From player to pioneer: Olivia Ghosh-Swaby on helping shape the future of women’s flag football in Canada
For Olivia Ghosh-Swaby, the addition of women’s flag football to U SPORTS represents more than the growth of a sport.
It represents the creation of opportunities that did not exist when she was first introduced to the game.
Growing up in Mississauga, Ghosh-Swaby got her first taste of flag football through elementary school tournaments before playing varsity girls’ flag football throughout high school. At the time, she viewed it as one of several sports she enjoyed alongside volleyball and track and field.
“I didn’t really think there was a future in the sport,” she said.
Today, Ghosh-Swaby is helping build that future.
A former Western University flag football player, she now serves as Manager of Flag Development at Football Ontario while continuing her academic career as a neuroscientist and postdoctoral fellow at Western University, where she completed both her undergraduate degree and PhD.
Her journey with flag football took a significant turn during her second and third years at Western, when she became more formally involved in the sport. Drawn to the way flag combined the speed and agility she developed in track and field with the hand-eye coordination she gained through volleyball, she quickly discovered a passion for the game.
“I think what made me fall in love with the game of flag football is how much it combined all the other skill sets I had in sport,” she said.
Her experience at Western also exposed her to a unique aspect of university flag football. Unlike many varsity sports, much of the organization behind the scenes was driven by student-athletes themselves.
“It’s usually student-led,” she said.
“You have to sit down and work together to determine practice times, to source funding, to find time around our academics to make it work.”
And throughout that time, university flag football grew to become much more than competition.
“I have my lifelong best friends out of football,” she said.
“Playing flag football with them, and we now play beyond the university space, and it’s become now like a lifelong thing that I do on top of my job.”
That athlete-led environment also helped spark one of the most influential projects of her career.
As she took on leadership roles at Western, Ghosh-Swaby recognized what she described as an access gap within women’s university flag football. Programs across Ontario were working hard to create opportunities for athletes, but much of the responsibility for organizing leagues, tournaments and operations rested with individual schools.
“I thought, okay, let’s bring this together on an Ontario scale,” she said.
What began as conversations among student leaders on a Facebook page eventually evolved into the Ontario Women’s Intercollegiate Football Association (OWIFA), an organization designed to coordinate competition opportunities, promote university programs and create greater access to the sport.
Ghosh-Swaby helped build the league’s foundation, establish relationships with schools, secure grants and create opportunities for athletes across the province.
“It wasn’t all alone,” she said.
“I had a team of other student leaders that wanted to help in this.”
The work continued through the COVID-19 pandemic. When competition paused, OWIFA shifted online, offering educational sessions that introduced athletes to careers in coaching, sport administration and communications while keeping them connected to the game.
When competition returned, so did growth.
According to Ghosh-Swaby, participation expanded from roughly seven or eight schools to around 15 schools within a few years. Some institutions even began fielding multiple teams because of increased interest.
The growth she witnessed in Ontario is one reason Ghosh-Swaby is optimistic about the future of women’s flag football nationally.
She believes U SPORTS’ decision to add women’s flag football will help accelerate development across the country by creating a clearer pathway for athletes and encouraging universities to invest in the sport.
“Ontario really set kind of a standard of how quick the sport can grow when you invest,” she said.
Ghosh-Swaby hopes the addition of U SPORTS competition will encourage further growth from coast to coast, building on existing programs while helping new ones emerge.
“It’s just really uniting Canada across the board on what flag can look like,” she said.
She also sees the sport’s inclusion in U SPORTS as part of a larger movement that includes the sport’s debut at the 2028 Olympic Games and growing opportunities for women at every level.
“If you think about the Olympic investment, it kind of had this trickling effect,” she said.
“Now U SPORTS, it’s starting to just all make more sense and align.”
For Ghosh-Swaby, perhaps the most rewarding part is knowing future athletes will have opportunities she never imagined when she first picked up a football.
“I didn’t see flag football in my future at all,” she said. “Now athletes have a place to play at all levels.”
From student-athlete and league founder to sport administrator and advocate, Ghosh-Swaby has witnessed the growth of women’s flag football firsthand. As the sport prepares to enter a new era within U SPORTS, she remains focused on helping the next generation find their place in the game.
“They’re going to have a place to play at all levels,” she said.