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Sports Personalities
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Lela Brooks
A Toronto Born speed skater who won a world title in 1926 at a world
championship held in
Saint John
New Brunswick…Canada’s first woman to be a world champion.
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Henrietta "Hettie" Tuzo Wilson.
née Tuzo. Born Victoria, British Columbia May 6, 1873. Died January 11,
1955. She was the first Canadian born woman
mountaineer. A founding member of the Alpine Club of Canada
she had a real passion for climbing. In 1906 she was the first woman to
ascend Peak seven of the Valley of the Ten Peaks near Moraine Lake and
bordering the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. . in 1907 Peak
Seven was renamed Mount Tuzo in her honour. She stopped climbing in 1907
when she was 34 years old. She moved to Ottawa with her husband to raise
their family. In 1928 she was elected president of the National Council
of Women, still climbing the mountains set up in front of women by
society. John Tuzo Wilson, her son became a well known Canadian
geologist in the area of continental drift and plat tectonics. |
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Ethel
Catherwood.
Born Haldamond Co., Ontario April 28, 1908. Died September 26, 1987.
Ethel was on the 1928 Canadian Olympic team,
the first Olympic games to allow women to compete. She won a gold medal
for
Canada in the high jump when she cleared 5feet 2 inches (1.588m).
She is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. |
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Myrtle Cook.
Born
January 5,
1902. While she excelled in track, Myrtle was an excellent all around
athlete.
In the 1928 Olympics (the first Olympic Games to allow women to
compete) she was the anchor leg of the gold medal winning 400 m relay.
She also held national and British Empire Games medals. She
is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. |
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Fanny “Bobbie” Rosenfeld. Born Russia
December 28, 1903. Died
November 14, 1969.
In 1950 she was declared Canada’s woman athlete of the half century.
She was a member of the 1928 Olympic team.
These were the first Olympic Games to allow women to compete. She brought
home a silver and gold medal for
Canada!
She is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. |
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Ethel Smith.
Born December 31, 1907. She teamed with
Bobbie Rosenfeld, Myrtle Cook and Jane Bell to win the gold medal in the
400m relay at the 1928 Olympic games, the fist games that allowed women to
compete. She also won the bronze medal in the 100m sprint at
the same games. A natural athlete she excelled at basketball and softball
as well as track and field. She is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall
of Fame. |
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Phyllis Munday
(née Jarnes) Born 1894. Died 1990. This woman has a mountain named for
herself and her husband Don.
Mount Munday is the
highest peak in the Waddington Range of the Canadian Rockies. A competent
climber she and Annette Buck in 1924 became
the first women to reach the summit of
Mount Robson,
the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies.
While she would enjoy climbing more than 100 peaks in the
Rockies she was more than
a mountaineer. She was a scientist, cartographer, naturalist, humanitarian
and adventurer. In 1973 she received the Order of Canada for her
pioneering efforts in these fields and for her dedicated service to the
Girl Guides, St. Johns Ambulance and the Alpine Club of Canada. In 1992,
Canada Post issued
a stamp with Phyllis Munday on it as part of its Legendary Canadians
series. |
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Jean Wilson Born
Glasgow, Scotland July
19, 1910. Died September 3, 1933. In 1931 she was the North American indoor speed
skating champion. At the 1932 Olympics she
was
Canada’s first women’s speed skating gold and silver medals
when speed skating was a demonstration sport. Jean won the 500m race in 58
seconds and came second in the 1500 m event.
At only 23 years of age she died from a progressive muscular disease. She
was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 1955. |
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Winnifred "Winnie" Frances Roach-Leuszler
(née Roach) Born Port Credit, Ontario
February 3, 1926. Died May 2004. A long distance swimmer of international
acclaim she started swimming when she was 3 years old. At 9 years of age
she won her first medal as a competitive swimmer and she never looked
back. She would go on to win local, provincial, national, North American
and international medals throughout her career. In 1944 she was labeled
Canada's All Round Athlete of the year. That same year she joined the
Women's Corp and was dominating Army, Navy and Air Forces sporting
championships. In 1946 whil3 three months pregnant, she won the 5 mile
World Swimming Championship and while four months pregnant in 1949 she was
second in the same event. On August 16, 1951 she became the first Canadian
woman to swim the English Channel. She came home to a ticker tape parade
in Toronto! In 1954 she entered the swim across Lake Ontario with Marilyn
Bell but was forced from the event with problems with her guide boat. In
the 1950's she was lured to baseball and in 1957 she was Canada's first
female baseball umpire. In 1996 she was inducted into the Canadian Forces
Sports Hall of Fame. In 1999 she received the Order of Ontario and was
inducted into the Ontario Swimming Hall of Fame. |
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Lucille Wheeler
Born January 14, 1935. Lucille first skied when she was two years old! At 12 she was the
national junior ski champion and named to the Canadian National Ski Team
at 14!. In 1956 she won bronze at the Olympic Games and
became the first ever Canadian Olympic ski Medalist. In 1958 she won both the downhill and giant slalom event at the
World Championships. She is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. |
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Marilyn Bell.
