Olympic Boxer Mandy Bujold: Fight Like a Mother

Lisa Laronde (00:01.887)
Powerhouse Project. I'm your host, Lisa Laronde. On the podcast today, we have Mandy Bujold Mandy is an 11 -time national champion, a two -time Canadian Olympic boxer, and who said one of the most important fights she's ever had to fight was outside of the boxing ring. Welcome to the podcast, Mandy. I have to start with how impressed I was when we chatted yesterday, and that we've connected now. And I can't wait to see what you do for gender equity, not only in the construction industry, but for every industry that you touch.

Mandy Bujold (00:19.758)
Thank you for having me.

Lisa Laronde (00:31.103)
We're lucky to have you as part of our community. So let's start with what brought you to the construction industry.

Mandy Bujold (00:36.654)
Sure. So I run this charity boxing event and one of the people who came to try out was Jeff McIntyre who's the president of Grand Valley Construction Association and at that time I was trying to figure out, I was just finishing a mat leave, figuring out what's next for me. I knew I wasn't going back to boxing so I was trying to figure out, okay where do I go?

you know, what's that next career move? And we kind of had a conversation and started talking about what was happening in the construction world. And it seemed like a really great fit. It was, you know, something that I actually didn't, you know, anticipate and never really thought of go into the construction world, I would say, even though my family is in construction, it was just never really something that I thought about for myself. So it's been really interesting. So it's definitely been a learning curve.

but learning a lot, meeting a lot of really amazing people, and it just seems like such a great community to be a part of.

Lisa Laronde (01:35.455)
That's awesome. I didn't know your family was in the industry. What do they do?

Mandy Bujold (01:39.47)
So my dad, he worked in construction. He worked as a laborer his whole life. My brothers are both steel workers. My uncles are bricklayers. So I've been around it a lot. I've heard a lot of construction talk over the years, but it's a little different now. I actually walked on my first construction site, you know, about a month ago. And that was like completely different than like just driving by it and seeing and hearing about it.

Being there yourself is like, oh, okay, this is interesting. It's real, yeah.

Lisa Laronde (02:11.231)
Yeah, so how did you actually get involved in boxing and where did it start?

Mandy Bujold (02:16.878)
Um, so my journey in boxing, um, started a little later in life, I would say. Um, when I was younger, I wasn't actually really involved in sport. I was not athletic at all, which is so crazy. No. And my parents, and I think it was this, like my parents would pick the things I was involved in. And it was always things like baton twirling. Um, and I just wasn't good at them. I wasn't flexible and I didn't really enjoy those sport experiences. So really early on in life, I just thought, you know what? I'm.

Lisa Laronde (02:28.287)
But so surprising.

Mandy Bujold (02:46.158)
just not athletic. And it was to the point where even in high school when like gym class was no longer mandatory, like I opted out. I was like, okay, I'm, I don't want to sweat. So it wasn't until a little bit later on in life, my brother, he joined a boxing club in KW called the Waterloo Regional Boxing Academy. And I just remember him coming home. He was really excited about what he was learning. He was getting in shape. He was learning something really cool. And I remember thinking like, oh, that looks really cool. Like I want to do what he's doing.

Um, but believe it or not, it was not cool to bring your little sister to the boxing club. Does, uh, especially back then. Um, so I kind of waited and then he finally quit, started working full time and then I still had the interest and I just, you know, I walked in the gym and I just fell in love with it. Honestly, like it was just, um, a completely different environment, but it was, um, it was challenging. It was something that was really hard. It didn't come easy for me. I had to work at it. I had to.

Lisa Laronde (03:20.959)
shock.

Mandy Bujold (03:43.15)
you know, really put the time in, but it was something that I was interested in learning. I wanted to learn how to throw proper punches. I never thought I was going to, you know, compete one day. It was really just about the skill of being able to throw punches. And then it just kind of one thing led to another. And then I started competing and realizing I was good at it. And then that again, just kind of spiraled into what became a career for me.

Lisa Laronde (04:05.663)
So were there actually other women that you were boxing with at the time? Were you only allowed to box with women or was it a mixed?

