Jessie Fleming credits some of her on field skills as a long time member of Canada's national soccer team, to the awareness she learned as a hockey player.
Jessie Fleming is as skilled as they come on the pitch. The midfielder scored historic goals for Canada at the 2020 Olympics, recording Canada's only regulation time goal, and then scoring a shootout goal to help lift Canada to Olympic gold.
A lot of her on field success, however, Fleming attributes to her early experiences playing other sports, including hockey. She's been a member of Canada's senior national soccer team since 2013.
The London, Ontario product, who now plays for Chelsea in England's Women's Super League grew up playing competitive boys hockey. Fleming believes hockey helped her develop her on field vision and awareness.
“Hockey’s obviously huge in Canada. My parents both love hockey,” Fleming said to the Daily Bruin.
“A big part of my game in soccer is my vision and awareness,” Fleming said. “In hockey, especially as a girl who’s not as strong as the guys, just the vision and awareness not to get hit against the boards definitely helped.”
“I played boys’ hockey for a long time, which was full-contact,” she told The Athletic. “I’m not a big person or a tall person, so I probably got beat up a little by the guys and had to figure out how to play a not so physical game."
She's not the only member of Team Canada who excelled at hockey. Long time Canadian star Adriana Leon was offered an NCAA scholarship playing alongside future Olympic gold medal hockey winners Erin Ambrose and Jill Saulnier with the Toronto Aeros. Other members of Canada's national women's soccer team who played hockey in their youth include Lysianne Proulx, Allysha Chapman, and Jordyn Huitema, albeit not to the extent of Adriana Leon and Jessie Fleming.
When you see Fleming evade a defender, and thread a pass to another member of Team Canada at the World Cup, it's a skill set she developed not only playing soccer, but also as a hockey player.