Born Toronto, Ontario October 19, 1937. It was September in 1954 when a
16-year-old Toronto Girl entered the Canadian National Exhibition
sponsored marathon swim race across Lake Ontario. She was the only entrant
to actually finish the 32-mile race. It took 21 hours!
She was the first to successfully swim Lake
Ontario. She is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.
She attended university and married and lives in the United States where
she was teacher for 20 years . A back injury forced Mrs Di Lascio to give
up swimming a few years ago. She enjoys coming home to Canada for visits
as often as she can. |
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Frances Dafoe
Born December 17,
1929 This 1948 Canadian Junior ladies figure skating champion became
paired with Norris Bowden the 1947 men’s singles champion to compete in
the 1952 Olympics. By 1954 they were the first
Canadians to be World Pairs Champions. At the 1955 Olympics
they won the silver medal. Frances retired to a successful fashion deign
career specializing in figure skating costumes and continues to be an
international skating judge. She is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall
of Fame. |
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Petra Burka.
Born Amsterdam, The Netherlands November 17, 1946. At the age of 15 she
became the first Canadian to complete the
triple salchow jump in competition. .1965 she won the Canadian,
North American and world championships and was the Canadian athlete of the
year. |
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Irene
Margaret MacDonald.
Born November 22, 1933. Brought up in an orphanage in Hamilton, Ontario
she reigned as Canada’s champion diver from 1951-1961. She won medals at
the 1954 and 1958 Commonwealth Games and in
1956 she won
Canada’s first Olympic diving medal, a bronze.
She became a dedicated administrative supporter to the Canadian Diving
fraternity. She is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, 1981,
received the Order of British Columbia in 1991, was Female Athlete of the
Year 1958, and won the YWCA Woman of Distinction for sport in 1998. The
Irene MacDonald Fund was established for the support of children in
diving. |
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Anne Heggtveit.
Born January 11, 1939. A member of a skiing family, Anne, came to
international attention at the age of 15 when she won the 1954
Holmenkollen Giant Slalom event in Norway, the youngest winner in the
events’ 50 year history. At the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics she won an
Olympic Gold Medal for Canada.
In that same year she won the giant slalom and combined women’s alpine
titles the first time ever by a non European. |
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Nancy Greene.
Born Ottawa, Ontario 1943. A skier of determination, Nancy won the 1967
World Cup and dominated the racing scene the next year as well
winning Canada's first Olympic gold
medal in the giant slalom
and a silver medal in the slalom at the Olympic games as well as her
second World Cup. She was awarded the Order of Canada in 1967 and named
Athlete of the year in 1968. She is a member of the Canadian Sports
Hall
of Fame.
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Sandra Post.
Born Oakville, Ontario June 4, 1948. She became
Canada’s first woman professional golfer
in 1968 and won the Ladies Professional Golf Association Championship at
Sutton Massachusetts that same year. In 1979 she was Canada’s Athlete of
the Year. In 2004 Sandra became a Member of the Order of Canada.
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Debbie Brill. Born
Mission, British Columbia 1953. A track and field athlete originated the
reverse jumping style called the "Brill Bend" in high jumping.
She was the first North American woman to
clear the 6-foot/1.83 meter barrier. She won several medals in
international events. She is a Member of the Order of
Canada. |
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Priestner-Allinger
née
Priestner. Born Windsor , Ontario May 27, 1956. She joined the national
speed skating team in 1971 and that same year she won gold and silver
medals at the Canada Winter Games. She was a member of the 1972 winter
Olympic team but it was not until she spent more time in international
competitions winning podiums that she would stand on the Olympic podium.
In 1976, at the Innsbruck Olympic Games she became
the
first Canadian woman to win an individual medal with a silver in the 500
metre event.
