, and this was the best birthday gift he had ever received, and all the more significant because birthday celebrations weren’t permitted in residential schools. In 2022, Pope Francis began his “penitential pilgrimage” at Maskwacîs, the very location from which Littlechild had been taken away from his family as a six-year-old child. CBC News reported that Francis apologized for members of the Catholic Church who cooperated with Canada’s “devastating policy of Indigenous residential schools and begged forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples.” “When I spoke to him privately, I told him I forgive him, because where harm has been done, an apology is warranted, but when you get an apology, you have to have an opportunity to forgive,” said Littlechild, who acknowledged that many still haven’t had the opportunity to forgive. “Once you have the apology and you forgive, then you begin to heal from the traumas that you suffered as a child. Once you have that sense of healing, you begin to feel a sense of justice. That’s what people want – recognition, justice and respect. Once you have that, then you can talk about reconciliation.”
Littlechild emphasized the power of sport to advance reconciliation, saying sport is the medium that brings people together. At the Canada Games, he urged the organizers to leave two track lanes empty in memory of all the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and for all the boys and girls who never made it home from the residential schools. At a hockey game in Edmonton, he arranged for Métis performers to sing the Canadian national anthem in English, French, Cree and Inuktitut. “Both are examples of simple but powerful messages shared through sport,” he said. Kerr thanked Littlechild for sharing his experiences and insights on something that’s so important to the Faculty – the role of sport and physical activity in advancing society as a whole and, in this case, advancing the process of reconciliation. “The Faculty’s Academic Plan that was released within the last year is called Transformation in Motion, in part because it recognizes the power of sport and physical activity to transform the lives of individuals, communities, society and the environment,” said Kerr. “That plan is guided by a number of important principles – from equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. “Having meaningful conversations like this one is an example of those principles that will guide the Faculty’s operations, activities and all the decisions we make.” — Jelena Damjanovic
6 pursuit.utoronto.ca
Photos/ Katia Taylor
Field Notes
Better health for all
New project to raise awareness about equity, diversity and inclusion in health research
A
new project is bringing together Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) researchers in kinesiology to raise more awareness about issues of equity, diversity, Indigeneity, inclusion and accessibility (EDIIA) in health research.
The project, called Navigating EDIIA in Physical Activity and Health Research: Defining Terminology and Approaches, was spearheaded by Eun-Young Lee of Queen’s University and funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Planning and Dissemination Grant. It involves a mix of early and mid-career researchers in the discipline of kinesiology from across Canada, including Tricia McGuire-Adams, a newly hired associate professor at the Faculty. McGuire-Adams, who is an Anishinaabe woman from Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek, will bring to the project an Indigenous health perspective in understanding EDIIA. What are the specific objectives of this project? Tricia McGuire-Adams (TMA): Our immediate objectives are twofold. In 2017 and 2022, CIHR implemented sex- and gender-based analysis (SGBA) and gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) as required areas of focus for funded research projects. So, our first order of business will be to complete a systematic scoping review, focusing on the ways in which social identity terms, such as sex and gender, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc., have been defined, operationalized and/or used in physical activity and health research since these policies were introduced. Second, we will bring together our research team, who represent BIPOC identities, to have a series of discussions and to work together to identify priorities and recommendations for improving EDIIA in health research. Photo/ Tricia McGuire-Adams
Why is this work important? TMA: The CIHR has concertedly focused on equity, diversity and inclusion by encouraging researchers to incorporate these tenets into their research plans. While this focus is needed to better situate the ways equity, diversity and inclusion are part of research, guidance that translates into research is lacking. Terms like “sex” and “gender” are constantly being conflated or misused, which leads to the interpretations of the results being missed or not useful in addressing sexism or gender inequalities. Moreover, key intersectionality factors like race and ethnicity are also misused or conflated. For example, simply observing and reporting racial or ethnic differences in participation offers little in making the changes we need to get more people to be physically active for optimal health. Physical activity and health researchers must move beyond just measuring simple sex/gender, race/ethnicity and other identity-based variables. We must also ensure that we are paying concerted attention to the root causes of inequity in physical activity, such as sexism, racism, homo/transphobia, ableism and discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity, social class and minority language and immigrant status. How will researchers benefit from this project? TMA: The outcome of our planning meeting will include providing concrete and specific recommendations with examples on how researchers from varying fields can integrate sex and gender in their research processes in meaningful ways. And the results of the scoping review will illuminate where the field is currently in incorporating such intersectionality. — JD
Pursuit | Winter 2024
7
Field Notes
OFF THE SIDELINES
Sport4All program receives $2.5-million SSHRC grant to improve participation, access and quality of experiences in youth sport
C
ATHERINE SABISTON, a professor at the Faculty and Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity and Mental Health, has been awarded a $2.5-million Partnership Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
The funding, the biggest SSHRC grant awarded in the Faculty’s history and among the largest available from Canada’s tri-agency funding programs, will go towards building equitable, diverse and inclusive participation, access and quality experiences in youth sport – or Sport4All – with a special focus on improving community sport participation, access and quality experiences in sport for girls. “Community sport is the most prevalent organized activity for youth in Canada and offers a multitude of benefits for growth and development, higher life satisfaction, positive peer relationships and development of leadership skills,” says
8 pursuit.utoronto.ca
Sabiston, who was recently named Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. “Unfortunately, there is a discrepancy in the sport participation rates, commitment and sustained involvement among youth that is predominantly determined by gender, race and Indigeneity, ability, social class and weight-identity factors, limiting sport’s potential for positive impact, particularly for girls. “This grant will help us address the main question of what an equitable, diverse and inclusive sport system could look like in Canada and serve as a template for other countries globally.” Spread over seven years, with in-kind and cash support from partner organizations reaching nearly $18 million, the project will be driven by four main goals, co-developed and informed by the needs of the partner organizations, which include up to 66 national sport organization leaders, researchers and sport advisors, parents, coaches, officials, youth and international experts. Photo/ iStock
Field Notes
PROGRAM GOALS 1. D ocument and describe how intersecting identities affect girls’ experiences of community sport. 2. B uild a national sport data system to collect meaningful and timely data on community sport experiences and participation trends, and to identify predictors and outcomes of quality sport. 3. D evelop, deliver, assess and standardize supportive resources for community sport leaders and girls to help foster participation, access and quality sport experiences. 4. I ntegrate and mobilize the research outcomes to develop an open-access toolkit (e.g. data collection, evaluation platforms, resources, programs and strategies) for organizations to collaborate on, engage in, and use to contribute to the timely equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) issues in Canadian youth sport, and to secure a sustainable partnership model for researchers and community leaders.
While the funding will see the project through until 2030, the ultimate goal is to build a sustainable community youth sport institute with further funding to see these initiatives through for decades, says Sabiston. “The Government of Canada recognizes that sport is transformative and plays an important role in building stronger and healthier communities across the country, especially in the aftermath of COVID-19,” she says. “This is the perfect time to innovate for sport access, participation and quality experiences for girls in Canada. “Sport4All will change sport knowledge, innovate sport practices, evolve sport access, improve sport participation and positively change sport experiences for girls in Canada.” — JD
GRANTS SWEEP KPE faculty awarded more than $5.5 million in research funding In a banner year for KPE, faculty members were awarded more than $5.5 million for research and research partnerships in 2023. On top of Professor Catherine Sabiston’s $2.5-million SSHRC Partnership Grant for Sport4All, Assistant Professor Amy Kirkham is leading two Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) grants totalling nearly $2 million. One study, including Assistant Professor Jenna Gillen as co-principal investigator and Assistant Professor Robert Bentley, will measure the health benefits of following Canada’s physical activity guidelines and the added benefits of healthy eating among pre- and postmenopausal women. The second study will aim to test how a new and simple eating pattern, called time-restricted eating (TRE), can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and improve physical and cognitive function among older breast cancer survivors. Associate Professor Kelly Arbour-Nicitopoulos was awarded a SSHRC Insight Grant worth $218,032 for a family-centred research approach to developing and testing physical activity interventions in children and youth with disabilities. She was also a contributor to a $2.5-million SSHRC Partnership Grant in her role as co-investigator on the Canadian Disability Participation Project (CDPP) 2.0, as well as the recipient of a Special Olympics Canada grant worth $20,140 for a project focused on the co-production of a Unified Physical Education (UPE) program for high school students with intellectual and developmental disabilities in a marginalized community. Professor Gretchen Kerr, dean of KPE, received a SSHRC Insight Grant worth $224,208 for a collaborative, community-based educational initiative to address maltreatment in sport. The researchers, including Anthony Battaglia and Ellen MacPherson of KPE and Ann Pegoraro from the University of Guelph, aim to partner with a large Canadian gymnastics club with a minimum of 1,500 members to design, deliver and assess the educational initiative. Assistant Professor Joyce Chen, Associate Professor Daniel Moore and Assistant Professor Amy Kirkham were each awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant, totalling about $500,000. Robert Bentley was awarded $150,000 in an NSERC Research Tools and Instruments Grant for an optical monitor of the metabolic rate of oxygen consumption, the application of which will advance our understanding of how oxygen delivery is matched to the muscle’s oxygen demand during exercise. Assistant Professor Timothy Burkhart and Professor Tim Welsh were also awarded $120,000 in an NSERC Research Tools and Instruments Grant. The funding will provide the cutting-edge technology that will enhance the research of their independent and collaborative research programs, including the purchase of Miqus hybrid video cameras to integrate markerless motion tracking into KPE’s state-of-the-art motion analysis laboratory. — JD
Pursuit | Winter 2024
9
Field Notes
Playing Together Study on Special Olympics Unified Sports explores experiences of students and coaches
R
esearchers from KPE collaborated with Special Olympics Ontario to explore perceptions of inclusion among students and coaches in schoolbased Unified Sports programs.
