Women’s hockey player was a man
CWHL defender Platt has found plenty of support
TORONTO — Jessica Platt gave up hockey as a teenager a decade ago. At the time she didn’t know where she fit into the game.
But the desire to play the sport never went away for the 28-yearold Toronto Furies defenceman, the first openly transgender athlete to compete in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League.
“Hockey is incredibly important in my life, I take every opportunity I can to get on the ice and play,” said Platt. “I feel at home, feel better on the ice.”
Platt posted a message on Instagram on Wednesday announcing her decision to go public with her gender identity, thanking her friends, family and the CWHL for their support.
“It’s been crazy, like a whirlwind,” she said of the reaction. “Got all sorts of supportive messages from people on social media, text messages, phone calls. It’s been great.”
The Bright’s Grove, Ont., native grew up playing sports on boy’s teams and said she first questioned her gender identity in high school when she noticed “something was different.”
“I guess looking back now you could say there was clear signs I should have known something was up (sooner), but high school was when I tried to start figuring everything out.”
Platt took a break from hockey after her experience on the boy’s high school team, saying she loved playing but felt “uncomfortable” within the culture. After graduating high school, she took some time and eventually decided on hormone replacement therapy.
“I figured out first that I was transgender, then I went to university, decided that it was right for me to transition so I went about the process of finding the right doctor for hormone therapy and it all came with time.”
Platt, with her family’s support, began her medical transition in 2012. She graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2014, and along the way took on a job as a skating instructor.
That’s when she felt inspired to get back into hockey.
“I think teaching the younger generation how to do what I love kind of gave me a really strong desire to get out there and play again,” she said.
Platt’s journey to the CWHL began in an adult recreation league in Waterloo. She became curious about women’s options and came across the now seventeam league originally established in 1997.
Platt said she changed her diet and training routine, dropping 60 pounds by working out six days a week. She put her focus on getting into hockey at the top level and was picked in the 2016 CWHL draft. The five-foot-eight, 155pound blue liner was drafted 61st overall.