Mandy Bujold (04:11.982)
Um, so when you're, when you're in the gym training and doing a lot of your sparring, usually that's happening. I mean, it can happen with men or women. Um, when you're actually competing, it does have to be against another female. So everything's kind of based on weight class, um, and experience and stuff as well. So when I first started, I will say that there was, there was not a lot of women in the gym. Women were kind of seen as distractions. Um, and there was a lot of coaches actually that just, they just didn't know how to coach women or they thought we needed something different when it came to coaching.

Um, and I remember a couple of times where, you know, mid round, I was in the ring, finally getting comfortable with things and like a coach would just come and just completely kick me out and, um, and just wouldn't talk to me. And I, and I know that the only reason he did this was because I was female and it was, you know, it was kind of shocking, I guess, at the time, cause I felt like I was just kind of doing what I had to do. I just put my head down and I would work. Um, and then a few years later, like the same coach came up and apologized and said, Hey, like.

You know what? I'm sorry that I did that. I know I did that. And he just basically said, I just didn't know how to coach females. And I just, I just felt uncomfortable. So I just, that was my reaction. I just kicked you out. Probably not the right reaction, but nonetheless, right? Like I accepted his apology because I thought, well, yeah, you know what? I was, it was a different time, right? There wasn't a lot of girls around. Like, I do remember for me specifically, there was, there was one girl in the gym.

Lisa Laronde (05:25.855)
Yeah.

Mandy Bujold (05:37.07)
Um, and I remember she was a police officer and she was training and I remember watching her and she was, she was pretty bad. Um, and she was honestly like beaten up the guys in training. And I remember thinking like, I want to be that girl. Um, so I did have, I definitely had someone that I saw and that kind of motivated me to like, okay, this is possible. This is something that I could really do. Um, but yeah, there was.

Definitely at times where you'd look around and you were the only girl and I was okay with that. It didn't, it didn't really bother me. Um, and then I got to be part of that, that group of women that push things forward, right? To try to, to try to get more women interested. I remember going into high schools. I went into hundreds and hundreds of high schools talking about boxing and.

actually doing introduction boxing classes, you know, with no contact. And you would find, you know, one or two girls that were like, Hey, you know what, you should try boxing. Like you have natural ability and we'd kind of bring them in. And, you know, you kind of started the grassroots levels. It was really amazing to see even now you walk into a boxing gym. It's probably 50, 50. Like there are tons of women taking it up. Yeah. It's, it's really amazing to see.

Lisa Laronde (06:42.783)
Now, I think you were telling me yesterday, I don't know if I recall it correctly, but you were saying that there was a time that women weren't actually allowed in the practice boxing rings.

Mandy Bujold (06:53.774)
Yeah. So there, there were definitely times where, you know, women weren't allowed to, um, to be in the gym. Obviously that changed that we weren't actually allowed to compete internationally. I want to say it was like 2001 was the first, um, the first time for women to compete internationally. Yeah. Um, that was our first world championships. And then 2012 was actually the first time that women were in the Olympic games.

Lisa Laronde (07:07.807)
You're kidding!

Mandy Bujold (07:18.926)
Um, so it took a lot of pushing and, um, a lot of just advocating for that and just having the right group of women kind of talking about it and saying, Hey, we want this opportunity. This is the pinnacle of every athlete's career. Um, why are we not getting that opportunity? And then finally it started out with a small pool of, you know, 12 girls in three divisions. And now at this next Olympics in 2024, we're going to have 124 women represented. Um,

Lisa Laronde (07:19.743)
Wow.

Lisa Laronde (07:44.831)
Bye, bye.

Mandy Bujold (07:45.806)
across six weight classes. So it's pretty amazing just even in that short period of time to see how much it's progressed.

Lisa Laronde (07:52.159)
Oh man, that's awesome. That's crazy. So how did you start your Olympic journey? When did you decide that this was actually going to be something that you wanted to either compete in or that you had the goal to be able to be an Olympic champion or Olympic games?

Mandy Bujold (08:08.718)
Um, so I guess I would say like, you know, when I first started competing, I just kind of let things go, you know, I was just focused on the next fight, focus on the next fight as opportunities came. Um, and then I went to my first Canadian championship, um, which was pretty exciting. And then to win that gave me an opportunity to then go to an international tournament. So, um, I went to my first, what would be a continental championships, which is kind of like all of the Americas, um, all the way down to kind of Brazil.

