15 Facts About Marion Lay

At the 1967 Pan American Games, Marion Lay won four silver medals.

Marion Lay won the 1965 ASA National Championship 100 metres freestyle title.

Marion Lay is a leading activist in eliminating inequities faced by women in sport.

Marion Lay 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.

Marion Lay 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.

Marion Lay served on the executive committee of the Canadian Olympic Committee and was President of Operations for Rick Hansen's Man in Motion World Tour.

Marion Lay's honours include the 2001 International Olympic Committee's Women and Sport Trophy for the Americas; the inaugural Carol Anne Letheren International Sport Leadership Award in 2002, acknowledging a Canadian woman who has made an outstanding contribution to international sport leadership; the Order of British Columbia in 2012; the Leadership in Sports Award at the 2001 Canadian Sport Awards; and the 1995 Bryce Taylor Memorial Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian sport.

Marion Lay was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame as a Builder in 2012, the BC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum as a Builder in 2005; the BC Swimming Hall of Fame as a Builder in 2003, the California State Polytechnic College Sports Hall of Fame for swimming, basketball, and volleyball in 1991, and the Aquatic Hall of Fame and Museum of Canada as an athlete in 1972.

Marion Lay received the Vancouver YWCA Women of Distinction Award in 1991, the Bobbie Steen Award of Excellence for leadership in women in sport in 2001, and the CAAWS Women in Sport Herstorical Award in 2002.

Marion Lay was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002 and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

Marion 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.

Marion Lay was President and CEO of the 2010 Legacies Now Society.

Marion 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.

An editor of Playing it Forward: Women and Sport in Canada, published by the Feminist History Society and Second Story Press in 2012, Marion Lay was 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".

Marion Lay is the partner of Penny Ballem, a civil servant who was the city manager of Vancouver.