Burtini Off the Field and Her Contributions with Vancouver Police
Written by Sarah Pastore
The achievements of Italian-Canadian athletes have been absent from Canadian sports archives. While Italians are very proud of their culture and heritage, the involvement of Italians in Canadian sports is not often appreciated. Careers of Italian-Canadian athletes such as the career of female soccer player Silvana Burtini, is hardly archived or recorded. The objective of my poster is to highlight Burtini’s many accomplishments. Not only does she hold many records that have yet to be beat, but she has also received many awards where she has even surpassed the best male soccer players in Canada. Very few Italian-Canadian athletes are appreciated, especially not in soccer. The fact that Silvana Burtini has accomplished so much as an Italian-Canadian woman is something to admire and celebrate in Italian communities across Canada.
My poster project presented the Italian-Canadian soccer player Silvana Burtini. She was born in Williams Lake British Columbia on May 10, 1969. Silvana Burtini is one of the most highly-awarded Canadian female soccer players in history and she holds several records that have yet to be beat. Despite her countless achievements, there is very little information on her career in any archives or articles. The objective of my research on Burtini is to share the history of her career. She is one of the best Canadian female soccer players of all time and she deserves to be acknowledged for her achievements. Burtini also represented Canada at the Fifa World cup for many years. She is one of the very few Italian-Canadians who played for the national Canadian soccer team and the fact that one of the very few Italian-Canadian soccer players is female is something worth celebrating.
Burtini began playing soccer at the age of six for her local recreational soccer team. Since there were no soccer teams for girls at any level higher than the recreational level, she joined the boys’ soccer team. She played on the boys’ soccer team for five years until she started playing for her college team at Capitano College where she was then discovered. Soon after she was discovered, she began her career with the Women’s National Canadian soccer team in 1987. Burtini represented Canada at the Fifa World Cup in 1995, 1999 and 2003. Even though she has achieved many things throughout her International career, one of her biggest achievements was she was awarded Canada’s player of the year in 1998, where she was recognized among the top male Canadian soccer players of her time. She was also awarded Fifa ambassador for Women’s Football in 2005. Another very important highlight of her career was when she was placed on the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame in 2010, where she was then placed on the British Columbia Hall of Fame just last year in 2019. Like every athlete, there is one thing that they are known for.
Silvana Burtini is known for holding the record of the top scorer for women’s international soccer for twenty-two years. No female soccer player around the world was able to beat her record for twenty-two years and Burtini is a highly-admired international soccer player. Her record was beat by one of the current most talented Canadian female soccer players, Christine Sinclair. It was just this year in 2020 that Sinclair had beat Silvana’s record of top scorer for International Women’s soccer.
Despite her outstanding career, there are very limited sources on Silvana Burtini. The only archive I was able to find that discussed her career was the Soccer Hall of Fame and Heritage archive. Besides the archive, the website of her hometown has followed her career and follows her current career. While there is a lack of recognition of her Italian heritage, Burtini is a highly-celebrated figure in British Columbia. She is currently a detective for the Vancouver Police Department, and she was awarded the British Columbia Police Award for saving a life in 2004. She is also an active member in her community and strongly promotes the importance of children’s involvement in recreational sports. As a member of the Vancouver Police Department, Burtini believes that recreational sports have many benefits such as reducing crime. She is also a member of the Williams Lake Youth Soccer Association and has been involved in the creation of faculty designs, potential locations, construction costs and operating models of soon to be community centres in the community of her hometown. She fights for the establishment of these community renters, since she believes these would have bettered her career if Williams Lake had these faculty during her childhood. Most importantly, she strongly promotes the encouragement of women and girls in sports. She is currently a soccer coach for several girls’ teams in her hometown.
To conclude, Silvana Burtini has had an outstanding career, that deserves to be shared amongst Canadians. Not only did she accomplish many things, but she is one of very few Canadian women who have been able to do so. There must be more research on the involvement of Italians in Canadian sports because it is something to celebrate in the Italian communities across Canada. As a soccer player myself, I would have loved to have known about Burtini growing up. Especially because she is Italian, I would have strongly admired her such as how I do today.
December 2020
Bibliography
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How to cite this page:
MLA STYLE: Author. “Title.” Title of container, Other contributors, Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs and/or URL, DOI or permalink). 2nd container’s title, Other contributors.
Pastore, Sarah. ”Burtini off the Field and Her Contributions with Vancouver Police.” In Archival Research of Italian-Canadian Immigration and Culture, supvr. T. Russo, issue 4: Italian-Canadians as Athletes and Community Builders: Contributions in the Sports Industry, Brock University, December 2020, St. Catherines (Sports in Italian-Canadian Communities – Italian-Canadian Narratives Showcase (italianheritage.ca)). Italian-Canadian Narratives Showcase (ICNS), Sandra Parmegiani and Nivashinee Ponambalum.