Cynthia Appiah, Olympic bobsledder, speaks at a Canadian Olympic Committee event in Calgary about her advocacy for racialized women in sports. Cynthia Appiah/Supplied

Cynthia Appiah never imagined herself becoming an Olympic bobsledder. Growing up in Toronto Community Housing as the child of Ghanaian immigrants, she didn’t dream of steering a fiberglass sled down an icy track at breakneck speeds. But her journey through sport has given her a platform to champion equal opportunities for women, especially racialized women, in athletics.

“My family comes from a low socioeconomic background in Ghana, and since I was able to elevate myself through sport, I wanted to find a way to bridge that gap and give back to the international community,” she says. No wonder, then, that she jumped at the chance to partner with Plan International Canada as a Celebrated Ambassador.

“Plan [took] note of my interest in equal opportunities for women in sports. Their work with girls and women specifically aligns with how my athletic career has progressed. I’ve used my platform to champion initiatives that involve girls, especially in the Canadian landscape,” she says.

She’s far from the only player to take on philanthropic work. Pro athletes have long supported charities with their time and money. However, Appiah is part of a newer cohort of athletes who are publicly promoting various charities, and in some ways acting as de facto influencers for social causes. Fellow Canadians Bianca Andreescu and Alphonso Davies are just two other examples of athletes who are lending their voices and platforms to various organizations. Andreescu has been open about her own mental health, and has partnered with Tennis Canada on Mental Timeout, an initiative aimed at improving wellbeing for all tennis players in Canada, since its inception in 2022. Meanwhile, soccer star Alphonso Davies has supported UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, for the past four years.

Appiah’s primary reason for taking on philanthropic work is to help Canadians recognize the barriers girls and women face both here and around the world, and to inspire them to take action in support of gender equality. So, she’s admittedly wary of thinking about her partnership with Plan Canada through the lens of brand building.

“It’s definitely not to try and expand my brand. I feel like being an athlete at the Olympic level kind of does that on its own,” she says. “So, I go back to that role model piece, since Canadian athletes are thrust into the spotlight. It’s important to me to make sure I am not engaging in hollow partnerships, but to ensure that I use my platform in a way where I know I’ll have a meaningful impact.”

Of course, there are reputational benefits to publicly standing for a cause. “It helps build the equity in their brand, and also indirectly allows for promotion of their own initiatives,” says Vijay Setlur, a marketing instructor at Schulich School of Business at York University, adding that ambassador roles for charities can also be an opportunity for self-expression.

“It’s an opportunity for them to increase their authenticity,” he says. “One of the key trends in athlete marketing these days is a desire to express themselves. They [don’t tend to be] yes men and yes women who will just take a paycheque and say whatever you want them to say. They actually want to have more creative control and creative license on what they do and what they support.”

Still, Appiah says the most important aspect of her work with Plan Canada is the promise of giving back, and inspiring others to join her.

“To be honest, I didn’t know how my partnership with a global humanitarian organization would resonate with my supporters,” she says. “But, I hoped that my audiences could see themselves in wanting to provide humanitarian support, and if they were in a position to lend a giving hand, then they would. Pass it forward when it’s your turn to help, [because] I know we Canadians have a giving spirit.”

Stacy Lee Kong
The Globe and Mail, December 2, 2024