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Archive Record
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Metadata
Object ID |
2023.22.6 |
Object Name |
Video Recording |
Title |
Judy Kent Interview |
Scope & Content |
Judy Kent interview, 2021. Born digital MP4, viewing time 00:16:22. Transcript: Carly Agro: I am so excited to be joined by Judy Kent. Judy, when I was going through your resume and your career, I was thinking about how I was going to introduce you and I realized that I might need a little while. You have quite a resume. I'm going to refer to you as an athlete, a coach, a trailblazer, a leader, a speaker, an author, a builder, and also an artist. So thank you so much, first and foremost for taking the time to join us. And secondly, congratulations on being inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame as a Builder. Judy Kent: Thank you very much. And I'm so honoured to be selected for induction and with all of the amazing people that are already in the Sports Hall of Fame family, and I appreciate you taking the time as well. Thank you. Carly Agro: Well, I'm so excited that I get the chance to chat with you and also to introduce people to you and the incredible work that you've done, because I feel like so much of what you've done, people would maybe even need a little bit of a backstage pass to see. So I'm hoping that in our conversation today, we can kind of peel the curtain back and tell everybody a little bit about what you've been involved with and the reason why you're being inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. And I want to give you the chance to tell everybody a little bit about you, where you're from, where you grew up, and what sort of initially connected you to sport in Canada. Judy Kent: Well, I was born in Alberta, grew up in, from mid-junior school up, in Ontario. I was always just very athletic, I loved sport. I was offered piano lessons, which I traded away and did dishes instead of. And I went to school, but I went to school so I could play sport after school. I don't know, it was just something that was within me, that I loved. And I played sport through all, I played everything, everything that I could. And ultimately I ended up more involved with swimming. And that happened because I went to, in grade 11, they send you to Ontario Athletic Leadership Camp and they grade you. And I was an A, everything except swimming and I couldn't swim, I'd never swam, and I went into whatever it was, Z, like pre beginner. And so when I went home from camp, I immediately asked my father, I'm grade 11, to take me to the swimming pool and that was it. I was hired to be the basket checker and by the end of the month I took my bronze medallion and just moved on in swimming. I did synchronized, I did all the lifesaving and I swam. And it became, it was, it's a career that I followed all the way through as a volunteer. Carly Agro: Let's talk now about why the hall is recognizing you, this Builder category. You have literally traveled the world, at least from the research that I've done. You've literally been on every single continent trying to make sport better. So tell me where and how you got started in this sort of behind-the-scenes role about developing sports in Canada, in other countries and also in event planning that you do. Judy Kent: Mm-hmm. Well, I taught at McMaster University in Hamilton, and I got very involved with the National Coaching Certification program when it came out and ended up being master trainer for Ontario and then doing the training for all of the provinces. And then came into working in the high performance unit of Sport Canada when I left the university. And so that gave me a whole venue, at Sport Canada, I was in the high performance unit and we were really focusing on having a strong performance at the Calgary Winter Olympics in '88. And we did, our little unit of five, we did sort of strategic planning with all the Winter Olympic sports, and it gave me a lot of choices of areas that I wanted to work in. So that was a shift. And then I left Sport Canada and I opened my own consulting firm, the primary base was sport organizations at the time. And around that time I wrote a manual on applied strategic planning, and that was really focused on the not-for-profit, from community to national level. And that just sort of went all over the world, and I ended up, that kind of led me to the international stuff that I did. And I think the reason I did that book was we had so many, we were pretty nascent in our sport in Canada at that time, we had the '76 Olympics, which really showed we weren't ready. And a lot of the things that happened over the sort of next 20 years were pretty amazing in building a foundation for sport in Canada. Carly Agro: So when we look at a modern day Canadian Olympic Committee or when we talk about the Commonwealth Games, are there things within those organizations that you can look at now and say, "I did that," or that you've kind of put your stamp on, that you can recognize? Judy Kent: Yeah. Carly Agro: And what kind of things, give us some behind-the-scenes details, is there a specific example or a program maybe that you started that still exists today or something that you really helped put your thumbprint on? Judy Kent: Mm-hmm. Well, I think that there's several. I think my original work with National Coaching Certification Program, because I'd just come from the university, I basically wrote, with input from many other talented people, but wrote the theory manuals and the course conductor manuals. And I worked with the minister's task force on sport to complete sport the way ahead, which was sort of our directional piece for a number of years. And I think within Commonwealth Games and within the Federation particularly, when I went to the first Commonwealth Games where I was Assistant Chef, in Auckland in 1990, and I was the only woman at any of the meetings, and I ended up wanting to promote the inclusion of athletes with disability. So I went to the Australian Chef de Mission to lobby him, and he just looked at me and said, "Oh, trust Canada to send a broad." And I'd never experienced that kind of dismissal really. Anyway, in through the Commonwealth Games, that gave me a real venue. I was the first Chef, I was the first woman president, I was the first woman on international, on one of the committees. And because I was the only woman, it was great, our president used to, at the meeting, say, oh, "Good morning, gentlemen, and Judy," and I lived like that for a number of years, but it meant that I really was, people saw me as a woman, they didn't see me as a sports person. And I had great many learnings from that, but it also gave me a platform to build, to educate, to show that I'm not a woman first, I'm a person, as are they. I'm not black or white. And I did a lot in that, I think, to really rebalance our kind of old White male model that we had running international sport. Carly Agro: And you've done a lot, in the same way that you've advocated for women, you've