Unified Sports is an inclusive sport initiative that offers opportunities for students with and without intellectual disabilities to participate on sports teams together.
10
pursuit.utoronto.ca
Photo/ courtesy of Pasco County Schools by NC 2.0
Field Notes
“Increased social participation positively impacts the well-being of all students.”– Kelly Arbour-Nicitopoulos, associate professor “The intent of Unified Sports is to provide an inclusive experience by bringing together students with and without intellectual disabilities, but are these experiences truly inclusive? And what does inclusion look and feel like in these sport programs?” says Kelly Arbour-Nicitopoulos, an associate professor at KPE and principal investigator of the study. “If the students’ experiences are not fully inclusive, then how can inclusion be better fostered? “We explored these questions with some of the athletes and coaches who were participating at the inaugural Invitational Youth Games in May 2019 in Toronto, some of which were hosted at U of T.” The study, recently published in Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, found that students’ and coaches’ beliefs and attitudes towards Unified Sports played a key role in the implementation of the sport programming in schools. The coaches specifically influenced the inclusive nature of the teams based on their own understandings of and beliefs around inclusion, such as what roles the students without disabilities have in Unified Sports. “Which of the student-athletes do the coaches select to take on a leadership role and how exactly are these decisions made?” says Roxy O’Rourke, a PhD candidate in Arbour-Nicitopoulos’s ADAPT lab for accessible and inclusive physical activity and first author of the paper. “Are all students provided with the opportunity to play to the best of their abilities on the same team regardless of their experience with disability or not?” The researchers found that students both with and without intellectual disabilities, as well as the coaches, value the inclusive nature of Unified Sports – in particular, how an inclusive sport program model implemented within the school system can translate to more inclusive practices and behaviours outside of the sport setting. That includes encouraging student groups to mingle at lunchtime and in hallways during breaks.
“Increased social participation positively impacts the well-being of all students,” ArbourNicitopoulos says. The findings also highlight areas for growth and the influential role of coaches, as well as teammates, on sports teams. “If the idea is to have consistent implementation of programming, then there needs to be more evidence-based educational resources outlining these expectations and how to lead and develop Unified Sports programs within the school setting,” says Arbour-Nicitopoulos. “Some of the language and practices used by participants highlight the need to focus on language choice within the sport environment, and to clearly establish the roles and responsibilities of all athletes and students engaged in the Unified Sports environment.” The researchers suggest future studies should explore training for coaches on inclusive practices – for example, the language used in the sports environment when working with individuals with and without disabilities. This study was funded by a grant from Special Olympics Canada and co-authored by Krystn Orr, a PhD graduate from the ADAPT lab; Rebecca Renwick, a professor in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine; Virginia Wright, a registered physiotherapist and senior scientist at the Bloorview Research Institute (BRI) and a professor in the Department of Physical Therapy and the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine; James Noronha, a senior consultant at Special Olympics Ontario; and Kirsten Bobbie, manager of games and competitions at Special Olympics Canada. — JD
Pursuit | Winter 2024
11
Field Notes
Mixedness in Motion Shalom Brown seeks to challenge contemporary understandings of mixed-race and physical movement
A
fter completing her undergraduate degree in kinesiology at the University of British Columbia, Shalom Brown knew she wanted to pursue race-based research for her master’s degree.
“I’ve always been interested in research on racialized communities, specifically the Black and mixed-race communities, because they reflect my own lived experiences,” says Brown, who recently defended her master’s thesis at KPE. “But, until I entered graduate studies, I had to do my own research on the topic.
“Race and physical movement aren’t For her thesis project, one-size-fits-all identities, and Brown wanted to explore seeing them that way can make it how mixed-race people understand their racial challenging for people to live fully as identity, and how this could potentially lead themselves.” us to reimagine our
“For example, if we learned about feminist theories in class, I would then go home and research Black feminist theories and apply those areas of thought into my assignments and final papers.” She interviewed for a few different programs, and any time she expressed her research interests, the name of Janelle Joseph, assistant professor at KPE, would come up. “I reached out to her about the possibility of working under her supervision, and once I was accepted into the
12 pursuit.utoronto.ca
program, my mind was made up,” says Brown. “Professor Joseph’s Indigeneity, Diaspora, Equity and Anti-racism in Sport (IDEAS) Research Lab is doing groundbreaking work in kinesiology, and her commitment to fostering a research community that allows us to explore our unique interests and positionalities made the decision incredibly easy.”
understandings of – Shalom Brown what counts as physical movement.
“On the one side, I explored who gets to call themselves mixed, Black, white, or brown and why, and on the other side, who gets to call themselves active or inactive and why,” says Brown. Participants shared that calling themselves mixed or associating with other labels like Black or brown was dependent on external perceptions of their race, for example from strangers, but also on how they internally understood what each label meant. For example, some participants, Brown explains, struggled to identify as just Black or brown because these labels are broad and often dictated by one’s external appearance. Photo/ Dewey Chang
Field Notes
“This made it difficult for participants to understand who they were and how they identified,” she says. Similar themes were found when participants identified themselves as active or inactive. This was largely dictated by what was considered to be acceptable physical movement by society. “The difference was that with their racial identity, they were able to come to an understanding that regardless of their struggles to understand themselves or how other people may see them, they were able to resist being put into a box of one thing vs. another and claim their whole identity as mixed,” says Brown. “This was a lot more difficult when they were considering physical movement, as there was no in-between category between active and inactive that participants could relate to. “For example, one participant categorized themselves as inactive, but then shared how they walked their children to school every day, or took the stairs rather than the elevator, or danced during study breaks. They considered themselves inactive, but in doing so ignored the daily movements they participated in.” These findings, Brown says, are important because a lot of people, whether they are mixed-race or not, struggle with having to fit into boxes set by society. “Race and physical movement aren’t one-size-fits-all identities, and seeing them that way can make it challenging for people to live fully as themselves,” says Brown. “By identifying these challenges and demonstrating ways to think and live outside the box, we can work towards creating a social world where everyone can be themselves.” Next up for Brown will be pursuing a PhD degree at the Women and Gender Studies Institute at U of T. “It’s a bittersweet departure from kinesiology,” says Brown. “The Faculty and discipline have a special place in my heart, and I am deeply grateful for all of the opportunities and learnings that have come from my time in KPE and with Professor Joseph. “But, I am excited to venture off on my own and see what this new chapter will bring. I am also continuing my work with Professor Joseph in the IDEAS research lab and will remain a proud KPE alum.” — JD
Exploring Culture:
Dragon boat paddles Abi (pseudonym) was one of eight mixed-race individuals from the Greater Toronto Area who took part in the research focus groups and arts-based sessions to explore their experiences of being mixed-race and physically active. “I wanted to recreate ancient Chinese art on paddles to allude to the long history of the sport in China and its cultural significance. The paddles are an ode to the work of Chen Rong, a renowned dragon painter of the Southern Song dynasty, and each paddle will feature one of the nine sons of the dragon king from his most famous 1244 painting, Nine Dragons. The back of the paddle features a landscape detail from another of his works, Five Dragons. This work expresses the primary ways in which I engage my Chinese heritage – through sport and art. Although many would consider me distant from my Chinese cultural identity because I am biracial, I do not speak Chinese, and I am fourth-generation Canadian, I still engage with my culture in my own way. I have a passion for dragon boat, having been involved with the sport for three years, and much of my art is inspired by the Chinese artists who have come before me.” Pursuit | Winter 2024
13
Field Notes
Working
Outside the Box
Sport ecologist Madeleine Orr measures impact of sport on climate
M
adeleine Orr was appointed to the position of assistant professor of socio-cultural studies of physical activity and health in September 2023. Orr’s work bridges sport management, natural resource science and environmental policy research. She is recognized for her theoretical contribution in establishing sport ecology as an area of study.
