On today’s date in 2012, Canadian soccer star Christine Sinclair won the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as the Canadian Press female athlete of the year.
In May 2015, Canada Post issued a Permanent marking that year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup, which was hosted in Canada for the first time. The stamp features Sinclair, the captain of Canada’s national team, alongside teammate Kadeisha Buchanan, who won the tournament’s best young player award. The pressure-sensitive stamp measures 40 millimetres by 32 millimetres (horizontal) and is available in 10-stamp booklets.
“Christine Sinclair is the most successful soccer player to ever compete for Canada,” reads her biography on the Team Canada website. “She made her debut with the senior national team as a 16-year-old at the 2000 Algarve Cup where she also scored her first international goal. As of June 20, 2019, she has accumulated 182 career international goals, ranking her second all-time but first among active players. In 2013 she was inducted to Canada’s Walk of Fame.”
A three-time Olympian, Sinclair led Canada to back-to-back bronze medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016. In 2012, she was the tournament’s leading scorer with six of Canada’s 12 goals, “including a hat trick in the controversial semifinal extra-time loss to the United States,” adds her Team Canada biography.
“For her efforts, she was named Canada’s Closing Ceremony flag bearer and became the first soccer player to win the Lou Marsh Award as Canadian Athlete of the Year. Sinclair scored three goals at Rio 2016, including what turned out to be the game-winner in a 2-1 victory over Brazil in the bronze medal match.”
The 2015 stamp was designed by Debbie Adams, of Toronto, and printed by Lowe-Martin on Tullis Russell paper using eight-colour lithography. The stamp was also issued alongside a collectible plaque showcasing the players.
An official first-day cover also issued as part of the set was serviced with a cancel from Edmonton, the site of the opening game.
Bobbie Rosenfeld is commemorated on a 45-cent stamp issued by Canada Post in 1996.
FANNY ROSENFELD—A NATIONAL HERO
In 1996, to commemorate the 100th Olympic Games, Canada Post issued a five-stamp set featuring some of the country’s greatest gold medalists.
Bobbie Rosenfeld, the namesake of the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award, was commemorated on a 45-cent stamp (Scott #1610) as part of Canada Post’s “Canadian Olympic Gold Medallists” issue.
Printed by Ashton-Potter on Coated Papers paper, the multi-coloured stamp features a design by Mark Koudis based on a photograph from Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. The image shows Rosenfeld in a starting position before a race.
A well-known track-and-field competitor when the International Amateur Athletic Federation began allowing women to compete in five events at the 1928 Olympics, she set Canadian records in the running broad jump, standing broad jump and discus during the trials to select the women’s team. She also ran the 100-metre dash just four-fifths of a second slower than the world record at that time.
Known as “The Matchless Six” by the Canadian Press, the women of the Canadian Olympic team would become national heroes after their performance that year.
Rosenfeld was chosen to compete in both the 100-yard dash and discus events, but after both were scheduled for the same day, she was only entered in the 100-yard dash. She eventually earned gold for her country while the U.S. took home the silver medal and Germany the bronze.
She died in Toronto in 1969.