And, um, and then I ended up winning that event. And that was to me, the big eye opener where it was like, wow, like I didn't realize I was this good, right? Like I can actually do this and I can actually kind of get somewhere with this and pretty cool to know that I was like not only number one in Canada, but I was never one of this continent. Like how cool is that? Um, but then again, women's boxing wasn't in the Olympics at that point. So it was still part of like advocating and kind of getting those opportunities. But, um, and when we first, you know, first had that.

that chance. It was, it was amazing. I didn't qualify for the first Olympics, um, because that pool was so small. Um, and the qualification kind of got a little bit messy for me. I just didn't make it. So I had to focus for another four years. And then my first Olympic games was in 2016. Um, and again, you know, 13 years of work to get there. Um, it was really just about kind of staying focused on that goal, believing that, Hey, I could achieve that. Um,

Lisa Laronde (09:26.847)
Yeah.

Mandy Bujold (09:33.102)
Because I had, you know, there's always going to be naysayers. It was going to be people. I had people in my life where even in 2012, when I didn't qualify for my first Olympics, I had coaches basically telling me, well, research says, if you don't qualify for your first Olympics, you're never going to qualify. And, you know, essentially telling me my career was over, right? Where it's like, well, no, I don't believe you. Um, and I'm going to prove you wrong. And I think that's kind of a mentality that I took on really early on was that.

Lisa Laronde (09:49.247)
Oh.

Mandy Bujold (10:01.102)
There were going to be obstacles. There were going to be people that were going to be things that were said, but you had to just kind of like find a way through it. And I never let those obstacles become barriers. It was always just really important to like find a way around, um, any of those things that would come up in my career.

Lisa Laronde (10:15.999)
Now, so I have two questions. Did you have a support group or people that could advise you or guide you when these obstacles were coming? And I'm just curious, did you get paid through this or how would you travel and train and...

Mandy Bujold (10:29.454)
Yeah. So in terms of the support system, absolutely. Um, there was obviously like, I mean, you see the individual when you get into the ring, cause you're boxing. Um, but obviously like having coaching, uh, coach that's in your corner. That's really important. Then there would kind of be a team that would extend from that. Um, I always worked with a mental performance coach, um, throughout my entire career. And that was really, really important for me because there was always.

You know, ups and downs, there was times where even if it was just simple thing, like on a day where you're just having a bad day and you just need like perspective from someone else, it's just so important to have those people in your life. Um, and then of course my family, like my husband, I wouldn't have been able to do it without him because when I was out training and preparing, like he was helping, especially when we had our, our oldest, um, Kate, like he was at home kind of taking on that responsibility, right. Of, of our daughter. So.

Um, having that support system is really, really important. There's a lot of stress. There's high stakes, right? Like you're kind of putting it all in. Um, so that's, that's definitely really key. And then in terms of, um, how do you fund it? So no, you don't get paid. We're not prize fighters at the Olympics. Um, so you're basically doing it because of the love of the sport. Unfortunately, Canada is horrible for this. Um, so I was really fortunate in the sense that, you know, I built a community, like in.

Lisa Laronde (11:43.039)
Yeah.

Mandy Bujold (11:48.622)
in KW, I was able to kind of go out to the business community and the people within this community would support me. And I had fundraisers and I, you know, a whole bunch of different initiatives to try to kind of make my way there. You know, speaking at different events, whatever I got as creative as, as I could get when it came to how I was going to fund this journey. But I was able to make that happen. So I was pretty fortunate in that.

Lisa Laronde (12:12.575)
Well, I'm glad you did. So then you had your daughter, so you qualified for the Olympics and then it was canceled and you had your daughter, how did that order go?

Mandy Bujold (12:21.774)
Yeah. So I actually had, so I competed at two Olympics. Um, so in 2016 was the first, first one I competed at that one. I finished fifth, um, whole other story with that one. I ended up in a hospital bed and like back into the ring and it was, it was, um, kind of chaos. So I don't have the best luck I would say when it comes to the Olympics. Um, but in 2020, um, I, so I had my daughter in 2018. Um,

2019 was when all the qualifying would actually happen for the 2020 Olympics, because it kind of gives you an advance. So we started off the process and then as everyone knows, early 2020 COVID hits. So I hadn't qualified for the Olympics yet on an international level. Basically then the Olympics get postponed, which is like the first time in history. Like we just thought they were going to be canceled and that was it.