Orr is known for excellent, productive transdisciplinary research, public scholarship, global partnership development and effective teaching and mentorship. She has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 (sports category), the Corporate Knights Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability, Environmental Education’s 30 Under 30, and she is a Future of Canada Fellow (2023–24).
Orr completed her PhD at the University of Minnesota in “Climate change is impacting lives and livelihoods all over 2020. From 2019 to 2021, she served as assistant professor the world,” says Orr. “I get to stare down big, complicated of sport management at the State University of New York challenges like air pollution and extreme heat and figure out at Cortland. Following a post-doctoral fellowship at the how to keep athletes safe in those conditions and how to keep University of British Columbia, she served as a lecturer at sport fun despite the environmental challenges.” the Institute for Sport Business at Loughborough University, London. Orr was drawn to KPE because of its highly regarded transdisciplinary approach to sport and physical activity. “My “Orr’s research focuses on climate vulnerability and adaptation work is ‘outside the box’ for academia, so I’m excited to be among organizations in the sport and recreation sector,” working in an environment where transdisciplinary work is says KPE dean Gretchen Kerr. “It highlights the inseparable valued,” she says. connections between climate change and social inequities. As a sport ecologist, she measures the impacts of sport on climate Furthermore, she adds: “Toronto is home. I’m excited to work and the role of athletes as climate activists – both areas of great in the same building where I grew up playing water polo!” importance to our field.” — Catharine Heddle
14 pursuit.utoronto.ca
Photo/ Selena Phillips-Boyle
Field Notes
GAME CHANGER?
TISS panel dives into the role of artificial intelligence in sport science, medicine and analytics
W
hen the Tanenbaum Institute for Science in Sport (TISS) was launched in May 2022, director Ira Jacobs said he was looking forward to the opportunity for sport scientists to communicate with each other, while providing athletes, coaches and others with cutting-edge, applicable knowledge. In the fall of 2023, Jacobs hosted the institute’s first speaker series with a panel discussion on the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) within sport science, sport medicine and sport analytics research. The panel featured Joseph (Joe) Baker, a professor at KPE and Tanenbaum chair in sport sciences, data modelling and sport analytics, Daniel (Danny) Whelan, an associate professor at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine who holds the Tanenbaum professorship in orthopaedic sports medicine, and Meghan Chayka, co-founder of Stathletes and data scientist in residence at the Rotman School of Management. Just as Jacobs envisioned, a cross section of the high performance world was there to take in the discussion. We asked Baker about the potential applications of AI in sport science, how it can be used to optimize athlete performance, and whether the benefits of integrating AI into sport science outweigh the challenges. What are some potential applications of AI in sport science? Joe Baker (JB): Given how dependent sport scientists and practitioners are on information for effective decision-making, training design and so on, the applications are nearly limitless. We’ve seen the influence of AI on everything from advanced data modelling for talent identification and player forecasting to designing better training environments and creating superior ways to monitor athlete stress, learning and performance.
How is AI transforming the way sports-related injuries are diagnosed? What role can AI play in enhancing the treatment and rehabilitation process for athletes? JB: We have seen a lot of attention in many sports on injury diagnosis, for example for concussion, and injury prediction, especially at the elite and professional levels. For many professional teams, a model that could predict an athlete’s injury risk is seen as the “holy grail” of data analytics. How can AI be used to optimize athlete performance? JB: An athlete’s ability to perform in an optimal way at a specific time reflects a complex interaction of physiological, biomechanical and psychological systems, among others. Until recently, researchers haven’t had the statistical and computing tools to be able to explore these complicated relationships. AI has the potential to help us understand the interaction of these systems over time and across development so that we can build stronger models of athlete skill acquisition and performance. What challenges do you foresee with the integration of AI into sports research? Do they outweigh the potential benefits? JB: The greatest challenge to the use of AI in sport settings is access to data. Most AI-based approaches require very large datasets to “learn” the most effective patterns of data to look for. Unfortunately, in most sport settings, especially those involving more elite populations, the samples are quite small. In addition, sport performance is continually evolving. In sport contexts, it’s not clear whether the benefits of AI will be able to offset these challenges. — JD Pursuit | Winter 2024
15
Fit Tips
Moving with
IMPACT By Jelena Damjanovic
Alex Malone, lead coach of the Sport & Rec fitness and performance program, describes IMPACT as a group fitness program infused with the Faculty’s academic research and a big helping of community building. Malone, who completed his undergraduate degree at KPE and a master’s degree at the University of Waterloo, is a beneficiary of both – the Faculty’s research and community. “The profs who educated me and other staff working here also work with firefighters, athletes and other individuals who want to move well, in addition to having any performance aspirations,” says Malone. “We're fortunate that we get to incorporate their knowledge and research into our programming.”
Another focus is on single arm or leg work to improve stability. Participants get to explore the gym a little bit more, including the VersaClimber, an upright cardio machine that can be used for short sprints, as well as longer, slow-paced cardio.
So, what is IMPACT exactly?
“We prioritize variety, so we’ll flip some of the workouts from week to week,” says Malone. “For example, on Monday, we'll have one set of exercises. On the following Monday, we might work on a pull instead of a push; instead of a squat, we might work on a hinge. So, even if you only show up on Mondays, you’ll still get to experience a variety of movements and exercises.”
“The acronym stands for integrated movement, performance, agility and conditioning team,” explains Malone. “So, the goal is not just to get better at a particular exercise, but to get better at moving. “Maybe you're going to apply that to playing with your kids or to your next pickup basketball game or, if you’ve had an ACL surgery, for example, to climbing up and down stairs.” The program, which offers general, women-only and 2SLGBTQ+ classes, runs six days a week. Some days are dedicated to traditional strength training, with participants working on a certain number of sets and reps and exploring ranges of motion. Another day may expose participants to a mix of more dynamic pieces. That’s the agility portion of IMPACT. “This is where we’ll add in throws and maybe some jumps and kettlebell swings – things that allow you to move a little bit faster because, if you want to apply the training to a sport, typically, most sports will have a speed component to them,” says Malone.
16 pursuit.utoronto.ca
At the same time, there is enough repetition to notice improvements and progress. “Once we hit that midway point, we adapt the program and focus on the group’s feedback, such as increasing the speed or extending the length of the conditioning exercises,” says Malone. Malone shared some tips on movement principles applied throughout IMPACT, “because if you can learn how to perform a movement, you’ll be able to complete multiple exercises.”
Photos/ Joel Jackson
Fit Tips
HINGE: To do a hinge, you’re moving primarily through the hips with your feet firmly planted on the ground and your knees unlocked (slightly bent). Once your knees are unlocked, you’re going to push your hips back and move your chest forward, while holding your back flat. Once you feel too much of a stretch, typically through your hamstrings or just behind your thighs, and you feel like you can’t go any further without rounding your back, that's going to be your limit, at least for now.
SQUAT: If you sat down today and stood back up, you would have performed a squat, more or less. A squat is a multi-joint hinge movement. You’re moving at three key joints – your ankles, knees and hips. If I was just doing a traditional hinge movement, I would primarily be moving through my hips. In a squat, you want to make sure that you’re moving through all three joints, and that whatever direction your toes are pointing, your knees are flowing in the same direction. Adding loads or speed increases the challenge of the movement.
PLANK: For a plank, you don’t want your hips to drop too low, and you don’t want your hips to rise too high. There should be a straight line between your shoulders, hips, knees and ankles. If you want to modify that to kneeling, the same principle applies, and you have to keep a straight line between your shoulders, hips and knees. Keep your shoulders down and away from your ears.
INVERTED ROW: When you’re rowing, you’re in a very similar position to a plank. You want to keep the shoulders down and back and move them in the same plane with your elbows. So, if you’re pulling, your elbows come back and your shoulders pull back, like you’re pulling your shoulder blades together. If you are pushing, your elbows come forward and your shoulder blades pull apart. When you’re in an inverted position, you also want to remember to keep your hips up high. You can do the same movement standing up with a band.
REVERSE LUNGE: The reverse lunge gets you used to working on a single leg. When you’re moving around in the real world, you go from one leg to the other, up or down the stairs, one leg to the other. Here, the same principle applies as with the squat – toes and knees are going in the same direction. (The same rule applies if you’re going into a lateral or a diagonal lunge.) In a reverse lunge, most of your weight is on the leg that’s underneath you, compared to the one that’s behind you. The weight stays on that one base leg, which is a good introduction to single leg movement – of the kind we experience every day in our lives.
