Grace Anne Paizen

Sports Editor

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Grace has many a fond memory of reading the Free Press at the kitchen table, inspiring her to dabble in amateur journalism as a child. The household could count on the latest edition of the “Dog News” in her formative years, as she played everything from editor-and-chief down to the fictional dog reporters.

Her journey into professional journalism, then, must have been destiny.

A dedicated academic, Grace received her bachelor’s degree in English literature and master’s degree in cultural studies at the University of Winnipeg. However, being hired at the Manitoban in 2019 as arts & culture editor gave her a taste of real-deal journalism and had an everlasting effect.

She went on to work as the managing editor of the Manitoban, as well as sports editor, covering all-things Bisons. After brief stint as a news reporter at CBC Manitoba, she found herself poached by academia again, this time working on her doctoral project at the University of Glasgow.

Offered the opportunity to work at the Free Press as a copy editor, Grace made the crossing back over the Atlantic, spending several months in the position before becoming the first female sports editor in the newspaper’s history in March 2025.

A passionate fan, sports has always been a major part of Grace’s life and a comforting steady constant through hard times.

She specialized in volleyball, her dad was a basketball player, her grandmother a baseball superfan, her uncle an encyclopedia of sports stats, and the TV was always tuned to Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights growing up in River City.