Clara lines up to practice heading a ball with the girls
Life After Olympic Gold! Once inspired, Clara Hughes is now a global inspiration
The first half of 2006 has been a hectic time for Clara Hughes. Anyone who saw the Canadian Olympic cyclist and speed skater lying flat out on the ice at the Turin Olympics, exhausted from the strain of her gold medal performance in the 5,000 metres, can be forgiven for thinking she was totally spent and had nothing left to give.
They would be wrong, of course. It turned out Clara Hughes was just getting started.
On the morning of her race, Hughes turned on the television and soon saw a documentary on Right To Play staring back at her. The footage showed joyous children playing in Right To Play programs in Africa. For the 33-year-old Winnipeg native, a Right To Play Athlete Ambassador since 2003, it was a life-changing experience hitting home. Moved and motivated by the children’s courage and happiness, Hughes turned in a remarkable performance later in the day to capture her first Olympic gold medal.
Would she have won without the inspiration of the children’s smiling faces? It’s a moot question now, but we know this much for sure: In the four and a half months since, Hughes has more than returned their favour.
Once inspired, Clara Hughes is now a global inspiration.
After the race, Hughes announced she was giving $10,000 of her own money to Right To Play and challenged everyone back home to follow suit. It was the faces of the kids she saw plus the example set by U.S. speed skater Joey Cheek that led her to make her public statement of support. Pulled along by her example, Canadians young and old followed her lead and have since come together to raise more than $400,000 for the Clara Hughes Challenge.
Hughes, meanwhile, was determined to see for herself after the Olympics what Right To Play programs were doing for the children on the ground. Along with Canadian cross country skier Beckie Scott and five other Olympians, Hughes visited Right To Play programs in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in late May.
“I played volleyball with a group of young girls who two years ago could not communicate because they are hearing impaired,” she said afterward. “They’re being taught sign language and they’re playing sport. I had young boys tell me in Ethiopia that before Right to Play, girls weren’t allowed to play sports.”
Clara Hughes waits in line while playing with children in Ethiopia
In Hughes’s diary of her trip, she wrote: “What stands out the most is the opportunities that Right To Play’s sport and play programs give to the children. It was clear that without Right To Play, the disadvantaged and disabled children we visited would not have the same opportunities to evolve, change, gain confidence, experience a sense of security and belonging…The children and coaches we met were not thinking about what they don’t have and what they cannot do – they just made it work. Seeing this, I wish and hope that Canadians at home can see it too and be as inspired as I am inspired by their beauty and courage.”
The day after Hughes returned from Ethiopia, she and Scott were front and center at ceremonies for the first-ever Right To Play Day in Toronto, where they talked about their Ethiopia trip and helped promote the new Right To Play Canadian school program, which encourages students to get active and helps them think about children in other parts of the world. Hughes and Scott jointly threw out the first pitch that night on Right To Play Night with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Hughes and Scott also recently agreed to join Ralph Lean of Cassels Brock & Blackwell as co-chairs of Right To Play’s Canadian Advisory Board, a step that will inject their enthusiasm, passion and wisdom into Right To Play’s awareness and fundraising campaigns for years to come.
But Hughes wasn’t done. At a gala dinner celebration in Calgary on June 26, sponsored by ARC Energy Trust, ARC Resources and ARC Financial, Hughes was set to talk about ‘The Jacket’ in hopes of pushing her challenge to Canadians even higher. ‘The Jacket’ is a Canadian Olympic jacket donated by physiotherapist Lorrie Maffey that was signed by more than 100 Canadian Olympians who were at the closing ceremonies in Turin. Kicked off by a generous “rental” donation from Jim Hume of the Kahanoff Foundation, the jacket will serve as an inspirational fundraiser for Right To Play from Turin to Vancouver 2010 and Hughes will come speak to corporations or individuals who “rent the jacket” to continue its incredible legacy.