PUSH: A push movement could be a push-up or a dumbbell bench. In a dumbbell bench position, with the two dumbbells, you are pulling the shoulders back and the elbows down as if you were engaging in a pull. Then as you press up, you want your elbows and shoulders to move in the same plane and direction without getting too far up and close to your ears. So, if you’re pressing forward, it means your shoulders and your elbows move forward. The same principle applies when you are in the push-up position, however then you also have to ensure that your core is braced, so that your pelvis and shoulders remain the same distance apart, like a plank. Pursuit | Winter 2024
17
Blues News
Jumping thru Hoops
Developing youth skills on and off the court
F
resh from knocking the US off the podium at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup, Canada is emerging as a global basketball powerhouse. (James Naismith, the Canadian inventor of the game, is perking up in his grave.) The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is the country’s prime incubator of top talent. What’s less obvious are the programs that are quietly giving opportunities for diamonds in the rough to develop into gems that shine both on the court and off via collaborations with institutions like the University of Toronto.
“It’s tough when you’re young and you want to do things that you love and you can’t,” says Tamara Tatham, head coach of U of T women’s basketball squad, who struck up a partnership with Jump Thru Hoops a little over a year ago. Varsity Blues players mentor the young visitors, and U of T has made
18 pursuit.utoronto.ca
its vaunted Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport available for free. “I remember growing up it wasn’t always easy to find a gym, let alone a gym like this,” Tatham says. “While they’re here, they can let go of everything else and just be free and happy on the court.” Jump Thru Hoops is part skills academy, part “school of life.” The idea is to “create a healthy, safe environment for young people to grow and excel in,” says Shomari McGee, Jump Thru Hoops co-founder and the lead coach who nurtured RJ Barrett and Andrew Nembhard to stardom in the NBA. To that end, the participants – many of whom are recruited through deep connections in the inner city, in the Indigenous community and beyond – hit the court for unique instruction in basketball fundamentals from world-class coaches. Photos/ Jump Thru Hoops
Blues News all aspiring competitive athletes need to thread – to be competitive but not obsessive, excellent but still healthy – in the marathon (not a sprint) that is life. This will be the shadow work the Varsity Blues athletes take on as they become powerful role models in the community themselves. “Role models were important to me in my basketball career, so that’s something I’m happy to continue,” Tatham says. Danilo Djuricic, a Jump Thru Hoops mentor, remembers a 16-year-old kid who showed up back in 2020. “He was actually taller than me, and I’m six foot eight,” says Djuricic, a power forward who was recruited straight from a pro team in Czechia. The young student was Torontonian Jack Torry. He was a fencer and a ski instructor – not a basketball player at all. But when the pandemic shut down the world, Torry, looking to stay in shape, turned to the sport his body seemed to have been drawn up to play. On that first day, Djuricic guarded the shaky newbie closely. The point wasn’t to show the young man his place but rather “to be positive, give some advice, show him how to work out properly.” Says Torry: “The message I got was, ‘You are a talented kid, and you have the ability to do whatever you want.’” The fuse was lit. Soon Torry’s skills improved to the point that he got on with a prep team in Pickering and eventually landed a scholarship to the University of Guelph, where he now plays centre for the Gryphons and is on track for law school.
GTA kids pack the Kimel Family Field House for lessons on basketball and life
Then, with a little sweat still on their brows, they hit the classroom for tutelage in things such as time management, financial literacy and how to leverage your education into a job and that job into a career. “These are the skills these young people are going to need to build a successful life,” says Jump Thru Hoops co-founder Sheron Lau. “We can’t teach height, but we can teach everything else.” One Jump Thru Hoops coach is Hanna Hall, a feisty former point guard with Canada’s bronze-winning FIBA U17 world championship team. Hall has been very public about her struggles with an eating disorder and other mental health issues, born of the perfectionism and twisted body-image ideals she felt she had to live up to as a young athlete at the University of Buffalo. Increasingly, this is the needle
Not long ago, in a classroom session in Goldring, Djuricic shared with his young charges what he called his “40-year plan.” It starts with number crunching. There are 450 people who play in the NBA. Realistically, most young hoopsters, no matter how good, aren’t going to make it. And even if they do, the average career of an NBA player is three years. What then? A goal without a plan is just a wish, as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said. When Djuricic stepped back and took in the long view of his life, basketball was right there, but as a springboard to bigger things. Djuricic went for it multi-dimensionally, buckling down on his studies while still training hard. He got accepted into Harvard, where he majored in economics while playing centre for the Crimson. “No matter who you are, eventually the ball’s gonna stop bouncing,” says McGee, “so you’ve gotta think big picture. For Danilo, maybe the final chapter of his basketball story is [that] he owns the team.” “Our main thing is, can you believe in yourself?” says McGee. “And not just on the court. Can you get straight As at the university you’re heading for? And crush the life beyond it?” Over at Goldring, there’s plenty of time on the shot clock to find out. — Bruce Grierson Pursuit | Winter 2024
19
Blues News
Honouring top scholar student-athletes The University of Toronto honoured 277 student-athletes at the 12th annual Academic Excellence Breakfast in November at the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport
U
niversity of Toronto Vice President achievements underscore the program’s received a diamond pin marking five and Provost, Professor Cheryl unwavering commitment to excellence in years of academic accomplishment. Regehr, Professor Gretchen Kerr, both realms. We take immense pride dean of KPE, Beth Ali, executive director in the tremendous support systems The Blues also honoured four U of T of athletics and physical activity, as well in place that nurture their holistic top scholar student-athletes who were as Mary Beth Challoner, adjudged to have excelled both director of intercollegiate and “Our student-athletes have risen to the demands and academically and athletically high performance sport, were shone brightly, boasting an impressive graduation during the 2022–23 academic on hand to honour this year’s rate of 92 per cent – a testament to their dedication, year: men’s swimmer Michael recipients. Sava and women’s rugby player discipline, and the university’s commitment to The ceremony honoured Ella Tetrault were celebrated fostering success on and off the field of play.” student-athletes who earned an as the U SPORTS top scholar – Mary Beth Challoner athletes, while Blues water polo 80 per cent average or higher in all courses they were enrolled goalie Miguel Garcia Alonso in during the 2022–23 academic year development. Our student-athletes have and U of T rower Katrina Miehlbradt while competing on a Varsity Blues team. risen to the demands and shone brightly, earned the Ontario top scholar athlete Each recipient received a pin: enamel boasting an impressive graduation awards. for first-time winners, bronze for second, rate of 92 per cent – a testament to silver for third, gold for fourth, and a their dedication, discipline, and the The 277 student-athletes represent diamond pin for anyone earning this university’s commitment to fostering nearly 30 per cent of the Varsity Blues award five or more times during their success on and off the field of play.” population. The Varsity Blues men’s track intercollegiate career. and field team had 19 honourees, while Varsity Blues rower Matthew McNeil the Blues men’s hockey team and “U of T student-athletes exemplify a rare received a triple diamond pin, having women’s track and field team each had 15 balance, achieving remarkable success achieved this result for the seventh time, honourees. There were 14 softball players both academically and athletically,” while nine more student-athletes across also recognized, along with 13 Blues said Challoner. “Their outstanding seven different Varsity Blues teams women’s soccer athletes. — Jill Clark
20 pursuit.utoronto.ca
Photo/ Varsity Blues
Blues News
Beyond a Doubt
Scholarship gives student confidence
I
mposter syndrome can affect even the most adept academic or athlete, but with support and validation those walls can come down. For Varsity Blues women’s hockey player Lauren Omoto, it was a University of Toronto academic recognition that lifted her above those early feelings of self-doubt.
Her academic success is complemented by her success in athletics. The former Whitby Jr. Wolves hockey player has contributed to the Varsity Blues women’s hockey program’s stellar performance over the past several years, including an Ontario University Athletics (OUA) McCaw Cup championship title last season.
“Balancing academics, athletics and extracurriculars has been “Our team overcame a lot of adversity, and being able challenging at times, but receiving the University of Toronto to translate what we worked on over the course of the Excellence Award (UTEA) to conduct research at SickKids whole season into the achievement of a McCaw Cup is an has probably been my favourite academic-related memory indescribable feeling,” says Omoto. “Being able to share the here so far,” says Omoto. “I struggled a lot with imposter moment not only with my teammates but with the rest of syndrome, but receiving that award gave me more confidence the Varsity Blues and U of T community has to be a favourite in the research I was doing and in my academic ability.” athletic-related memory so far.” The UTEA is an undergraduate honour provided to students in order to gain direct research experience through a faculty-led project. Omoto, who is pursuing a double major in human biology and psychology, utilized the recognition to further her academic interests.