So then you kind of refocusing for a year, trying to figure out how am I going to train in my house for the Olympics if this does happen? Um, so that was its own challenge. And then, you know, when it did start kind of opening up and things were kind of getting back, um, going, there was a moment in time where the Olympic committee basically decided that instead of doing a qualifying event for our continent, we were the only people that hadn't actually got into the ring to compete for their spot.

That they were just going to pick off this random list that they created. And this list was created based on, um, an 11 month period for women. And so basically all during the time of my, either my pregnancy or postpartum period, and they were events that weren't supposed to be selected. Um, because obviously you have to kind of plan those things, um, in this situation, but for the men, they were looking at like an 18 month period. And if they would have used the same, there wouldn't have been an issue, right? This wouldn't have.

even become a case. Um, but unfortunately for us, we kind of thought, okay, maybe they just don't realize what this new rule or this new kind of criteria is or how it's penalizing someone in my situation. So obviously initially it felt kind of personal, like, well, really like out of my whole career, I missed three events and these are the events they're going to pick. Right. Um, so I hadn't, I just happened to have a friend who, you know, I didn't know at the time she was like the number one litigator in Canada.

Lisa Laronde (14:27.647)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Mandy Bujold (14:40.974)
Um, so I just asked her, yeah, I kind of asked her for advice. I was like, what do you think about the situation? It took her like three minutes and a quick Google search of the Olympic charter to realize it was a case of discrimination based on sex. And so, you know what we put it forward and we said, Hey, this is what's happening. Can you address it? Um, and essentially we just were told no. And that basically this was not something that they were going to address. It's important, but not now. And Ms. Ujo can't possibly take this on.

Lisa Laronde (14:41.887)
It's a nice friend to have.

Lisa Laronde (15:07.775)
Ha ha!

Mandy Bujold (15:10.478)
by herself was essentially what we were being told. Um, but again, yeah, exactly. So in the end, it was just, it was amazing to be able to kind of like go through that process. It was obviously very mentally, physically, you know, just exhausting trying to train while preparing for, um, you know, a court case and going through that whole thing. But, um,

Lisa Laronde (15:14.175)
challenge you. That's what I get.

Lisa Laronde (15:30.271)
What's having a new family?

Mandy Bujold (15:32.046)
having a new family, all of those things, right? All in one, but it was something that like, I had that motivation of like the amount of people that were reaching out that had dealt with this in their workplace, right? Or in different situation, maybe outside of sports and saying like, keep pushing this because this is important. You know, we can't take time off from, you know, having a pregnancy, come back to work and then basically be penalized for it. Right. Um, so it was something that became a bigger issue. And I think it was really important to fight that. And like we said, it was.

Lisa Laronde (15:52.351)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Mandy Bujold (15:58.51)
kind of the biggest fight I had and the most important fight I had ended up being outside the ring, right? So it was, yeah, pretty important.

Lisa Laronde (16:03.775)
Yep. So what was the time frame between when you started this journey and then when you got the ruling that you could actually compete? And I'm assuming you trained through all that time because you're confident that the ruling was going to go in your favor? Yeah.

Mandy Bujold (16:16.622)
Yeah. I was confident at times. Yeah. Um, I was confident in my team. I will say I was confident in my team. We actually, at some point, Tori's we had, we had nine women working on this case. It was actually quite incredible. Um, but honestly, like even when we got to the process, when we, it was about a week before, like it was kind of down because the Olympics were at a set date. Everything was kind of expedited to make this happen. Um, we found out, Hey,

Lisa Laronde (16:36.863)
Wow.

Mandy Bujold (16:43.214)
We want the case, you know, you're going to be qualified. And then even at that point, I didn't see my name on the list and we were basically being blackmailed, um, saying like, sign an NDA that we're not going to talk about this and then we'll add your name to the list. And we were like, well, yeah. Right. So all of this is happening. And honestly, that was kind of my breaking point. I will say like where I remember sitting there talking to my husband and thinking, like, I was just in tears thinking like, I don't even want this anymore.

Lisa Laronde (16:57.983)
Holy shit. Holy shit.

