Player's Own Voice podcast: A year like no other for COC president Tricia Smith

Tricia Smith, president of the Canadian Olympic Committee, has presided over a four-year cycle for which there is no precedent.

Smith was at the helm when Canada put athlete health ahead of 'compete at any cost' thinking and bowed out of the Tokyo Olympics, which helped tip the international decision to delay the Games altogether. But this pandemic year is certainly not Smith's first experience with interrupted games.

Looking back to the boycott years in the 1980s, when she was an Olympic rower, Smith says the important thing to do now is remember the purpose behind the Olympic Games. More than ever, she wants to renew efforts to keep politics out of the Olympics.

The lawyer, businesswoman and long-serving defender of institutions that promote fairness in sport looks back over her 35 years in the Olympic movement and sees a mostly good, but still mixed bag of results. Gender equity would appear to be a winning battle. Inclusion for more athletes who come from less wealthy backgrounds? That's still a work in progress.

Anastasia Bucsis, host of CBC Sports' Player's Own Voice podcast, leads the conversation through a friendly review of a long, strange year.

Like the CBC Sports' Player's Own Voice essay series, the POV podcast lets athletes speak to Canadians about issues from a personal perspective. The POV podcast is now joined by a new way for athletes to share opinions and expertise about issues in Canadian sports: Player's Own Voice in Studio brings the POV approach to topic-driven digital video episodes

To listen to all three seasons of the Player's Own Voice podcast, subscribe for free on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Tune In or wherever you get your other podcasts.