As she prepares for a future that may include medical school, Omoto has been adding other worthwhile experiences to her resume. She served as director of communications with U of T’s Women in Sport club and as an academic mentor with the Academic Support for Athlete’s Program (ASAP).
“I’ve had an interest in science for as long as I can remember, but I’ve always been especially drawn to learning about neurodegenerative diseases and cancers, as I have witnessed the detriments of such diseases in many individuals in my life. The research I have been able to conduct here at university-affiliated labs and now at SickKids has allowed me to synthesize and apply what I have learned in my academics to attempt to find novel therapies for diseases like cystic fibrosis, diabetes and neurogenerative disorders.”
“A majority of the classes I have taken have had a strong focus on disease diagnosis and progression, a subject area that is constantly changing. My dream occupation would be to work as a pathologist, as this line of work would allow me to positively impact the community through research and clinical work, which is ideal for me. I’ve always enjoyed being challenged academically and athletically, and U of T has been able to provide this while allowing me to develop necessary skills for success beyond graduation.” — Jordan Hall
Photos/ Seyran Maddamov/ Tiffany Luke
Pursuit | Winter 2024
21
Blues News
THE PERFECT BALANCE
KPE SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT REFLECTS ON HER UNIVERSITY JOURNEY
F
or fourth-year University of Toronto student Yasmeen Al-Kas, studying kinesiology while playing varsity soccer strikes the perfect balance. Sport is her anchor through stressful classes, while kinesiology feeds her love for science and ambitions for a career in health care.
Al-Kas is one of the first recipients of the Yat Family StudentAthlete Scholarship, awarded annually to one male and one female athlete in varsity soccer. “Growing up, I played soccer ever since I was eight. I knew I wanted to play at university – I just didn’t know which university! But I came to one of the recruiting camps held at U of T where you play games, the coaches watch, and they pick out players. And I got recruited. Then it was like all the other options were off the table, and I chose U of T. “It was really eye-catching that U of T is a world-ranked university. Everybody knows you have to work really hard for your grades here. Then there was [the fact] that my sister did
22 pursuit.utoronto.ca
kinesiology at U of T and she spoke very highly of it. I knew I wanted to do science, so I did my research into kinesiology, and I liked the courses that were involved. “My favourite course has been human physiology. I just really like learning about the systems in our bodies and how they work to keep us alive. Now when I’m playing soccer, I notice I’m out of breath or certain things are happening to my body. Why is my heart rate increasing? What’s it doing? It’s interesting that I know the why of it. This is my final year, and I’m planning on pursuing a career in health care following a master’s degree. “I’m a midfielder, and this is my third year on the Varsity Blues team. We play pre-season in August, the regular season from September to November, and then exhibition games and friendlies the rest of the year. Last year we made it to playoffs and did really well in our off-season too.” — Janet Row Photo/ Aru Das
GET YOUR TICKETS TODAY!
Blues News
Come see what all the buzz is about. The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's basketball team beat the visiting Harvard University Crimson 68–65 after a dramatic finish, which saw U of T guard Nadav Sahar nailing a game-clinching three just as the buzzer went off. The Blues were cheered to victory by a crowd of 1,582 that packed into the Kimel Family Field House at the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.
varsityblues.ca/tickets Pursuit | Winter 2024
23
24 pursuit.utoronto.ca
Illustration/ iStock
HIGH STAKES EXPOSING THE DANGERS OF SPORTS GAMBLING By Bruce Grierson
I
n the spring of 2021, the federal government, with little debate, legalized sports gambling in Canada. You didn’t have to follow politics to know it had happened: gambling ads were suddenly everywhere.
The same thing had happened three years earlier south of the border, after a Supreme Court decision struck down a federal law prohibiting sports betting. In both countries, cash-strapped governments found it hard to resist the spoils of an online betting industry projected to hit USD$145 billion by 2030, according to a market research study published by Custom Market Insights. But Canadian legislators were being alarmingly naive, believes Bruce Kidd, professor emeritus of sport and public policy at the Faculty. “The bill that legalized sports betting [in Canada] was not as carefully vetted as it should have been,” he says. “The legislators were completely unaware about (a) the degree to which ads for sports betting were going to crank up, and (b) the extent to which those ads groom vulnerable people into gambling addictions – particularly children and youth.” What kind of harm are we talking about, and how much? A big barrier to quantifying the effect of online sports betting is that hard numbers are scarce. This is by design.
“That’s actually part of the industry’s playbook – to deflect and deter knowledge,” says Darragh McGee, a KPE alumnus who’s now a professor in the Department for Health at the University of Bath in England. McGee is at the forefront of academic efforts to understand the so-called gamblification of sports, and a key player in the international effort to tighten restrictions on runaway sports-gambling marketing. “The only actors who know the scale of gambling addiction are the companies themselves, because the data are a heavily guarded secret. And that’s a failure of state legislation. “These are corporate behemoths powered by algorithmic science and big tech, and they’ve fundamentally altered the nature of what it means to gamble on sports today,” says McGee, who in a recent paper co-authored by academics from Australia and the UK argued that “a comprehensive public-health approach to gambling is urgently required” to protect young people from the corrosive effects of gambling advertising. Modern online betting increases the pace, frequency and risk. It’s exponentially stickier than any form of gambling we’ve seen before, as addictive a product as tobacco and some forms of illegal narcotics. According to a Statistics Canada report from 2022, problem gambling, also referred to as a gambling disorder by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders used by Pursuit | Winter 2024
25
Field Notes
the American Psychiatric Association, is now recognized as a public health concern, with estimates showing the gamblingrelated burden of harm is similar in magnitude to the harm attributed to major depressive disorder, or alcohol misuse and dependence.
The human neocortex isn’t fully developed until we’re in our late twenties, so the impulse control mechanisms aren’t yet shored up. Long-term, the business strategy of the gaming industry is exactly that of the tobacco industry: hook them young and you’ve got a customer for life, says McGee.
In the UK – where single-game betting has been legal since 2005 when Prime Minister Tony Blair’s New Labour government introduced the Gambling Act – it’s estimated there are now tens of thousands of teenagers who are pathological gamblers. And the adults? UK’s National Audit Office estimates the number of “at-risk” gamblers at around 1.8 million.
Perhaps the most ominous element of the new betting landscape is the granularity of the wagering. It used to be that you bet on the outcome of the game. Now you can bet on just about anything within the game, from whether the ref will throw a red card in the first half, to whether the next pitch will be a strike, to how long the national anthem will last. With these so-called prop bets, there’s no skill involved, no advantage to having knowledge about the players or the team. It’s just luck. Effectively, you are in a casino now. “And the science tells us there’s no gambling more dangerous than the casino slot machines,” says McGee. “Make no mistake about it, the seductive game mechanics of the slot machine are part of the engineering architecture of sports gambling today.
Not everyone who engages in sports gambling gets addicted, and you don’t have to be addicted to be harmed, McGee notes. But everyone who steps across that threshold is now in the hands of folks who are playing a bigger game. “The most potent dimension of sports-gambling addiction is the cross-selling. The industry knows that young people are fixated on sports, so sports is a safe space in which to recruit young people into gambling. But what they really want is for fans to move from sports betting into the online casino. The moment you register and log on to the app, you start receiving little nudges – they’ve been called ῾dark nudges’ – and that’s where the risk exponentially grows.” Young people are disproportionately ripe targets.
26 pursuit.utoronto.ca
“The fan becomes ‘denatured’ to the soul of the game. The emotions, the beauty, the choreography of the playmaking, the childlike love of a team, the idea of supporting a collection of athletes through thick and thin, the passing of allegiances down from generation to generation: all of that just gets eroded,” says McGee. Illustration/ Joel Jackson
“Problem gambling is a significant mental health issue and has been defined by the medical community as an addictive disorder. It can lead to significant harm, including runaway debt, stress to families, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression and even suicide.” – Gretchen Kerr, professor From the user’s perspective, online betting, delivered through your smartphone, is a vastly different experience than old-school wagering. The player becomes a passive vessel through which the game is poured. You never have to leave the couch. “You don’t have to be involved in any of the kinesthetic elements of sport,” says Kidd. “That is poisoning the healthy, athletic, embodied culture of sport that so many of us seek to encourage.” Ten months ago, Kidd, along with former Toronto mayor John Sewell and a dozen other key players, including Professor Gretchen Kerr, dean of KPE, and KPE Professor Emeritus Peter Donnelly, launched the Campaign to Ban Advertising for Gambling. They took their cause to Parliament Hill, lobbying gatekeepers and decision makers along the way. “Our preliminary analysis is that the social costs of gambling addictions are being passed on to families and institutions,” says Kidd. The logic of the argument is straightforward: gambling is an addiction, just like tobacco, alcohol and narcotics. So the rules should be the same as those that govern those substances. Just as the government banned tobacco ads, it should ban gambling ads. And the sooner the better to avoid the kind of debacles seen in the UK, Australia and the US. “Problem gambling is also a significant mental health issue and has been defined by the medical community as an addictive disorder,” says Kerr. “It can lead to significant harm, including runaway debt, stress to families, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression and even suicide.” Statistics Canada estimates that 1.6 per cent of adult gamblers are at moderate to high risk of gambling disorders – that’s more than 300,000 Canadians. Underage gambling is on the rise, too, with the spread of advertising for gambling. “Ads make people much more susceptible to gambling, particularly since betting can be done so easily and quickly online,” says Kerr. “Research shows that the restriction of ads can prevent or minimize the harms from gambling, especially among youth and other vulnerable groups.”