Mandy Bujold (17:12.686)
Like it's not even about the Olympics anymore. Like it was just, it was so frustrating to go through that whole process. And then at the end of it, like all of the things that were still happening. Um, but nonetheless, obviously we, we pushed forward and I think it was more important just, you know, to kind of continue to move the movement forward, you know, for, for women in sport, um, that obviously I, you know, ended up competing at the Olympics, but.

I will say that it was mentally draining and something that I didn't obviously have my best performance because of it. So. Right.

Lisa Laronde (17:47.967)
Definitely, and I can't imagine just, you know, your mental state of, you know, trying to fight for something that, you know, is right. Well, first of all, you shouldn't have to be fighting for in the beginning anyway, but to go through that whole journey and then not have people support it at the end or to say, let's just keep it quiet. I honestly, I can't imagine. What do you think that this now, because I think it's an important step for us and for young athletes coming up. So what do you think this message sends to them? Do you think it's inspiring or empowering?

Mandy Bujold (18:11.15)
Yeah, I think it's something that kind of shows that you don't have to pick between, you know, being a mother or being in your career, right? And anything, right? Like you can be both. And I think that in sport for sure, we're seeing a lot more of this and we're actually highlighting a lot more of those stories, which is amazing. Um, we're actually kind of like creating the, there's a group now within, um, the sport.

Lisa Laronde (18:23.807)
Yeah.

Mandy Bujold (18:40.11)
Canada umbrella that is, you know, the, uh, pregnancy and parental rights committee, right? Where we actually just got a whole bunch of funding to basically fund women to support them. And like, Hey, do you need your child to come with you to the Olympics to make sure you can perform at your best? Do you need extra childcare? Do you need, you know, what is it that you need to make sure you can perform at your best? And we're kind of providing those resources. So it's really cool to like, be a part of that and see those things now developing.

Lisa Laronde (19:05.023)
Yeah, I think it's awesome. I know in our industry, I believe it's QIT, has a new program. It's called the STORC program. And so they have a lot of people that have to relocate and move to different provinces or even throughout different countries. And now as young women or whatever women, they can actually have their breast milk transported back home for their children if they're not together. So if you want to continue breastfeeding once you've gone back to work. So I think, you know,

Mandy Bujold (19:10.35)
Wait.

Lisa Laronde (19:33.663)
some of these movements that we have to make or some of the conversations that we have to have really is this beginning to change. And I know that the construction industry certainly needs role models like yourself that are not afraid to take a stand and talk about your journey and when challenged, stand up for it because I think that gives a message for this next generation coming up that together our voices are loud and we can make change.

Mandy Bujold (19:46.094)
Absolutely.

Lisa Laronde (20:03.903)
What would you like women to take away from, like your journey, your boxing journey, if you could have like a happy ending at the end?

Mandy Bujold (20:15.118)
Yeah. Honestly, I think, you know, one of the biggest lessons that I learned throughout my journey was, you know, it's not about what happens to you that matters. It's about how you react. That counts. And for me, that's really important because that's like in life and anything, right? Like that's one of the biggest lessons that it's like, there's things that can happen. You're going to be pissed off. You're going to be frustrated, but like, how do you channel your energy? How do you react to that situation?

Lisa Laronde (20:38.079)
Yeah.

Mandy Bujold (20:44.974)
And I think that really shows character, right? That really shows kind of like what you're about and what's important to you as a person. And yeah, I think that's probably, I would say one of the bigger things that I've learned and obviously like overcoming obstacles, everyone's gonna have them. It's life, right? We're gonna have them. They're gonna be huge to you, right? On the outside might not look so big, but it's like...

Lisa Laronde (21:05.183)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mandy Bujold (21:10.222)
Trying to put that into perspective and realize that, Hey, it's not a wall. It's not a barrier. It's not stopping you from doing that. It's just, it's a bump in the road, right. And try trying to make sure you see it that way. Um, I think that that's definitely important as well.

Lisa Laronde (21:24.703)
And I really like the way your outlook is saying, you know, it's not a barrier, it's an obstacle and it's something that we can overcome. And I really think it's important that as women in these roles is that we talk about, you know, we do need that community, you need that support network. We can't do it on our own. And there's no reason that we should even try to do it on our own. I think, you know, the more people that we can put our hands up and say, you know, we need some help. And I think you're really lucky. So when you had your legal team,

Did everybody, was it, like did they just do a pro bono or how did you like gather the troops together?

