TORONTO—Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) women's volleyball players Elise Pridmore and Rian Lenarduzzi recently had the opportunity to attend the inaugural OUA Women in Sport Summit. 

The On the Rise: Women in Sport Summit took place on May 13th and 14th, bringing together more than 40 female student-athletes from across the province. The first of its kind, the two-day summit welcomed student-athlete leaders from across OUA schools who are interested in pursuing careers around sport. Over the course of the event, attendees heard from speakers, and participated in various leadership workshops and networking opportunities. 
 

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Pridmore serves as an academic mentor for varsity athletes at TMU and is a head instructor in youth sport programming. Lenarduzzi is a member of the Bold Women's Giving Collective, an initiative built to help support the next generation of female athletes.
 

Bold Lead Digital Content Assistant Lauren Croth spoke with Pridmore about her experience attending the summit.

Croth: "What was your reaction when you found out you would be attending the inaugural OUA Women in Sport Summit?"

Pridmore: "I honestly was super honored that I was invited. I was really excited and also nervous because I knew all the people who would be attending the event were also seen as leaders or had impactful roles at their varsity schools so I honestly was just gonna take this opportunity and just go for it. And although I was nervous to attend, I was really honored by the school and our athletic department."

Croth: "Going into the event, what were you hoping to gain from the experience?"

Pridmore: "I honestly was super open to it. I feel like as I've gotten more involved being on the mentor side of athletics and then being part of a lot of the initiatives that our team does and a lot of community engagement things, I feel like I've been kind of gaining more insight on the world of sport. And I honestly was super interested in networking and hearing from a lot of other people who work in that industry to see if this is something that I actually would want to go forward with in my career, and so I honestly was really excited to broaden my scope on that and make some connections that can help me in the future."

Croth: "What was the atmosphere like being surrounded by so many women involved in sport from across Ontario?"

Pridmore: "It was honestly super positive and very welcoming. I mean, that's what you always think, but you can't help, like, sometimes going to these events and being nervous. But when I first even entered the conference area, everyone was super welcoming and super open to meeting new people, and we got to connect right away in our first workshop that we did. I feel like the atmosphere was very positive. It was very moving forward in the future of women in sport, and it was all about growth, positivity, and connecting with one another, building a community that we could all connect on being female athletes. So, I feel like it was just very eye-opening to the positive culture that we could all bring together."
 

Croth: "Was there a particular speaker, panel, or session that resonated with you the most? Why?"

Pridmore: "One of [the speakers] was Melissa Bishop-Nriagu, and she was on Team Canada for track and field…She ended up going to the Olympics after training really hard."

"In her second Olympics, during her race she was in second place almost the whole time, but while coming up to the last stretch she got passed and dropped to third. Then in the final 15 metres, she got passed again. She said she was crying and felt like a failure and talked about how people see something like that and think, 'You went to the Olympics, you were in the final, you were competing for a medal,' but it just shows that everyone feels those moments differently. You can be a professional athlete and still feel those losses so deeply and feel like a failure."

"Little did she know, she had broken the Canadian record. She talked about 'failing forward,' putting a positive mindset on failure and looking at the positive outcomes that can come from something you feel so deeply in the moment. Looking back, she said that moment ended up being one of the biggest rewards. I really connected with that as an athlete. Whether it's coming back from injuries or losing a game you feel you could have won. That message really resonated with me."

Croth: "What was your biggest takeaway from the summit?"

Pridmore: "Not everyone is going to go to the Olympics and not everyone is going to be a pro athlete, but there are so many things you can continue doing after varsity. For me, it was very inspirational, seeing people who started where I am and how they came up with an idea or gained the resume to work at a big company. Everything's possible and if you grow your network, like this event allowed us to do, I could definitely see myself going into sports after this."

Croth: "Did attending the event change the way you view leadership as a student-athlete? If so, how?"

Pridmore: "I think so, only because I feel like you know you never want to say, 'Oh I think I'm a leader,' you know what I mean? I've never really felt like that. It's more just based on your personality and how your teammates may see you or things that you just do. And you're not doing it because you think you're gonna get a title or something like that, but you're doing it because it's for the better of the team. I feel like that was always my mindset going forward. But I think meeting a lot of female leaders in front of me and seeing a lot of qualities made me think, like, I want to do that. It broadened my scope of what I want to bring back to my team in my final fifth year and just the culture we want to bring to our team." 

Croth: "What was it like connecting with female student-athletes and sport leaders from across Ontario?"

"I said this to one [of the fellow OUA athletes] at the banquet dinner that we're all very similar. Although we all play different sports and come from different schools, we all have that similar personality. Obviously not everyone's extroverted, not everyone's introverted, but in a way we all have that same drive of working towards a goal. So I think we're all very driven people who are at this event… Everyone was just very open to the unique experience that we were all invited to, being the first summit."

Croth: "How do you plan to apply what you learned from the summit within the TMU athletics community?"

Pridmore: "We learned a little bit about sponsorships, even though obviously in the OUA and U Sports we don't have that the same way they do in the U.S. But we learned a lot about what you can do that doesn't go against the OUA and U Sports guidelines when it comes to sponsorships and working with partners, trying to grow your brand of a student athlete."

"Also, being at the OUA banquet awards for the first night and seeing the people who won their community engagement awards or people who won excellence awards that weren't just about their sport. Obviously there are Athlete of the Year awards, but we also got to hear speeches from athletes talking about the things that they did for their community and things that made a big impact on their life. That would be a great thing to bring back to TMU."

Croth: "What does the future of OUA women's sports look like to you after attending this event?"

Pridmore: "I see it in such a positive upwards direction now that this event has happened. I feel like before, obviously everyone's trying to really empower women in sports especially with leagues like the WNBA and PWHL coming into the mix now. But in terms of U Sports and specifically the OUA, I think this event has put more eyes on women. A lot of us who were there connected on LinkedIn and have been posting about this event, which has opened it up to so many more people. I feel like this was a very good start to what will hopefully be a positive future for women's sports."