Stephanie Labbe, whose safe hands helped Canada to Olympic gold in women’s soccer in Tokyo last summer, has announced that she is retiring.

The shocking news comes just two days after Labbe finished second to The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper.

The 35-year-old from Stony Plain, Alta., Who started the season with Swedish FC Rosengard before moving to Paris Saint-Germain at the end of August, was beaten for the FIFA award by Chilean Christiane Endler (Paris Saint-Germain / Olympique) Lyonnais ).

Labbe says she has left PSG and will end this spring after the second half of the Canadian women’s so-called “Celebration Tour”.

“It will be my official expulsion with the national team,” said Labbe, who has won 85 internationals for Canada, with 43 zeros.

Labbe said she had been thinking about her future for a while, with a decision coming in late November.

“Honestly, I woke up one day and it just hit me – I just knew in my heart that it was time,” she said in an interview. “I feel so confident in it, I feel so ready for what comes next.

“I really feel by now that I have given everything to the game and I have invested my heart and soul in it and I just do not feel that I have anything left. And I feel so good about it. I really feel that I have “I could not have asked for a better moment than to end my career on an Olympic gold medal and sign for one of the best clubs in the world.”

A rib injury forced Labbe out of Canada’s opening match against host Japan at the Olympics. But she returned after missing a match, even though she was playing in pain.

The Canadian No. 1 became an iconic figure in Tokyo – grinning in goal under pressured penalties over Brazil and Sweden.

While she still loves the game, Labbe says she no longer felt “that drive to want to go to training to really push herself to the maximum.”

“And for me, I’ve never been the type to do things half-heartedly.”

In addition, a spark was missing. She said that the “intoxication of excitement” when she stepped on the pitch was fading.

She leaves the Canadian goal in good hands with Erin McLeod (119 internationals), Kailen Sheridan (16) and Sabrina D’Angelo (eight) – with Anna Karpenko, Rylee Foster and Devon Kerr among those waiting behind the scenes.

“It’s a bright, bright future for this team,” said Labbe. “I have no doubt about it. I’m super happy to see them all continue to grow and prosper. And I’ll be their biggest cheerleader, their biggest support system.”

Labbe has also won praise for opening up about mental health and describing difficult times in 2012, after the Olympics in Rio 2016 and during the Tokyo Games.

In 2012, she stepped away from the national team to focus on her club career rather than stressing over her place in the Canadian hack order. That meant missing the Olympics in London, where Canada took bronze.

After winning bronze at the Rio 2016 Games, the Olympic medal began to weigh her down and Labbe felt that people were more interested in it than she was. In September 2017, Washington Spirit announced that Labbe was taking medical leave for the remainder of the NWSL season.

Recently, Labbe said she could not train for parts of the Tokyo Games due to “high levels of anxiety and multiple panic attacks.”

She described the challenges she faced in a September paper entitled “Winning the Olympics Is Not Enough to Cure Mental Health” to help publish FIFPRO’s “Are You Ready To Talk” – a mental health program from the organization that represents 65 000 professional football players worldwide.

“I had no idea that this injury would trigger an underlying vulnerability in my mental state,” Labbe wrote. “My adrenaline was so high and my neuromuscular system was so fine-tuned that I struggled to get down between games, which resulted in high levels of anxiety and several panic attacks. It got to the point that I could not train between the quarterfinals and the final because I was so overstimulated. ”

Labbe said she “basically spent the 48 hours after the last lying in a dark room.”

At PSG, Labbe had shared goalkeeper information with German Charlotte Voll and Czech Barbora Votikova. Her last match was on December 16, a 6-0 victory over Icelandic Breidablik in the UEFA Champions League group stage.

Labbe is scheduled to return to Canada on Thursday with his fiancée, former Olympian Georgia Simmerling, and their dog Rio.

“I know I want to keep pushing the game forward in Canada,” Labbe said. “Of course I want to continue to be a voice and push for a professional league in Canada on the women’s side. I want to stay in the game in different ways, continue to inspire young girls to stay in the sport, to continue playing football.

“I have a piece of my heart where I want to continue to get more Alberta girls in the national team. It has been few and far between over the years.”

Home is always close to her heart.

Labbe’s right arm, from shoulder to elbow, is a tattooed tribute to her native Alberta.

The ink represents the Rocky Mountains – “my happy place” – and spruces. A compass pointing north shows that she is from northern Alberta. A wild rose, Alberta’s provincial flower, is wrapped around an anchor that reminds her to be grounded and know where you come from. Below a quote, “Be You Bravely”, gives words to live by.

The word “free” is printed on her wrist. She calls it a reminder “that when I am at my best I am free and I do not think, I can only be me and I am just free.”

Labbe says she will take the time to choose her next adventure.

“First of all, I want to enjoy these last months of national team activity,” she said. “Just take real time to reflect and be proud of what I have been able to achieve … But I am also very sure that opportunities will come and things will be there for me on the other side.

“But right now I just want to enjoy this moment with my friends. My family, with the national team and have a real celebration this spring.”

Forming a family with Simmerling later on is also on the cards, and the couple is looking at a wedding in the summer of 2023.

Simmerling made history in Rio 2016 by becoming the first Canadian athlete to compete in a different sport at each of three different Olympic Games. She made her Olympic debut in alpine skiing in Vancouver in 2010, competed in skicross in Sochi in 2014 and the track cycling team hunt at both Rio and Tokyo.

Simmerling withdrew after Tokyo, where her prosecution team finished fourth in Canadian record time.

Labbe played collegiate football at the University of Connecticut, began her professional career in 2009 in Sweden, played for Pitea IF and then KIF Örebro DFF before returning to North America in 2014 to join Washington.

In March 2018, she signed for Calgary Foothills, a men’s team. But the league rules prevented her from playing.

Labbe joined Sweden’s Linkopings FC before returning to the United States to join the North Carolina Courage, and won the NWSL Championship 2019.

– Neil Davidson THE CANADIAN PRESS

Olympic football