Mandy Bujold (21:58.542)
Yes. Thank God. Thank God. I think I owe like a million dollars in billable hours. Literally. Um, yeah. So honestly, Sylvie, um, at Tori's at first she couldn't take on, you know, the case because she's just, she, she represents a lot of really big companies in, in Canada. And, you know, when we realized that the people that were supposed to be pushing this forward and fighting for us, we're not doing or saying the right things or taking it as seriously.

Lisa Laronde (22:03.551)
Yeah, yeah.

Mandy Bujold (22:28.078)
And that's when she just went to Tori's and said, Hey, can, can I take this on? And they completely backed her and gave her the team to be able to do it. So I think it was really nice for me while I was going through the process was that I knew that like, it kind of became personal for them too. Right. A lot of them were mothers. A lot of them were people who had dealt with similar situations, you know, big or small and, and they were fighting for women. And I think that's what was so beautiful about the whole thing was that like the way we were coming together.

Lisa Laronde (22:34.815)
Yeah.

Lisa Laronde (22:52.351)
Yeah.

Mandy Bujold (22:57.646)
Honestly, at the very end, when the case was done, we didn't even know the decision. Like everybody was just in tears. Like we were just like, we're all just so emotionally drained from like everything that went into it. And even just like the things that were said, um, from the other side coming at us, it was just, it was very degrading. It was very, um, yeah, like you just so many things that you just wouldn't even imagine happened. Um, but it was honestly, it was just going through that process.

and pushing things forward and feeling, you know what, we did everything that we could do. We put it all out there. We, you know, we're a hundred percent prepared. So I had the confidence in that knowing that, you know what, I can focus on training. They've got this part taken care of and that, that really kind of helped me sleep at night. I would say.

Lisa Laronde (23:45.247)
Now, did you think you were doing it for women in sport, or did you realize at the time when you were going through this that this was going to be an impact for women in any industry?

Mandy Bujold (23:52.014)
Um, I would say like it started out for sure as even like a personal, like, Oh my God, like I want to get to the Olympics. This is my spot. And then like really quickly it turned into, Oh my God, this is, this is so much bigger than just me. Right. And then it became like a, it became a global case. I was getting calls from, you know, people in all different countries. Like I saw my, my name pop up in articles.

Lisa Laronde (24:06.303)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mandy Bujold (24:21.07)
in Japan and then in Germany. And like, I was talking to the BBC and like the amount of people interested in this case was just like, it really quickly like, Oh my God, the New York Times messaging. It was like, what is happening here? It was because it was so big, right? And it was just, it was really just about women, um, moving things forward. And I think, you know, that's what it became. And my like hashtag, you know, line was fight like a mother.

Lisa Laronde (24:27.039)
Yeah.

Lisa Laronde (24:44.159)
That's awesome.

Mandy Bujold (24:49.678)
And that's what we stuck to. And it was really, it was good because people were starting to get behind it. And it was like, you don't have to be, you don't have to be in boxing. You can fight like a mother, no matter what career path or wherever you are. And, and I think that was pretty cool.

Lisa Laronde (25:00.767)
Yeah.

I think that's awesome. I think you've just done so much for young women that want to have children. I know we struggle with it a little bit in our industry as well, particularly in the skilled trades where you see women are delaying having children because they want to get their careers. So hopefully you can be part of the new movement in the construction industry and help to find some solutions there. If you could give your younger self any advice, what would that be?

Mandy Bujold (25:31.726)
Um, who I would say honestly, like to really just enjoy the process. Like I think like so often, you know, obviously in sport and life, it's so easy to like, you're, you're just so focused on those big goals and those things that you want to achieve that like sometimes like life just happens so quickly, right? When you have kids, you realize that too, where it's just like, Oh my God, how did they, how'd they grow up so fast? Right? It's like everybody comments on this. Um, so I think just really.

Lisa Laronde (25:55.423)
Yep. Yeah.

Mandy Bujold (26:01.454)
to like enjoy that process and like just every moment right like the small things celebrating those small wins is also really important right like what did I do today what was really really great today you know it could be something so small and so simple but I think that those things are really important to to celebrate kind of along the way.

Lisa Laronde (26:20.895)
That's awesome. Do you still box?

