It’s an exciting time for women in sports: the Northern Super League just kicked off in Canada, the Professional Women’s Hockey League is expanding and the thriving WNBA posted its highest attendance in 22 seasons.
Monica Leitham Hantho, BEd’81, and Mark Hantho, BCom’81, want their alma mater at the forefront of this trend. Their generous $1.25-million gift to McGill provides support for women’s athletics while helping to drive discovery at the Sylvan Adams Sports Science Institute (SASSI) to improve female athletic performance and inform coaching practices.
“These wonderful professional athletes are finally getting somewhat equal pay, recognition, and the opportunity to coach, lead, and be mentors for the next generation,” says Mark Hantho. “We wanted to accelerate that for McGill.”
The Hantho Initiative for Women’s Athletics will support an innovative collaboration between Athletics and Recreation and the Faculty of Education.
“It’s been something that I’ve wanted to do,” says Monica Leitham Hantho of supporting women in sport. “Having served on the Faculty of Education’s advisory board, I saw how those two units could work together.”
Roxane Carrière, PhD, manager of McGill’s Kerr Family Women in Sport Program, is thrilled by the Hanthos’ support. “It’s a collective effort and that is also the message that I’m trying to share with our female student-athletes: people are investing in them to help them become leaders on and off the field.”
“This gift is really transformative,” adds Professor Benoît Gentil, director of SASSI. “It shows the leadership of the Hanthos to combine research and women in sports. I think this is unique in Canada.”
As it stands, women are underrepresented in research on elite athletes.
“Our goal is to provide an evidence base that supports the community, especially women in sports, because science has often treated women as biologically equivalent to men, and that simply doesn’t reflect reality,” says Gentil. “We need to do a better job in defining women’s needs and how we can improve their performance.”
Building on a strong foundation
Dedication to sports has been a running theme for the Hanthos throughout their lives. As a McGill Physical Education student, Monica sought out then-Principal David Johnston for permission to organize a 10K run on campus. Mark played on the varsity rugby team while earning his degree in finance and marketing, before launching a successful career in banking.
Monica and Mark Hantho
The Hanthos were inspired by fellow alumni Sheryl Kerr, BCom’67, and David Kerr, BSc’65, whose visionary gift in 2018 created the groundbreaking Women in Sport Program at McGill.
“It just gave us that push to say, let’s follow in their footsteps, and let’s move this along,” says Monica Leitham Hantho. “I hope we lead the way for others to follow suit.”
Female teams now have either a woman head coach or full-time assistant coach – or both. “Some of the girls on our teams have never been coached by a female, which is astonishing to me,” says Carrière, a McGill graduate and expert in sports psychology.
That was the case for Olivia Krishnan, BA’24, until she played varsity volleyball at McGill under pioneering coach Rachèle Béliveau, who recently retired after 34 years.
I had never been coached by a woman until Rachèle, and it was transformational,” says Krishnan, now a master’s student in sports management at the University of Ottawa. “I had never developed faster or been heard better than under female leadership.”
Bolstering services for student-athletes
With the Hanthos’ gift, Martlets teams will have greater access to services such as mental performance consulting, nutritional guidance and services related to female health. Career transition is another key area, says Carrière, who notes that happens earlier for female athletes because fewer professional playing opportunities exist in their sports.
That transition can include becoming a coach and leader. “This industry is only going to get bigger,” says Mark Hantho. “Having women actually drive the future of women in sports is a really massive opportunity, and McGill has a great opportunity to lead in that.”
Putting theory into practice
The gift provides support for research aimed at optimizing performance by women athletes: fellowships for students and a research fund at SASSI, which launched thanks to an extraordinary $29-million gift from Quebec-born entrepreneur Sylvan Adams.
Researchers at the Institute study a range of topics from wearable technology to Gentil’s upcoming project on how short-chain fatty acid supplements may affect fatigue after exercise, and whether the effects differ between sexes.
Gentil stresses the translational nature of their work. “We do research to improve and inform real-world practices. We are not just in an ivory tower.”
“The idea is to work collaboratively,” says Carrière, by assessing the needs of our student-athletes and pairing researchers with specific teams to ensure the research serves a purpose.
From headwinds to tailwinds
McGill’s female varsity athletes provide direct input on the Women in Sport Program via a student-athlete council. Building off this positive momentum, Carrière says the next step will be to create a women in sport advisory council with female leaders from sport management and other fields who want to support the program’s mandate and help it expand.
Mark Hantho hopes the advisory council serves as inspiration to female athletes that a future in sports could be a career option. “I think the council on this leadership group will be people who have fought through these headwinds that hopefully will become tailwinds for the next generation.”