MVP Winner
Jeane Lassen
Weightlifting
What inspired me to start weightlifting
of all sports? I think it was a combination of me wanting to
try all the sports available at my Jr. High School and the fact
that the training hours got me out of washing dishes at home.
I always loved playing pick-up soccer and street hockey or basically
just running around like a kamikaze. I only got into organized
sports at eleven, which is a bit late I guess. I know that being
involved in team sports and physical activity is a great way
to develop a girl's self-confidence, but I think what does it
best is simply playing. My mom had me when she was sixteen so
we weren't exactly "well off". I never did gymnastics
(and I felt like the only girl in the world) or hockey (I asked
every year). Even seemingly "cheap" sports like soccer
had registration fees and shin pad requirements.
I grew up around a lot of boy cousins. My mom may not have driven
me to any early morning practices, but she pushed me out the
door and told me to play. Go play with my cousins. She never
told me not to get dirty or be careful. She never expected me
to be any less skilled then them. So, before I got involved
in organized sports, I just burned around the park with the
guys and a ball or whatever.
My sports career has been by no means a smooth ride. Moving
away from home at seventeen, trying for the Olympics, qualifying
for the Olympics, not going to the Olympics… When you start
competing at an elite level sometimes you forget what it's like
just to play and you can get tied up in all the tiny details
and complication that exist in life and sport. I am very lucky
to have a supportive family in the Yukon and a great circle
of friends where I go to school, in Montreal. My boyfriend is
equally in love with playing sports and he's cool because he
doesn't mind loosing to a girl when we play one-on-one. He also
now understands why I don't take it as a compliment when someone
says "you're good for a girl". If only every one understood
that, so many girls wouldn't have these self-fulfilling prophecies
preventing them from succeeding in sport and physical activity.
Receiving the Girls@Play MVP grant
will help me travel to the Yukon for the Western Canadian Weightlifting
Championships, a qualification meet for the Pan American Games
and CIAU World Weightlifting Championships.
Thank You for the support and encouragement,
Jeane Lassen