Mandy Bujold (26:23.246)
Yeah, yeah, I still do. It's still my favorite way to work out. So I still do some of that. And then I have a couple of girls that are actually trying to qualify for this Olympics. And they were my training partners and sparring partners. So I still kind of go in and help them out, give them some technical, you know, advice, but also kind of play a bit more of a mentorship role for them.

Lisa Laronde (26:45.983)
That's awesome, because I do think that part of giving back would be awesome. I do feel like part of that journey is your mental strength that comes hand in hand with your physical strength. But you really need, I think, that support network to help you through all of that. Now, what's the age that a boxing career would be? What would be the end of the career?

Mandy Bujold (26:51.63)
Yeah. I think it's different for everyone. So you can actually, you can represent your country until you're 40.

I don't know what that number, where it came from or how, but that's kind of like the cutoff to go to like an Olympic games or like, um, an international event to represent your country. Other than that, you can box as long as you want actually, like even within Canada, if you just want to have a fun box, like my, um, corporate event that I'm running right now, I have, I have, um, a couple of people that are actually close to close to 60 that are stepping into the ring and doing this for the first time. So it's, um, honestly, there's not really an age limit and.

Lisa Laronde (27:32.639)
Yeah.

Mandy Bujold (27:45.902)
There's always kind of a fun way to get involved in the sport, which is cool. Yeah. Yeah. So champions for charity is, um, again, a corporate fundraiser. Um, it's a black tie Vegas style fight night essentially. Um, so we do a trial. We get people from the business community who know nothing about.

Lisa Laronde (27:50.815)
So I just wanted to give you a little opportunity. So it's a charity that you founded. So did you want to just speak about why you founded it, what's the purpose, and what happens?

Mandy Bujold (28:15.534)
Um, we do a tryout, we match them up based on like age, um, weight and just like athletic ability. Um, we train them. So they basically train for 15 weeks, like a professional athlete. Um, so we do everything from their boxing, strength and conditioning. We talk to them about nutrition, mental performance, et cetera. Um, and then they basically box in this black tie Vegas style fight night. So we support, um, McMaster children's hospital with this.

Lisa Laronde (28:25.375)
Wow.

Mandy Bujold (28:43.054)
Um, and so this is our second year and we've already raised, um, 265 ,000. Um, so we're hoping to get to 300, um, at this event and it's a yearly thing that we do and it's, um, yeah, it's pretty amazing. And I think going, seeing people go through that process is really interesting. Um, seeing how they kind of, you know, take it and take it into their work world as well as really interesting. They learn a lot about yourself when you're stepping into a boxing ring.

Lisa Laronde (28:50.431)
Wow.

Mandy Bujold (29:11.438)
Um, and it's funny. So Jeff, um, from the grand value construction association, he actually, he's going through this process and he's competing. So every day at work, we're kind of like talking, you know, work stuff. And then we talk strategy about boxing. So it's really interesting. And he's relating a lot of it back to, you know, the construction world and how things happened. And, you know, even on kind of the health and safety side, like the one thing that he asked me.

Lisa Laronde (29:26.431)
That's

Mandy Bujold (29:36.91)
You know, early on was like, which punch hurts the most. Is it hurt more to get hit to the head of the body? And I'm like, well, the body for sure hurts more, but it's, it's really the punch that you don't see coming. That's going to hurt the most. And I mean, you know, in the construction world, right? Accidents happen quickly and things happen quickly. And it's like that thing you don't see coming and don't expect that can cause the most damage. Right. And.

Lisa Laronde (29:38.431)
you

Lisa Laronde (29:49.759)
Yep.

Mandy Bujold (30:00.142)
very similar in the boxing world. So it's fun to see kind of different people's analogies to kind of what they're learning in the ring and how they can apply it and other aspects of their life. Yeah.

Lisa Laronde (30:06.58)
Oh man, that's awesome. Mandy, I'd like to thank you so much for joining us on the Powerhouse project. It's clear that your fight wasn't about getting an Olympic medal. I saw that today and when I talked to you yesterday. It was really about gender equity and sport, and I hope that you continue to do that for our industry. You're an inspiration, and it's been a pleasure speaking with you. Keep up all the great work. Thank you. You're awesome. I love you.

Mandy Bujold (30:28.718)
Thank you.

Thanks.