In 1975 she was Calgary’s Athlete of the year and in 1976 she was inducted
into the Alberta Hall of Fame and received the Governor General’s Award of
Excellence. In 1981 she was inducted into the Canadian Speed Skating Hall
of fame. After retiring from competition she established a successful
career as an Olympic television commentator with the CBC and CTV. She
worked as an organizer for the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics and with the
2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. |
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Dorothy
Lidstone.
Born
August 16, 1938. She enjoyed learning her sport of archery.
She excelled and became the first Canadian World Champion in Archery in
1969. Her winning score broke the previous record set in 1963
by 100 points. Dorothy has retired from competitive archery but was an
active support in setting up the family archery business that included
designing, developing, and manufacturing Canadian made archery equipment. |
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Lucille Lessard.
Born 1957. Introduced to the sport of archery by her schoolteachers she
became a devoted competitor. She won her first national championship in
1974 and successfully defended her title five times. In 1974 she became
the first Canadian to wing the World Field
Archery Championship, she was the youngest world Champion up to
this point in time. |
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Cathy Townsend.
Born June 8, 1937. In 1975 she was the
first Canadian woman to win the Bowling Cup. During her trip to
these world games her equipment and clothing were lost in transit and she
had to obtain a new bowling ball and special shoes required for a left
handed bowler! She is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. |
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Cindy Nicholas.
Born Toronto, Ontario August 20,1957. At 16
years old Cindy bettered the record for swimming Lake Ontario. In 1975 she
swam the English Channel in record-breaking time.
In 1977 she became the first woman to complete a double crossing of the
English Channel She would go on to swim the Channel 18
more times including 5 two-way trips! Her honorary title was Queen of the
Channel. She received the Order of Canada in 1979. She is a member of the
Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the Ontario Sport
Legends Hall of Fame in 2003. |
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Pat
Messner.
Born Hamilton, Ontario March 17, 1954. This former
Girl Guide was the first Canadian woman to
win a world championship in waterskiing in 1979. She is also the first
Canadian woman to win an Olympic medal in her sport. Pat won a
bronze Olympic medal in the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. She
holds 19 Canadian titles and 20 national records.
She is also the first Canadian woman to have
won the United States Master’s waterskiing title. She is the
founder of the Water Ski and Wakeboard Canadian Hall of Fame. In her spare
time she has a career as a high school teacher, musician and paramedic.
She was inducted into the Order of Canada in 1980, the youngest Canadian
woman to ever receive this honour. |
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Sue Holloway .
Born May 19, 1955. Sue was a four time Olympian competing in 1976 in Cross
Country Skiing and Kayak, 1980 and Kayak again in 1984 where she took
Silver and Bronze medals. Although Canada withdrew from the Moscow
Olympics in 1980 she was the appointed Olympic flag bearer.
She was the first Canadian woman to ever
compete in both winter and summer Olympic Games in the same year.
She and her husband, former Olympian Greg Joy, now work together as
motivational speakers. |
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Sylvie Bernier.
Born Quebec City, Quebec January 31, 1964.
Sylvie
was the first Canadian to win a medal in Olympic Diving.
She won the gold in the 3-meter springboard diving in the 1984 Olympics in
Los Angeles. She is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. |
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Carolyn Waldo
Born Montreal, Quebec December 11, 1964. After nearly drowning at the age
of 3 years she took 7 years to overcome her fear of the water.
In the 1984 Olympics she captured
Canada’s first medal, a silver, in synchronized solo swimming!
At the World Aquatic Championships she and partner Michelle Cameron won
gold and Carolyn also took gold in the solo event.
In the 1988 Olympics she won
Canada’s first gold in solo
and again with Michelle won gold in duet. She became the first Canadian
woman to win 2 gold medals at one Olympics. She currently perusing a
career in sports broadcasting and works for television station in Ottawa,
Ontario. |
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Tanya Dubincoff.
Born Winnipeg, Manitoba. November 7, 1969. At
four years of age she took the training wheels from her bicycle. She has
won the Canadian National track cycling championship 16 times! She has won
four gold medals at the Pan Am Games and has represented Canada in 3
Olympics. She was personally disappointed in her effort placement in
Sydney's Olympics but she knew that retirement from competition was her
future. In 1993 she was the first Canadian woman to win a cycling world
championship and in that same year was first in World Cup standings. Tanya
has since opened her own café, the Sugar Gallery Café and she has taken a
position with The Olympic Oval in Calgary. She uses her communications
skills and acts as a bridge between athletes and the media. What she gets
most satisfaction from, however, is training young cyclists. |
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Anne Ottenbrite.