A private member’s bill – S269 – introduced by two senators who share the group’s concerns, received first reading in the Senate of Canada in June 2023 and is wending its way to second reading. If and when it passes the Senate, it will be considered by the House of Commons. “We’ve met with MPs from all five political parties who tell us they support the bill to make sport-betting ads illegal,” says Kidd. If ever there were a bipartisan issue, it would seem, this is one. Yet, to date, there’s no commitment from the government to make it a public bill, so that when passed by both Senate and House, it will become law. Kidd, Kerr and their colleagues have also lobbied the Ontario attorney general to prohibit betting on Olympic, Paralympic, amateur and educational sports. A related concern is that the betting industry could soon set its sights on intercollegiate sports in Ontario. With this in mind, earlier this summer, they wrote to the Council of Ontario Universities (COU) to share their concern about the threats to student mental health from the explosion of sports betting in Ontario and the proliferation of advertising for such opportunities. “If betting were to permeate university sport, the existing mental health crisis in Ontario universities would be exacerbated,” says Kerr. This has already happened in the US, where, according to data from an NCAA survey, sports gambling has infected college campuses. Two out of three students living on campus are bettors. As many as one in seven show signs of “problem” sports gambling. “The international evidence shows that gambling ads play a significant role in grooming children and youth to gamble, and that banning or restricting ads for gambling is an effective way to prevent the spread of sports betting and other forms of gambling among the young and other vulnerable persons,” says Kerr. “As educators and former athletes, we are sounding the alarm bells before it’s too late.” Pursuit | Winter 2024
27
Alumni Updates
Field Notes
In the Paint
The inside story of how a Blues alum designed Canada’s first WNBA-themed basketball court
D
on Mount Court in South Riverdale is known as the first Toronto Community Housing neighbourhood to be revamped into townhomes and low-rise buildings for mixed-income families.
it’s a result of a partnership among NBA Canada, the Dairy Farmers of Ontario and Buckets & Borders, a non-profit based in Regina that documents basketball culture around the world.
and free-throw lines. In addition, artists included illustrations and imagery that represent high-profile women players, past and present.
Fiorella Granda, the lead artist and “A big part of this project was to celebrate creative director, says her proposal Now it will be home to perhaps the most women’s basketball,” says Justin Lee, insisted on including key moments colourful basketball court in the country. co-founder and CEO of Buckets & from WNBA history: the first basket, Borders. first in-game dunk and the crazy gameMonths of hard work refurbishing winning shot in the 1999 WNBA Finals, the old court in Toronto’s east end He says the Toronto project was imagined among other highlights. and painting its surface with iconic as a nod to the growth of the women’s basketball markings and figures have game in Canada – especially with “I wanted to create a bold art piece culminated in the first Women’s the WNBA playing here for the first that also blends with elite athletic National Basketball Association time in May 2023 – amid talk that the city performance,” says Granda, a Toronto(WNBA)-themed court in Canada, is a strong candidate for an expansion based designer and illustrator who adds officially unveiled in September 2023. team. it was important to showcase WNBA figures who are, in many respects, more The Don Mount Court project was “We wanted to promote basketball as an than just elite athletes but also successful imagined as a “true celebration” of the inclusive game and celebrate women’s businesswomen and role models in culture and growth of women’s basketball basketball and celebrate bringing people sports and media. in Toronto and across the country. together,” he says. “I hope people can see this court as a true Nestled in the middle of a bustling The refurbished Don Mount Court celebration of women’s basketball culture, community full of energetic youth features eye-catching highlights that as well as a creation of a functional space who almost never get tired of hooping, accentuate the three-point, half-court for every athlete in the community.”
28 pursuit.utoronto.ca
Photos/ Courtesy of Fiorella Granda
Alumni Updates
“I wanted to create a bold art piece that also blends with elite athletic performance.” – Fiorella Granda It was a full-circle moment for Granda, who was introduced to the game at a young age and played for the Varsity Blues. Her mother played on the Peruvian national basketball team. Granda developed a passion for design as an architecture student and looked for ways to combine that with her love of basketball. Her architectural thesis was about how sports and recreation unite vulnerable communities in Lima, Peru. The Don Mount Court project was a chance to see her worlds come together. “It just seemed like a dream competition to me,” says Granda, noting it was “pure joy” to see it through to completion with the community’s involvement.
Buckets & Borders has worked with local youth to overhaul various community basketball courts across Saskatchewan over the years – including a three-court outdoor restoration project at the mâmawêyatitân centre in North Central Regina last summer. Blue, pink and orange are the dominant colours.
After their project was incorporated as a non-profit in 2020, working to improve community courts became the focus.
Lee says Buckets & Borders was meant to be a fun side project, a way to play basketball around the world and document various cultures. He and his brother Brendan have since travelled to dozens of countries across Europe, Asia and South America, playing and interacting with local people.
“The game is growing across the country, but it can’t continue to grow if we don’t support it with new infrastructure,” says Lee.
“We really believe that wherever you play, basketball is something that brings people together,” says Lee. “We’ve played on courts with people who don’t speak “It’s just so meaningful seeing something the same language or have entirely that resonates so deeply with me being different backgrounds, but basketball carried out. It’s very uncommon that we all becomes the common language through get to do a job that we really like and enjoy, which people can share their passions so this is like a dream come true for me.” and have fun and make friends.”
For the Toronto court, the charity worked with 15 young people from the Rivertowne community on the colours and design.
“When we walk away, we want people to be proud of the court and take care of it, so that it becomes a hub for the community where people come together to share lunches and BBQs and dance and play basketball.” —
Gilbert Ngabo, sports reporter for the Toronto Star
This story originally ran in the Toronto Star on September 9, 2023. Reprinted with permission.
Pursuit | Winter 2024
29
Alumni Updates
Breaking the Ice
Generous hockey scholarship creates opportunities for women in sport
C
hris Wansbrough and his family support women who want to play hockey at the University of Toronto. A father of three daughters, a grandfather to nine children and a great-grandfather to three, Wansbrough says sports have always been a part of his family life.
“I played hockey when I was in University College, and we won the intramurals in 1955,” he remembers fondly. “My sister also played for years. She wore these fancy skates when she played and was great at lifting the puck.” Wansbrough says his daughter, Ruth, still plays up to three times a week and was instrumental in establishing the Betty and Chris Wansbrough Scholarship in Women’s Hockey – a fund that Ruth also supports in honour of her late mother.
30 pursuit.utoronto.ca
Today, the Betty and Chris Wansbrough Scholarship awards two female students with scholarships to play hockey at U of T. The number of scholarships will increase to four next year thanks to the family’s generosity, providing more deserving female athletes the opportunity to play the sport they love at Canada’s top university. “Women’s sport has historically been underfunded,” says Wansbrough. “While it has taken a great leap forward in the last 50 years, we want to make sure there is always a great future for women in sports.” Wansbrough has seen the impact of donations over the years. In the 1980s, he had strong ties to U of T as chair of the McLaughlin Foundation, which awarded fellowships to graduate students in medicine. In 2001, when the McLaughlin Foundation was winding down, it granted assets to U of T to
fund the McLaughlin Centre at the Faculty of Medicine, a renowned virtual research centre. Wansbrough was the recipient of an honorary degree in 2008 for his service in philanthropy. “I’ve seen U of T have great success in raising important funds for exceptional work,” he says. “For me, I wanted to be part of something where I could make a difference in the lives of young women who want the opportunity to play hockey at the university level and win a championship.” Last year, Wansbrough was asked to drop the puck at a game between U of T and York University. “I got to go out on the red carpet with my two-year-old great-grandson to drop the puck,” he says. “That’s one special day our family will always remember.” — Janet Gunn
Photo/ Courtesy of the Varsity Blues
Alumni Updates
Undisputed champion Donovan Bailey launches memoir at KPE alumni event
D
onovan Bailey set the 100m world record at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games when he ran a time of 9.84 seconds to become the world’s fastest man. A week later, Bailey helped Canada’s 4x100m relay team to another gold medal.
