TORONTO \u2014 Sarah Nurse was driving home from a recent PWHL Toronto practice when she got a bit of sage advice.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t from a podcast or a friend on the phone. The advice came courtesy of a billboard on the side of the road in Canada\u2019s most populous city, featuring her own face with the Adidas slogan \u201cYou got this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, yeah, I do<\/i>,\u201d Nurse said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
The billboard she drove past is one of many across the country, including a massive advertisement at Yonge-Dundas Square \u2014 Toronto\u2019s closest approximation to Times Square in New York City \u2014 that pairs Nurse with Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes and World Cup champion Lionel Messi.<\/p>\n
Nurse, 29, has had major partnerships in the past. In 2020, Tim Hortons and Mattel collaborated to make a Barbie doll in her likeness. In 2022, she was featured on a Cheerios box. But in the two years since her breakout performance at the Beijing Olympics \u2014 in which she broke a record for points in a single tournament (18) \u2014 Nurse has become one of the biggest faces in women\u2019s hockey.<\/p>\n
She became the first woman to appear on the cover of an EA Sports hockey video game with NHL 23. She was a key figure in the launch of the Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League as a member of the player-led bargaining committee that struck a first-of-its-kind CBA in women\u2019s professional hockey. This month, she starred in a Canadian Super Bowl commercial<\/a> and was one of the busiest athletes during NHL All-Star Weekend, appearing at several league and partner events.<\/p>\n \u201cEverywhere you turn, it\u2019s like, there\u2019s Sarah,\u201d said Canadian national team defender Erin Ambrose.<\/p>\n Nurse\u2019s eight major endorsement deals put her ahead of virtually every other professional hockey player, outside of a handful of NHL<\/a> stars. Among women and players of color, she is in uncharted territory.<\/p>\n Her ascension has been years in the making \u2014 all part of a carefully crafted business plan developed by Nurse and her team at Dulcedo Management, a talent agency, to make Nurse not just one of the faces of the game, but someone with the kind of celebrity that transcends her sport.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t need to follow basketball to know who LeBron James is,\u201d said her agent, Thomas Houlton. \u201cThat\u2019s what we want to do for Sarah.\u201d<\/p>\n When Nurse signed with Dulcedo in 2019, her reputation as a player was already strong.<\/p>\n At 24 years old, Nurse had already been a star at the University of Wisconsin, won an Olympic silver medal and been drafted with the No. 2 pick in the now-defunct Canadian Women\u2019s Hockey League. In those early days, Nurse was often discussed as one of the newest branches of an impressive athletic family tree.<\/p>\n Her father, Roger, was an elite lacrosse player. Her aunt, Raquel, was a celebrated point guard at Syracuse University who married Philadelphia Eagles legend Donovan McNabb. Her cousins include Kia Nurse, a two-time Olympian and WNBA<\/a> all-star, and Darnell Nurse<\/a>, a defenseman for the Edmonton Oilers<\/a>.<\/p>\n With Nurse\u2019s multifaceted appeal, several agents came calling.<\/p>\n But after the 2018 PyeongChang\u00a0Olympics, Nurse, who graduated with a business degree, was looking to explore her interests in fashion and beauty \u2014 fields that are typically outside the areas of expertise for traditional sports agencies. Nurse, however, wasn\u2019t playing in a typical sports landscape.<\/p>\n In the CWHL, players were paid only small stipends \u2014 Nurse said she made $2,000 as a rookie in the league \u2014 which meant playing women\u2019s professional hockey was not a main source of income.<\/p>\n Dulcedo, which launched as a modeling agency but has since expanded into other industries, including sports, could give Nurse more opportunities to branch out.<\/p>\n \u201cShe didn\u2019t just want to be known as Sarah Nurse, the hockey player,\u201d explained Houlton. \u201cAnd not just as a piece of the (family tree). \u2026 It\u2019s been clear from the beginning that she really wanted to have her own legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first signed with them,\u201d Nurse said, \u201cI did this glamor photoshoot, and I\u2019d never done anything like that before because I\u2019m a hockey player \u2014 nobody gives me fake eyelashes or puts lipstick on me. I was like, this could be the start of something great, because I felt like they got me.\u201d<\/p>\n Houlton signed Nurse to blue-chip sports partners like CCM and Adidas but also worked on building up her social-media profile to position her in areas outside of hockey. \u201cNo skincare brand is going to want to work with you if we don\u2019t see skincare anywhere,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n On the ice, Nurse was in another Olympic cycle with Team Canada leading up to the 2022 Games in Beijing and in the middle of a period of upheaval in women\u2019s professional hockey. The CWHL folded in March 2019, and most of the players banded together to sit out of professional hockey until a better league was formed.<\/a> Then the 2020 women\u2019s world championships were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n The stakes were high in the year leading up to the Olympics<\/a>. For athletes without big-ticket professional contracts, the once-every-four-year window the Games provide is a critical moment to make money \u2014 and a name for themselves. A knee injury during tryouts put into question whether Nurse would be healthy enough to play.