Part currency, part status symbol: Pin-trading becomes 2nd sport for people at Canada Summer Games

With her hammer throw competition now behind her at the 2022 Canada Summer Games, Chanell Botsis is ready to turn to her second sport: pin trading.

The British Columbia athlete – who broke the Games' women's hammer throw record this week with a throw of 61.44 metres – appears to apply a similar dedication to the more niche activity of collecting the souvenir lapel pins produced by each province, some of the sports associations and some sponsors at the Niagara Region event.

"I've kind of had a slow start [this year] but I really plan to be getting into it now that I'm done competing," said Botsis, who was hanging out at the dedicated pin-trading tent at Canada Games Park in St. Catharines, Ont. on Wednesday, showing off a backpack and lanyard laden with pins from the Niagara Games and several past competitions. "They have unique designs, so you really want to find unique pins and just maybe get one from every province."

It's hard to talk to anyone at the Games that isn't mildly obsessed with pin-trading, a longtime tradition at sports events. According to the Olympics organization, it began at the 1896 Athens Games where delegations wore cardboard pins as a way of identifying athletes, judges and officials. By the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, one local company produced 18 million pins for various countries' Olympic committees, which often use them as a fundraiser. 

Botsis says each province typically gives its athletes a certain number of pins to trade, and they can also be purchased at the pin tent and sometimes found at sponsor booths. Their scarcity, and the social acumen required to build a big collection, means the decorative badges clustered on attendees' lanyards are part currency and part status symbol. 

"You have to try to find some athletes, meet them, kind of say 'hi' and maybe trade," Botsis said, in between chats with other athletes who'd stopped by the crowded tent to marvel at her collection, which she'd laid out on a table for all to see. "It's a nice way to make friendships and meet people and learn where they're from… I really want to go see diving because I've never seen that in person. Same with rowing. I can't wait to go watch and maybe trade some pins."

Out at the track, where classic Canadian songs such as "Enid" by the Barenaked Ladies and Snow's anti-snitching hit "Informer" blasted over the loudspeakers, players whose trading was obvious on their lanyards came and went – many casually passing a young athlete who'd clearly had a tough race and was vomiting into a Green For Life waste bin.

"That's part of the sport," said an adult, comfortingly, his lanyard noticeably less well-decorated.

The hype of the social aspect of the Games – including for pin trading – does tend to fade as you get older, says track coach Heather Beaton, 27, her lanyard barren. It was the Nova Scotian's first time at the Games in a coaching role, after competing at its two previous incarnations. Now, she guides younger athletes in the 400-metre, 800-metre, 400-metre hurdles and 400-metre relay events, saying that – for them – the social stuff can help dissipate the pressure such a big event can present.

"If you're mingling with people who are in similar [events], it takes some of the stress away. You feel like, 'I know this person. I feel not as intimidated," she told CBC. "Pin trading is a really big thing. I've heard the Nova Scotia pins, some people want to pay for them. 'I'll give you $80 for the pin.' It's insane. People are offering a jacket for pins. It's just so funny."

For Botsis, the owner of the best pin collection this reporter saw Wednesday, success will hinge on her execution of a late-Games trading strategy she says can work wonders – capitalizing on the pin scarcity that develops as the event comes to a close.

"You can wait until the end of the Games, when everybody's looking for those really special ones… Some of the pins are in really high demand and people might trade two for one. You can bargain a little more," she said.

She noted that this year, Nunavut pins are a hot commodity because it's a small team, so it has been harder to find athletes to trade with. Botsis also lamented that she'd already traded away all her B.C. pins, which she says are typically a bit fancier than the other provinces' wares and always much sought-after. 

"It was such a free for all [at the beginning]. There's a lot more pins to go around then."