With seven gold and five silver medals to his name, Bailey has been inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame twice. But, while his athletic achievements have been well documented, the accounts of his life haven't always painted the full picture. “I wasn’t always in control of my story,” said Bailey at the recent KPE-hosted launch of his memoir, Undisputed: A Champion's Life. “With this book, I wanted to tell my life story through my lens.” Bailey touched on his experience growing up in Jamaica, his pride in his roots and his love of his family. “Sometimes you watch what’s being reported [in the media], and you see someone achieve something great, and the story is about the struggle, parents working three jobs, kids dodging bullets,” said Bailey. “I wanted to show that our stories are the same and that parents everywhere want to put their kids on the right path – and that path starts with education.” Photo/ Dewey Chang
Bailey said he felt grateful for the opportunity to launch his book at U of T to underscore his strong belief that education is the foundation of success. “Too often the focus is only on sports,” he said. Bailey studied economics at Sheridan College and played on the school’s basketball team. With a diploma in business administration, he started his own marketing and investment consulting business, occasionally entering sprint races. It wasn’t until 1993 that he joined the Canadian team at the World Championships in Athletics and started his sprint up the rankings. By 1996, he’d won two Olympic golds. Since retiring from athletics in 2001, Bailey has worked as a commentator for CBC, CTV and Eurosport, served as a board advisor for several companies and supported many charitable associations.
was always there to push me to be the best version of myself,” he said. Taking on responsibility was another important lesson his parents taught him. “My father bought a house in a good neighbourhood and worked 12 hours a day to pay for it,” he said. “My brothers and I learned from that.” Bailey’s message to the audience was to understand that life is full of ups and downs. “It’s important to appreciate your support system, your parents, coaches, friends … And, understand that at some point, if you want to do something, there has to be a Day One, and on that day, you have to make a commitment to yourself and do the work. There are no shortcuts.” Maya Ryan, a Varsity Blues sprinter and student of mental health sciences at U of T, thanked Bailey for inspiring generations of athletes. Ryan, who serves as the current chair of the BIPOC Varsity Association, said Bailey’s relentless pursuit of excellence has been a great source of motivation.
“I talk a lot about the importance of having a good support system,” said Bailey. “It’s hard to understand the stress that being an elite athlete puts on your body, but going home to my family, I always had a soft landing. I could recharge for a few days and “When you’re a sprinter, you have a true then get back to training and competitions.” appreciation of how difficult it is to get a gold medal,” she said. Growing up in Jamaica, Bailey says every single person that was successful All proceeds from the ticket sales of the looked like him, so he didn’t see himself event went to the Indigenous and Black any differently in Canada. “I always Student-Athlete Bursary at KPE. practised self-love because my family — JD
Pursuit | Winter 2024
31
Alumni Updates
PREHISTORIC Alumni and community gather for launch of new book on Toronto Raptors’ origin story and their impact on Toronto
T
he origin story of the Toronto Raptors – and the team’s subsequent impact on community-building in the GTA and beyond – is the subject of a new book by University of Toronto alum Alex Wong, who discussed the stories and themes from the Raptors’ rise at a launch party held at the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.
Alex Wong, producer and co-host of Canada’s most popular basketball podcast – The Raptors Show with Will Lou – delved into Prehistoric: The Improbable and Audacious Origin Story of the Toronto Raptors during a recent panel discussion hosted by the Faculty’s alumni and advancement team that featured key figures in the founding of the Raptors. “This is a story about the people who bonded over a common purpose: the launch of a professional basketball team,” said Wong. “But the core element of the book is community, which is at the core of basketball and is at the core of the Raptors.” Helping Wong tell the story – in the book and on the Goldring Centre stage – were John Bitove Jr., founder of the Toronto Raptors, David Peterson, founding chairman of the Raptors and U of T chancellor emeritus, and Tom O’Grady, designer of the team's original logo. “I got emotional over some of the passages in the book,” said
32 pursuit.utoronto.ca
Bitove. “When we started this venture, we believed in it, of course – we hoped that it would turn into something with a legacy. But when you see the positive impact the Raptors had on the community over the years, it’s really something.” Peterson, who was premier of Ontario from 1985 to 1990, said he had never even been to an NBA game when Bitove, who he described as a diehard basketball fan, approached him about putting in an ownership bid for the team. “I went home to my three kids and told them about this guy who wants to go after an NBA franchise and they said, ‘Do it, it’s more fun than politics,’ so the next day, I called John to say I’m in,” said Peterson. Asked to share how the team’s logo came about, Bitove said the goal was to come up with a design that was different, bold and had a global feel. To the delight of the audience, many of whom were decked out in Raptors gear, O’Grady shared a few slides showing the logo’s evolution. “The kids from the focus groups loved it,” said O’Grady. The audience also learned that the Raptor almost ended up being lime green, but the owners decided to go with red to highlight the team’s association with Canada. Photos/ Dewey Chang
From left to right: Alex Wong, John Bitove Jr., founder of the Toronto Raptors, and David Peterson, founding chairman of the Toronto Raptors
Alumni Updates
Joseph Wong, U of T’s vice president, international, and host of Joe’s Basketball Diaries – the second season of which launches soon – led another panel discussion that featured Shireen Ahmed, a sports journalist and activist; Sam Ibrahim, president of Arrow Group of Companies, co-founder of the Scarborough Shooting Stars and U of T supporter; and Tamara Tatham, head coach of the U of T Varsity Blues women’s basketball team. They spoke about their introduction to the Raptors, how they became devoted fans and where they were when the Raptors won the NBA championship in 2019.
Attendees packed U of T’s Goldring Centre to hear the origin story of the Toronto Raptors
KPE Dean Gretchen Kerr addressed the audience in the Goldring Centre
From left to right: Joseph Wong, Shireen Ahmed, Tamara Tatham and Sam Ibrahim
“I lived in Scarborough, and we knew the basketball court was a safe place,” said Ibrahim. “That’s the power of sport – to build relationships and communities.” “We spent all our time in the gym,” added Tatham, who started playing basketball in community centres, also in Scarborough.
Tom O’Grady, designer of the original Raptors’ logo
The design of the Raptors’ original logo aimed to be different, bold and project a global feel
While the pre-Raptors professional sports landscape in the GTA was dominated by hockey and baseball, the panel discussed how the accessibility of basketball and soccer carried more appeal to minority and immigrant communities.
When the Raptors came to town, Ibrahim, Tatham and Ahmed said they saw themselves reflected on the big court – and in the stands. “It’s one thing to talk about inclusivity, it’s another to do something about it,” said Ahmed, who noted the Raptors were the first NBA team to offer an athletic hijab for Muslim women. “The Raptors saw their communities, and they were intentional about making them all feel included.” Professor Gretchen Kerr, dean of KPE, said all proceeds from the ticket sales from the event would go to the Indigenous and Black Student-Athlete Bursary and described the evening as a “wonderful reminder and testament of the power of sport to bring people together and foster access and inclusion.” — JD
Pursuit | Winter 2024
33
Alumni Updates
Seeing through the clouds KPE alum applies holistic approach to study of autism
W
hen he was 16 years old, Patrick Jachyra was working a summer job at a Muskoka sleepaway camp for marginalized inner-city kids. One camper caught his attention: an eight-year-old boy who seemed to be more disconnected from his peers than the other kids. Six days in, he’d barely said a word, yet he was constantly getting into skirmishes with the older kids. “The counsellors kind of gave up on him, because of the behavioural issues,” Jachyra recalls.
One day Jachyra spotted this boy just lying in a field, looking up at the clouds. Jachyra went over, laid down next to the boy and started watching the clouds too. “And that’s what broke the ice,” Jachyra says. “We thought it was resistance, but really he was afraid and wanted to be at home more than he wanted to be at camp.” As the campers packed up to go home three days later, the boy told his new confidante that he was diagnosed with autism. “I had no idea what autism was,” Jachyra says. That was 2006. A lot has happened in the intervening 17 years – both in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research and in the life of Patrick Jachyra. That little aha moment in Muskoka, it turns out, would seed a distinguished academic career helping kids and young adults of all abilities reach their full potential. Jachyra is an assistant professor in the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Durham University in the UK and an affiliate scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, where he conducts research on physical activity and mental health prevention/intervention. (He also has a research appointment with the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of New South Wales in Australia.)
