Canadian Olympic bronze medallist Joey Lye hopes to empower young female athletes as coach, speaker

As Olympic bronze medallist Joey Lye steps into the next phase of her life, the Canadian softball star hopes the younger generation heeds one message.

"They matter. Their voice matters. And to use their platform to not just continue fighting the fight, but also to be authentically themselves," Lye said in an interview with CBC Sports.

After competing at every world championship since 2010, Lye and Team Canada finally got back to the Olympics at Tokyo 2020, landing on the podium with a third-place finish.

A few months later, the 35-year-old from Toronto announced her retirement, switching her focus to burgeoning coaching and speaking careers.

To that end, Lye served as team leader for Canada at the World Games in Birmingham, Ala., where the softball players placed sixth earlier this week. Her TedTalk in honour of the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark U.S. law which many credit for accelerating the growth of women's sports, was also recently released with the support of Athletes Unlimited, a player-focused women's sports league.

In both coaching and speaking, Lye's main aim is empowerment.

"As individuals we don't often feel like our voice is heard. But the reality is the more we speak up, the more females and males advocate for equity, the louder our voices are," Lye said. "So just continuing to speak up when we see things that aren't as they should be and to encourage others to do the same."

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Title IX was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1972, prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools which receive federal funding. It increased women's sports programs across U.S. college campuses and served as a basis for protection