<\/p>\n \u201cI came out of the world championships in Calgary and I was on the fourth line \u2014 that\u2019s not a safe place to be. Then I blew up my knee,\u201d Nurse said. \u201cSo I\u2019m going into Olympic tryouts and I\u2019m like, I don\u2019t know if I can make this team.\u201d<\/p>\n To the coaching staff, despite the fact she couldn\u2019t skate in the months leading up to the tournament, Nurse had more than proven her worth to the Canadian national team.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew that she was going to be a big part of our program if she was healthy enough to go,\u201d said Canada\u2019s head coach, Troy Ryan. \u201cThe combination of her work ethic and the medical staff did a great job getting her back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I love about Sarah, as a teammate and as a hockey player, is that she does the little things right. She\u2019s versatile in the sense that she can play center and play wing. She can win draws, she\u2019s hard to play against, you can trust her in tough matchups,\u201d said Ambrose. \u201cFor so long with the national team, that was her m.o. Whatever you needed, she was there.\u201d<\/p>\n Nurse made the team and was healthy in time for the start of the tournament. She also secured Olympic campaigns with General Mills, Sportchek, RBC and more.<\/p>\n Team Canada rewrote the record books<\/a> in Beijing, going undefeated in the tournament to win a gold medal. Nurse, who started the tournament on the fourth line, worked her way up to the top line with Marie-Philip Poulin and Brianne Jenner, and broke Hayley Wickenheiser\u2019s Olympic scoring record with 18 points in six games. She set a record for assists in a single tournament (13) and became the first Black woman to win an Olympic gold medal in hockey.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was really the catalyst for her to take that next step,\u201d said Houlton. \u201cAnd really propelled us into what was the next phase of her life.\u201d<\/p>\n Ninety minutes before the NHL All-Star red-carpet event, Nurse was in a hotel room in downtown Toronto doing her hair, getting her makeup done and shooting content for her social media channels \u2014 nothing she wasn\u2019t used to.<\/p>\n Her All-Star weekend responsibilities had started days before, with media and promotional appearances. Earlier that morning, she was on the ice for an outdoor practice with the PWHL<\/a> players chosen to represent the brand-new league at the NHL\u2019s tentpole event<\/a>. She then made a surprise visit to a girls hockey team with teammates Renata Fast, Natalie Spooner and Adidas.<\/p>\n After leaving the hotel, she\u2019d walk the red carpet, surprise another girls hockey team \u2014 this time with Canadian Tire and Poulin \u2014 and, 12 hours after her day started, play in the PWHL three-on-three showcase at Scotiabank Arena. That part of her schedule doesn\u2019t include the NHL skills competition, which Nurse was on the ice for on Friday night, or the regular-season PWHL game she played on Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cThat whole week was a blur,\u201d Nurse said.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t even know if we were anticipating what occurred there in terms of, like, you can\u2019t even walk a couple of steps without someone stopping and saying, \u2018That\u2019s Sarah Nurse, can I get a picture?\u2019\u201d Houlton said. \u201cIt was amazing to see how far she\u2019s come.\u201d<\/p>\n Everything about Nurse\u2019s NHL All-Star weekend suggests the plan has worked. In the last year, Nurse has gotten so busy that Dulcedo added Phoebe Balshin to the team as a senior athlete manager in January 2023. Her job was to create a more strategic plan for Nurse\u2019s brand and help her take the next step.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first came on, a big conversation was: Sarah works with so many brands, but what is her brand? Who is she? What is her mission and vision?\u201d Balshin said. \u201cSo we basically built out a five-year plan with her to take us through Milan (the 2026 Olympics.)\u201d<\/p>\n To refine the process, Nurse identified four specific intersections of her own interests and growth opportunities: hockey, fashion and beauty, entrepreneurship and community. A potential partnership must move the needle in at least one of those categories.<\/p>\n \u201cIf something doesn\u2019t align with me, we\u2019re not going to do it,\u201d Nurse said.<\/p>\n Nurse now has eight major sponsors: Adidas, CCM, RBC, Canadian Tire, Tim Hortons, EA Sports, Chevrolet and, most recently, Dyson. She\u2019s also signed other paid partnerships with beauty brands such as Dove, L\u2019Or\u00e9al and Revlon.<\/p>\n Brands targeted Nurse after her Olympic performance, but that\u2019s just one part of the total package. She\u2019s outgoing with an affable charm, an infectious laugh and an ease on camera.<\/p>\n \u201cIt comes down to personality, and Sarah is very much one-of-one,\u201d Houlton said. \u201cSarah can show up on set straight out of bed and look amazing, sound amazing, and give the brand the best performance they\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n Nurse is a biracial Black woman and is vocal in her support of increased representation in a predominantly White sport. Her team is cautious about the intentions of potential sponsors. \u201cI need to ask all the right questions to make sure that this brand is not just using her so they check their diversity box,\u201d Houlton explained.