David Thibodeau (BPhil’16) is a big believer in the power of sport to improve personal well-being, community, and even public policy. He puts this passion into practice with every activity—from his podcast, Sports for Social Impact, which explores these intersections to his role in helping shape sports in Canada as a director with the Canada Games Council’s board of directors (the Games will return to New Brunswick in 2029)—and even to mentoring the next generation of swimmers directly as a National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) certified swim coach.

A graduate of UNB’s Renaissance College (now the School of Leadership Studies), David completed his bachelor of philosophy in interdisciplinary leadership degree, with a minor in political science. He recalls a variety of “incredible” professors, especially at RC, and says that the community problem-solving course stood out to him in third year, when students got to work with a community organization to solve local problems. “Learning how to engage with the community, hearing how different groups are experiencing challenges and successes with their projects, it was that real-world experiential learning that we had an opportunity to really dive into.”

By the time he arrived at UNB, David was already a serious competitive swimmer and had competed at the Canada Games (where he now volunteers on the board) as a Team New Brunswick swimmer in 2013. He was on the swim team for two of his three years at UNB, and was involved in the student union as accessibility representative. Another milestone for David in his undergrad days was to come out publicly as gay in his third year, and he reflects that his chosen sport of swimming had always given him a sense of place as he struggled with other aspects of his identity at that time.

“For the longest time, being an athlete had been a really core pillar of my identity. Sport offered that escape, for me personally as a gay person. It offered a reprieve from social pressures to do certain things or act a certain way. And so, it was really beneficial for my mental health. I was able to leave that all outside on the pool deck and really focus on the swimming,” says David, adding that sports still offer the same outlet for him today. “Whenever I’m having a stressful day now, swimming or going for a run is absolutely beneficial for helping me clear my mind, to reset and recover.”

"For the longest time, being an athlete had been a really core pillar of my identity. Sport offered that escape, for me personally as a gay person. It offered a reprieve from social pressures to do certain things or act a certain way."

The 2SLGBTQ+ community has also become an important part of David’s advocacy in sport. After graduating from UNB, he went on to complete a master of public policy and administration (he now works for the federal government as a senior program adviser), at which point he also became a swim coach and did a summer internship with Coach New Brunswick (now merged with Sport New Brunswick) “I really got involved in 2SLGBTQ+ inclusion, in sport advocacy work. I worked with Coach New Brunswick to develop a handbook for coaches working with 2SLGBTQ+ athletes, to make their clubs more inclusive and welcoming for everybody.”

He also got involved with an organization called You Can Play, which promotes 2SLGBTQ+ inclusion in sport and recreation, and was selected as one of 50 young sport makers (the only one from Canada) to participate in the first Global Sports Week, held in Paris in February of 2020. “We were able to ask questions directly to global industry leaders and give feedback about what we as Gen Z wanted to see in the sport industry globally going forward,” says David in describing the experience. He says the event opened his eyes even further to the power and possibilities of sport. “I spiralled from there, like, how

From there, a podcast was born. With guests from grassroots sport community groups to national sport organizations to international sport organizations, David uses his Sports for Social Impact podcast to discuss all those topics that first hit him at the conference, and more. Episodes on sports and social business, Indigenous reconciliation, sustainable development, homelessness, and renewable energy are just a few of the podcast’s topics, now in season 5 and recognized with two podcast award nominations.

David says he enjoys the podcast medium because it promotes deep conversation.“I chose a podcast over a blog because it felt more authentic and let me connect more with people. In nearly every episode, I’m connecting with guests and really diving into it with someone who is a direct expert in the aspect of sport we’re talking about that day. It’s really interesting, and the conversation can flow naturally.”

While he keeps his day job in the federal government separate from these advocacy activities, David says all his activities are driven by the same deep interest in public policy that he first discovered in his undergraduate studies, in classes like the community engagement course at UNB, and later sharpened at Carleton. “That really helped me see the importance of public policy and the role of government in solving these challenges that we are facing as a society,” he says, adding that he furthermore sees the sports lens as an important first love in his own life that has crucial potential overlap with other areas, from education to environment to health.

“Sport is so important to helping people feel included in society. We need to make sports more inclusive, and then the benefit is that sports will help include all these people who are often on the margins, not just 2SLGBTQ+, but newcomers, people with disabilities and more. Sport can be a catalyst for inclusion and for other types of change.”

(Photo was taken at the 2015 AUS swimming championships at Dalhousie University)