Marion Lay

Through the 1960s and 1970s, Canada produced a remarkable number of world-class swimmers and Lay is notable for her contributions to that success. Despite a political squabble concerning her eligibility to compete for Canada, she reigned as Canadian 100 metres freestyle champion for four straight years from 1964 to 1967 and held the national record in the event for eight years, from 1964 to 1972. At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, she finished fifth in 100m freestyle. Four years later in Mexico City, she placed fourth in the event. Other notable results include gold medals in 110yd freestyle and 4×110 yd freestyle relay, the latter in world record time, at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. At the 1967 Pan American Games, Lay won four silver medals. She won the 1965 ASA National Championship 100 metres freestyle title.[2]

Following retirement from competition, Lay was CBC's swimming colour commentator until 1973. As a coach of women swimmers, she held positions at California State Polytechnic College in Pomona, California State University at Hayward, the University of Western Ontario, and the Ottawa Kingfish Swim Club.

Lay is a leading activist in eliminating inequities faced by women in sport. She was the consultant for the first women and sport program at Fitness and Amateur Sport Canada and later became Sport Canada's special advisor on gender equity. She is a founder of the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS; WomenSport International; PromotionPlus, British Columbia's organization for girls and women in physical activity and sport; the National Sport Centre Greater Vancouver (Canadian Sport Institute Pacific); and was founding President and Chief Executive Officer of 2010 Legacies Now. She was an organizer of Canada's first Women and Sport Conference in 1974 and a member of the steering committee for the 1st World Conference on Women and Sport, which developed the Brighton Declaration in 1994. In 2015, she was a member of the planning committee for the National Conversation on Women in Sport at Laval University in Quebec City. She served on the Executive Committee of the Canadian Olympic Committee and was President of Operations for Rick Hansen's Man in Motion World Tour.

Lay was heavily involved with the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, serving first as the Chair of the Vancouver 2010 Bid Committee and later as the City of Vancouver representative on the Board of Directors of the Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee. She was also President and CEO of the 2010 Legacies Now Society. She is President of Think Sport Ltd., a Vancouver-based sport management and consulting firm specializing in event management, program planning, evaluation, and gender equity education.

Lay is an adjunct professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of British Columbia, a member of the Board of Directors of ParticipACTION, and co-chair and honorary board member of the BC Games Society. She was a member of the steering committee for the Vancouver 2010 Pride House and sat on the advisory committee of the City of Vancouver LGBTQ mission to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games advocating that sexual orientation be included in the International Olympic Committee Charter.

An editor of Playing it Forward: Women and Sport in Canada, published by the Feminist History Society and Second Story Press in 2012, Lay was also a contributor to Play Fair, the feature-length documentary on women and sport in Canada produced in 2015 by Donna Gall and based on "Playing it Forward".

Following the end of her competitive career, Lay came out as lesbian, and was a coordinator of the Pride House at the 2010 Winter Olympics.[3] She is the partner of Penny Ballem, a civil servant who was the city manager of Vancouver.[4]

• List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
• List of LGBT Olympians

• Kelso, John G. The History of Competitive Swimming In Canada (1867-2002). Published by: DB Perks & Associates, N. Vancouver, BC. ISBN 0973500409. May, 2003.
• Canadian Journal for Women and Coaching, April 2004, Vol. 4, No. 3: Meet Marion Lay, Sport Leader Extraordinaire by Sheila Robertson

• Marion Lay at Swimming Canada
• Marion Lay at World Aquatics
• Marion Lay at Team Canada
• Marion Beverly Lay at Olympics.com
• Marion Lay at Olympedia
• Marion Lay at the Commonwealth Games Federation (archived)