International Women's Day

14 CELEBRATING INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY We've watched her on television and heard her broadcasts – in many ways, it feels like the public has been along for the ride as veteran sports broadcaster Leah Hextall has made her way to the top of her field. What you can't see through a screen or understand until you hear her story is how she has navigated the tumultuous waters of a fickle industry to boldly go where no woman has tread before her. In her presentation at the 2024 Winnipeg Women's Conference, Hextall promises a vulnerable and transparent keynote that she hopes will resonate with every person in the room in one way or another. "When I have done my keynote in the past, one of the things that women often say to me is that they feel like they've been seen, and I don't know if there's a better compliment than that. For someone to see themselves in your words and be able to connect with you, it creates that sense of community that I think a lot of women are looking for," she says. Raised in Brandon, after completing her education in broadcasting, Hextall went on to work for CTV Winnipeg, the New England Sports Network and Sportsnet as a studio host and reporter for Hockey Night in Canada. Organizational restructuring at Sportsnet in 2016 forced Hextall to reflect and consider her next career move. "My pivot came out of a sense of necessity because I couldn't get a job in the industry that I'd been working at the highest level for 15 years after I got laid off from Hockey Night in Canada. When your industry suddenly does not want you, it is a very scary place because you also have so much of your identity tied up in being 'Leah Hextall, the sports broadcaster,' and CALLING THE SHOTS WITH Leah Hextall BY KRISTIN MARAND S U P P L I E D P H O T O

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