34 pursuit.utoronto.ca
It was from his perch in Durham – a bludger’s throw from Durham Cathedral, which stood in for Hogwarts School in the Harry Potter films – where Jachyra recently reflected on how you cannot ever really take the student out of the man. Pretty much everything he learned at the University of Toronto – as a pupil, researcher, course instructor, varsity athlete and varsity coach in KPE – shaped his professional and personal development. His time with KPE supplied him with breakthrough insights into advocating for people diagnosed with ASD. These ideas are both helping neurodivergent folks lead fuller lives and helping everyone else think about ASD differently. In his doctoral research at U of T’s Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, Jachyra delved into a vexing question: why are people diagnosed with ASD far less active than the general population? Why, in the sweaty game of life, are they so often on the sidelines? “The assumption used to be that it was a merely biological thing, or a motivational thing,” Jachyra says. The truth is far more complicated. The social dimension is at least as important as the physiological and neurological ones. Multiple factors – from parent burnout to faulty assumptions about capability – mean autistic kids don’t get the same opportunities as others. “We’re failing these kids systemically,” Jachyra says. And also failing them by not recognizing that what looks like a bug can sometimes be a feature. Jachyra has developed a holistic view of disability – a movement-based learning approach that ties together body, mind and community. Photo/ iStock
“I had no idea what autism was. Seeing the boy just lying in the grass, we thought it was resistance, but really he was afraid.”
These days no one needs convincing that exercise is a key part of a healthy life, but for people diagnosed — Patrick Jachyra with ASD, movement is perhaps an even more potent ingredient in the mix. Movement has the potential to mitigate some ASD symptoms and behavioural challenges, and it can trigger powerful feedback loops that yield huge gains in multiple areas such as brain function. Jachyra stops just a whisker short of calling movement a therapeutic elixir. “I think it’s a tool,” he says, “and all the research shows we need to incorporate it in various ways.” Perplexingly, given all we know about its benefits for people diagnosed with ASD, “physical activity is at the bottom of the barrel” in terms of priority and funding in school and health care systems Jachyra is on a mission to fix that. In 2015, he created a community program for youth with ASD, which he called the Extraordinary Youth Council. Across the Greater Toronto Area he beamed his bat signal: “Come out. Be active. Learn how to cook. Learn how to take transit …” Five people showed up to the first class. Then word spread. By the time Jachyra stepped back four years later, in 2019, there were 45 people coming out routinely, and Jachyra was given a University of Toronto Award of Excellence, one of the University’s most prestigious awards, first established in 1921.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Jachyra saw how hard the lockdowns were on kids and young people diagnosed with ASD, so he created something called “Fit Friday,” a virtual fitness class with a continuously refreshing rotation of exercises. People joined in not just from Toronto but from places around the world as distant as Finland and the UK to participate on a weekly basis. At the same time, Jachyra partnered with Special Olympics Ontario to run a Special Olympics event across the province – part online, part in person – which saw some 160 kids recruited from special education classes.
Alumni Updates a reputation as something of a superhero, as deft at handling noisy data as he was at handling line drives at third base on the Varsity Blues baseball team – a team he would go on to coach.
“The ratio is always the same: two parts listening to one part talking,” says Jachyra. “You don’t impose systems on people. As a teacher/coach, you are the one doing the dance backwards because you are not leading. You are at best a co-creator, taking the desires you see in your students and giving them shape. It’s all about grokking the big picture.” For that particular skill, Jachyra credits a couple of KPE professors. One was Professor Michael Atkinson, his second-year professor of statistics and research methods who went on to be Jachyra’s master’s thesis adviser as well. “He pushed me to do novel things in research,” Jachyra says. “He was pretty much beside me all the way as I came full circle – student, graduate student, researcher – [he was my] reference for my position in the UK and now [he’s my] colleague, mentor and friend.” A second mentor was former KPE dean Ira Jacobs, who “has always pushed the boundaries of what KPE stands for. It’s not just about physiology. His tagline was: ‘Human anatomy to human rights.’ And that really inspired me to look at the interconnections between individuals and society together, rather than falling into the trap of thinking of the body, brain and society as individual components.” In June 2023, Jachyra won a UK-wide Disability in Sport Champion award for his work with disabled youth and adults. “Part of the reason I’ve roamed so far in my research is that KPE gave me that opportunity to read widely, and question broadly, and also have the opportunity to fail, right?” Only a kinesiology faculty the size and breadth of KPE could offer enough approaches, which can then be scaled up and applied to life. The best leaders, it turns out, don’t just have expertise in their subject area. They have range.
“Social change is hard, as we know, but one way is on a grassroots level by trying to impact individual lives. So that is where I have been spending a lot of my energy.”
And empathy.
By the time he left the U of T in 2021, Jachyra had developed
Because, ultimately, we’re all just lying down next to each other Pursuit | Winter 2024
35
Replay
A timeline of Clara Benson’s career
Clara Benson
The trailblazer behind the Benson Building’s name H
ave you ever wondered about the woman behind the name of the Clara Benson Building?
Both as a student and faculty member of U of T in the early 20th century, the Canadian chemist blazed a red-hot trail for women in the sciences and athletics. Among Benson’s many achievements, she was one of the first two women to earn a doctorate at U of T and become a professor there; her chemical methodologies were adopted by munitions factories during the First World War; and she played a huge role in developing U of T’s women’s athletics program, serving as president of the Women’s Athletic Association from 1921 until her retirement in 1945. As a student, she had been involved in University College’s athletics program as a member of the women’s fencing club (1895) and a charter member of the golf club (1898). However, her main contribution came later as a high-profile academic who believed strongly in women’s athletics.
1885: Majored in math, chemistry and physics at University College, one year after the school first began admitting female students. 1899: Became the first woman to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry and immediately began pursuing a PhD. 1903: Graduated with a PhD in Chemistry – one of the first two women to earn a doctorate from U of T. With few jobs available to a woman with her credentials, she became a food science demonstrator at U of T’s Lillian Massey School of Domestic Science and Art. 1906: Was promoted to associate professor at U of T. 1914–18: Discovered that the chemical properties of food and explosives could be analyzed using the same process; her methodologies were adopted by munitions laboratories during the First World War. 1920: With her contemporary, Annie Laird, Benson became one of U of T’s first two female professors. 1921: Became president of U of T’s Women’s Athletic Association; she held the position until her retirement. 1945: Retired from U of T. 1959: The Benson Building is named in Clara’s honour.
“Benson was a political and administrative leader, and her ability to persuade the male senior leadership of the value of women’s athletics for more than 40 years – amid all sorts of financial and gender-based challenges – was considered so vital to the growth of women’s athletics that the women’s leadership considered it appropriate to name the new women’s athletic building in her honour,” says Paul Carson, retired sports information director at U of T. The next time you stride through the doors of the Clara Benson Building, give a nod to the woman who created new possibilities at U of T – for everyone. — Heather Hudson
36 pursuit.utoronto.ca
Clara Benson unveiling plaque at the opening ceremonies for the Women's Athletic Centre, 1959. Photo/ Eric Trussler Photos/ University of Toronto Archives
JOIN ME. LEAVE A LEGACY. PETER BAXTER says KPE, where he got his Bachelor of Physical and Health Education in 1982, was an integral part of the person he became and the career that took him so far. In his 23 years as Director of Athletics and Recreation at Wilfrid Laurier, he saw first-hand how financial support from alumni can greatly impact the student experience. Baxter has chosen to leave a legacy gift in his will to support KPE students in financial need. You can do the same. By planning your bequest now, you can ensure that our academic, research and athletics programs continue to grow and evolve for the benefit of future generations.
“My wife Wendy and I taught our kids the importance of giving back, and we do our best to follow our family mission statement: Live with courage, compassion and empathy and serve others. This Faculty gave me the ability to think critically and work collaboratively, work experience, references, financial aid and a place to call home. It’s important to me that I pay it forward – particularly to those who need it most.”
To learn more or to discuss making a planned gift to the Faculty or a Varsity Blues team, please contact
Tania Donald, Senior Development Officer, Advancement, tania.donald@utoronto.ca, 416-946-5125. Pursuit | Winter 2024
37
Back where it all began. Our U of T days were full of new experiences, and Alumni Reunion 2024 is a chance to create more. Come back this spring to catch up with friends, meet new people and learn something cool together. It’s five fun days of tri-campus activities, including special events at the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education. We can’t wait to see you at the biggest alumni gathering of the year.
Save the date for Alumni Reunion 2024! May 29–June 2 Learn more: alumnireunion.utoronto.ca
PUBLICATION MAILING AGREEMENT #40065214 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO:
Pursuit
55 Harbord Street Toronto, Ontario M5S 2W6