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve also worked with partners that Nurse already had in her portfolio to ensure that her goals are being met \u2014 not just the brand\u2019s own objectives.<\/p>\n During All-Star weekend, Nurse did a shoot with RBC that included Poulin and Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> star Auston Matthews<\/a>, which oriented\u00a0 Nurse as a professional athlete \u2014 not just as a women\u2019s hockey player. Her Adidas campaign has her aligned with big names outside of the sport, such as Mahomes and Messi. \u201cOur goal is to get her neck and neck with the best,\u201d Balshin explained.<\/p>\n Auston Matthews, Sarah Nurse, and Marie-Philip Poulin answered hard-hitting questions from kids at an RBC press conference \ud83d\ude02<\/p>\n (via @RBC<\/a>) pic.twitter.com\/7T7k7bT8QV<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 B\/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) February 5, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Last week, Nurse launched \u201cNursey Night,\u201d in which she will host young Black girls at PWHL Toronto games, meet with them postgame and mentor them throughout the year. The idea started as a way for Nurse to give away her brother\u2019s season tickets every once in a while but it ended up with a $50,000 donation from Rogers<\/a> and a partnership with Black Girl Hockey Club, a non-profit organization focused on making hockey more inclusive.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople want to be involved in anything she does,\u201d Balshin said. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of how we snowball things over here.\u201d<\/p>\n On top of promotional appearances and events, Nurse posts paid promotions on social media and has gotten more active on TikTok, posting videos while doing her makeup or skincare, or providing motivation to young girls and women who visit her channels. Everything gets put into a content calendar that Balshin manages, and every morning she sends Nurse a text outlining \u201ceverything we have to worry about today.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe has made our lives a lot happier,\u201d Nurse said. \u201cWe got to a point where there was just too much happening and we couldn\u2019t facilitate everything.\u201d<\/p>\n With everything going on off the ice, it\u2019s easy to forget that Nurse is one of Canada\u2019s best hockey players and a face of the PWHL in Toronto. She\u2019s also the vice president of the PWHL Players Association and is on the Hockey Canada player committee.<\/p>\n \u201cI would love to sit down and see her calendar,\u201d Ambrose said. \u201cI am in awe of what she does away from the rink. I am in awe of what she does at the rink. I truthfully don\u2019t know how she does it but I love her for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Nurse knows it sounds like there\u2019s a lot on her plate but insists she\u2019s very good at compartmentalizing. Ryan, also her coach with PWHL Toronto, says Nurse\u2019s other responsibilities have \u201cnever negatively impacted who she is as a player.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think she\u2019s found ways to actually use it to make sure she still has an impact in the game,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s under a spotlight and under a microscope so much. I think that sense of pride she probably gets with that has probably forced her to do the extra work.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very conscious of the fact that for me to do all of this other stuff, I need to perform my best on the ice,\u201d added Nurse, who scored two goals on Tuesday night, including the game winner against Minnesota<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gone are the days of players such as Nurse making only $2,000 a season to play hockey. In the PWHL, the minimum salary $35,000, with some top players making as much as $100,000. Still, even the league\u2019s best players aren\u2019t getting rich playing women\u2019s professional hockey.<\/p>\n \u201cThe marketing does mean a lot to them and is a main source of income,\u201d Balshin said.<\/p>\n The work that Nurse is putting in is also laying the track for life after hockey, whenever that comes. It would take something unforeseen for Nurse to not be at the 2026 Olympics.<\/p>\n Nurse has thought about pursuing several paths, from real estate investment to launching a clothing line or a production company. \u201cI definitely have aspirations to expand and grow into different sectors,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want her to be a face of hockey, period, not just women\u2019s hockey. And of inclusion in sport,\u201d Balshin said. \u201cShe wants to show young girls that they can be so many things.\u201d<\/p>\n (Illustration: Daniel Goldfarb \/ <\/em>The Athletic. Photos: Mark Blinch \/ Getty Images, Nicole Osborne \/ NHLI via Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n Sarah Nurse holds the Barbie dolls inspired by herself and Marie-Philip Poulin in 2020. (Courtesy of Tim Hortons)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/02\/28145637\/GettyImages-1979055703-scaled.jpg\")
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\n Sarah Nurse attends a postgame conference after the PWHL three-on-three showcase at Scotiabank Arena during NHL All-Star Weekend. (Kevin Sousa \/ NHLI via Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\n Sarah Nurse skates against PWHL Montreal\u2019s Mariah Keopple at Scotiabank Arena. (Mark Blinch \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n