Canadian national womans ruby team release calandar

Similar to the my post about Maya Nakanishi, members of Canada’s national women’s rugby team have shot a calendar aimed at  raising a little cash ahead of the reintroduction of the sport into the Summer Olympics in 2016 whilst promoting positive body image of female athletes.
The 2013 calendar, Which can be purchased here was shot by fantastic photographer Darryl Humphrey and features 17 members of the team.

“Every woman on this team works so hard at being physically fit and eating properly,” Barbara Mervin, a flanker on the squad and spearhead of the calendar initiative, said in a news release. “It is a reward to have these pictures taken so we can see our bodies in a beautiful light.”

The calendar features tasteful black and white photos. It follows a long-established trend in fundraising amongst teams from a variety of sports.
In fact, this is the fourth time Canada’s rugby women have stripped down for a calendar. They did it for the first time in 2004.

The team has tried traditional fundraising in the past, from selling chocolate bars and T-shirts to searching for sponsors, but found this the most effective.
In addition to helping raise money for the women as they prepare for the 2014 World Cup in France and qualifying for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Mervin said the team is hoping to get beyond the “stereotype about what women rugby players should look like” and show their attractiveness.
“But having muscles is very beautiful and being physically fit is very attractive,” she said. “We are elite athletes and we are proud of our bodies.”

The team, which plays in both sevens and more traditional 15s, last month won the 2012 Amsterdam Sevens, defeating the United 26-19 in the final.
In the 2016 Olympics, the tournament will feature seven-a-side teams.
“Yes, sex sells but we hope to have a stronger message about body types,” Mervin said of the calendar. “We hope we can help young girls to know that you can be 170 pounds and be absolutely beautiful. We hope they can relate to someone’s body and see beauty in that.
“There is beauty in the athletic body and that is what we have tried to capture with the images.”