done a lot to help develop sport at the youth level. So can you tell me a little bit about what your work has been like in trying to improve things for younger generations? Judy Kent: Well, I think that I did more work on that, really on the recreational side of sport, the participation. And a lot of it focused on children and youth living in poverty and immigrants, people that don't have access. We still, if we look at sport in Canada, there's a huge number of people that really are not, they either don't have access, they don't have the capacity, or they're not welcome. And I think that, again, that's just part of what I think. I think Canada is a fair and just nation that values and respects everyone, and it was something was I could do, I had the skills to do. And by that point, I had the status that I could. Today we've got influencers to buy certain clothes, I was an influencer at that time within sport, so I could do it, and I believed it needed to be done, and I found some good partners and buddies to help. Carly Agro: You're an OG influencer. I like it, Judy. So I also wanted to ask you, something that I've tried to do or get better at as I grow in my career and in my life is learn from my mistakes. And sometimes it's hard because you have to learn things, at least I'm stubborn, so I have to learn things sometimes the hard way. I almost have to do it wrong first before I get it right. But is there, when you look back on your career, is there a lesson that you've learned from, or maybe something that didn't go so right, where you made sure that you did it better the next time? Judy Kent: Yes. And this is a long thread, but I think the example I told you about the Australian chef calling me a broad. When I went to my first International Commonwealth Games Federation meeting, Prince Edward, who was our royal president, he was thrilled because there was a woman there, and they're very egalitarian, the British royals. And he took me, he wanted me to go to lunch. I go to lunch, there's three countries, three men there. They're all men there, who just ignore me. He introduces me, they just ... I'm like I don't exist. And I felt they were wrong, and I was angry and resentful. I didn't show it. But I, at that point, believed that all of my values, my beliefs, my perceptions were fact, and I didn't have the empathy to understand that they came from completely different cultural backgrounds. And I remember this guy from Singapore who just pushed me out of the way to go through the door first, and I wanted to hit him, actually. But I thought, and I learned, and I made some mistakes along that path. I tried to be too pushy. I tried to make them see how they were wrong, and it wasn't fair to treat me like that. And then I realized, no, I need to walk in their shoes. And once I got that lesson learned, the next part of my life was much easier. My forehead wasn't nearly as flat, banging it against the wall. And I became, within three years, those guys that ignored me would come up and say, "Judy, will you make this point for us at the meeting?" Because English was my first language and I could be more articulate. And they then saw me as a person, not as a woman, but as long as I was standing there with my fist in the air, hammering them about how wrong they were in their values, I wasn't getting anywhere. So it was a great life lesson, and it's something that has just helped me through everything. It doesn't have to be gender. We are all people. We all have the same blood in our veins. And all of this, if somebody's different, then I'm suspicious or resentful or lack trust, what a waste, what a waste of what we're doing with this beautiful earth and life. Carly Agro: Well, and it's lessons like that, that you're teaching all of us, that I think are a big reason why you're going to be inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. But if you can give us maybe some parting words, or if you look back on your illustrious career, that is still going full steam ahead, I might add, what do you look back on and smile about? What are you the most proud of? Is there an event or a speech or maybe it was a conversation that stays with you the most, that you remember the most fondly? Judy Kent: Can I give you two things? Carly Agro: Sure. Judy Kent: One's just ego. When I was Chef de Mission for Canada, for the Commonwealth Games, and they were home in Canada. And just to lead the parade with 50,000 people cheering for Canada, it was an enormously emotional person for everyone. And any athlete there or team member would say that, particularly when they're at home. But more importantly, that's just ego, and it was waving and walking around. I decided to retire in 2008, and then I was contacted by Coaching Association of Canada to help them out on something they were doing in the Middle East, which was, there was a new organization, Generations for Peace, that had been founded by Prince Faisal Al Hussein. And so I started working with them and I had to kind of rewrite a curriculum and work with some people, and it was all on Skype. And at the end of a few months, I'd done the curriculum and I was the only person who knew it, and so I became lead facilitator. And I did that for eight years after that, and we trained thousands of people. It was focused on using sport as a vehicle for peace building. We brought people from Rwanda and Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bosnia, all the war torn countries, and we trained them in using sport and the power of sport to gather people together and to hopefully transform their perceptions of the people they're in conflict with. So that allowed me, talk about a summary to a career, I wrote materials, I facilitated, I mentored a number of the stars so that they are now running the program around the world. And I loved it. And then it was time for me to retire because I wanted those younger leaders and those leaders from war torn countries and stuff, I always felt a bit of a fraud going over and doing this conflict transformation and peace building and coming back to little Prince Edward County. Anyway, but I was wonderful. That would be the highlight, the summary and the highlight of my career. Carly Agro: Well, Judy, thank you so much for sharing the highlights of your career with us. And I can't think of anyone, a leader like yourself that deserves the recognition in the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. You've been a builder, and I think you've meant so much more than just that word to the people who not only participate in sport in Canada, but who hold it in such high regard. So thank you for all the differences that you've made and that your work is going to continue to make and for taking the time with us today. Judy Kent: Thank you, Carly. Thank you very much for those very generous words. |
People |
Kent, Judy |
Search Terms |
Judy Kent Chef de Mission 1994 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Association President Women in Sport Order of Merit DEI Diversity Equity Inclusion Advocacy |