Nancy Dubuc Quotes

When I was growing up, there were very few women athletes. I remember watching Olga Corbett, but Peggy Fleming and Janet Lynn were my role models. I never dreamt that I could be at that level. I remember thinking they seemed so elegant and regal and powerful and feminine.

Growing up, I looked up to major league baseball players, and now these young women have amazing, incredible women all across the board, from swimming to gymnastics to softball to basketball.

In the seventies we had to make it acceptable for people to accept girls and women as athletes. We had to make it okay for them to be active. Those were much scarier times for females in sports.

The women's national team is a very successful team, and that success has given us a platform to speak on gender equity issues. Millions of young women play soccer in this country, and it's empowering for them to see that our contribution to the game is valued.

Women today are respected as athletes now and that's a really cool thing to see.

People were not even knowing that women's cricket existed. And from that phase to today where people would want to follow women's cricket, I think we have come a long way.

I'm enormously proud that I can do a deal with the National Women's Soccer League to showcase the power and passion of women athletes as positive role models, not only for my daughter but also for my son.

People will say, 'Who are your role models, and who are your pioneers?' And the first person that comes to my mind is Billie Jean King because we didn't have women that we could watch when I was growing up.

In my opinion, Jackie is the greatest female athlete ever.

All our lives are enriched by the leadership and excellence and confidence of female athletes, whether the Mia Hamms and Maya Moores we know or the field hockey, lacrosse and track and field athletes we do not necessarily know.

Women's sports is still in its infancy. The beginning of women's sports in the United States started in 1972, with the passage of Title 9 for girls to finally get athletic scholarships.

When I was really young, the women's national team wasn't on a grand media stage, so my role models were male basketball and male American football players.

When I was growing up, you didn't know there was a women's national team. Now girls grow up dreaming of playing for Canada.

Growing up in the time of Title IX - it was passed when I was 10 - I got a front-row seat to so many great moments in women's sports. Of course I didn't know it at the time.

I don't care how many championships you've won or how many records you've broken - if you've had a hand in pushing forward not only a game but women in sport's movement, then I think that's pretty darn good.

Can you do inter-gender matches? Ronda Rousey and our match at Wrestlemania - sure, it can be done. Women don't need a man in their match to steal the show. They just need an equal platform and opportunity, and if the women have it, they will work just as hard, if not harder, than anybody else to steal that show.

I have done and want to do roles that portray women in a strong light and inspire those women who think they are weak and helpless.

It's a dream that we, as women footballers, get to play in the same stadium as the men.

I wanted this title to matter, I wanted women's wrestling to matter.

All of us follow men's cricket because we want at some point that women's cricket would be up there.

I think obviously the media need to help promote the game and make it bigger so the younger girls have women role models to look up to and try and aspire to instead of just male footballers.

Here I am just trying to fund myself to play a sport, but the greater picture is that I'm a female athlete really pushing the envelope for women in sports.

To see how far female wrestling has come is just inspiring and incredible.

I think that what's happening is that girls are enjoying playing. It's a lot more acceptable, and now we have a Women's Super League with hugely dedicated female role models - really committed players who people can see are dedicated and training as hard if not harder than any male players - that's all progressing the sport.

Women are stepping up, they are performing, they are showing that we are athletes as well and we deserve the attention we are getting.