Born May 12,
1966. She was the first Canadian woman to
win an Olympic gold medal in swimming. She won the medal in
1984 in the 200m-breastroke event. At the same games she won sliver in the
100m breaststroke and played a key role in the 400m-medley relay team that
won bronze. She is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. |
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Linda Thom.
Born Hamilton, Ontario December 30, 1943. She
is a strong and highly motivated Olympic medalist. She first became
interested in shooting as a child, when she learned the basics of the
sport from her shooting enthusiast father. She successfully entered pistol
competitions in 1969. By the mid 1970's she concentrated on her career as
a chef and on family life. She took up the challenge of shooting again
when it was announced that women would compete in this event in the
Olympic Games. Her pistol individual gold medal
in the 1984 Los Angeles games was the first for a Canadian women
and the first gold medal for a Canadian woman since 1928. Linda felt that
the Gold Medal belonged to all the people of Canada, and she carried it
with here wherever she went so that people could see and touch the medal
for themselves. Linda is the first pistol shooter
included into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. She is also a
member of the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame and the Canadian Amateur Sports
Hall of Fame. In 1985 she received the Order of Canada. |
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Helen
Vanderburg. Born
Calgary,
Alberta January 12, 1959. A synchronized swimmer who won the 1973
Canadian Junior Championship. By 1977 she placed first at the Pan Pacific
Games and swept the Canadian championships with 6 gold medals.
In 1978 she became the first Canadian to win
the world championship with gold medals in the solo and duet events.
In 1979 she defeated 90 competitors to win the solo title at
the world aquatic championships. She was inducted into the Canadian
Sports Hall of Fame in 1983. |
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Gail Greenough.
Born Edmonton, Alberta July 13, 1960. She took up equestrian sports at
age 11. She joined the Canadian Equestrian Team in 1983 and in 1986
became the first Canadian and first woman
to win the world show jumping championships. She is a member
of the Order of
Canada. |
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Sharon Adele
Wood. Born
Halifax, Nova Scotia May 18, 1957. One might say mountaineering is in her
blood. In the spring of 1986 she became the first woman from the Western
hemisphere to stand on top of the world on Mt. Everest. She was 17 years
old!!! On a smaller scale she was part of an all woman team to navigate to
the top of Mt. Logan. She enjoys teacher her sport to others when she is
not working as a helicopter ski guide. |
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Kerrin
Lee-Gartner.
Born Rossland,
British Columbia September 21, 1966. She grew up in Rossland B.C. and
became a member of the elite group of skiers to hold an Olympic Gold
medal. This medal was the first in history
for a Canadian (male or female) on the downhill event in an Olympic games. |
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Vicki Keith Munro.
Born Winnipeg, Manitoba February 26, 1961. A superb marathon swimmer, she
would use the butterfly stroke to swim into the record books both
nationally and internationally and all for the benefit of charity. In
1985 she swam her first world-record crossing of Lake Ontario.
In 1988 she
became the first person to swim all five Great Lakes.
She also conquered the harbour in Sydney, Australia, the English Channel
between Europe and England, and Juan de Fuca Strait on the North American
west coast and Lake Winnipeg in the geographical heart of Canada. He
sponsorships would earn hundreds of thousands of dollars most of which
went to Variety Village to benefit disabled children. She was named a
Member of the Order of Canada in 1992, earned the Variety Club Heart Award
in 1989, B’Nai Brith Woman of the Year for 1989 and the Vanier Award in
1989 and was inducted into the Terry Fox Hall of Fame. She has been the
recipient of over 41 awards and recognitions, including a the naming of
Vicki Keith Point, the place that she began her five crossings of
Lake Ontario. Although retired from long distance swimming in 1991, Vicki
hit the waters again in 2005 to raise awareness and funds for children
with disabilities. |
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Manon Rhéaume. Born Lac
Beauport,
Quebec
February 26, 1972. The daughter of a hockey coach, she began to
play at the age of 5 years. She loved hockey and played well.
She was the
first girl to play in the Annual Quebec Peewee Hockey Tournament. She went on to become the first
woman to play professionally. She was goalie with the Tampa Bay Lightening
of the National Hockey League.
If you want the whole story read Manon: alone in front of the net.
She is still active in her sport today teaching young girls how to play
the sport she loves. Her web site is located at; http://manonrheaume.com |
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Susan Nattrass.
Born Medicine Hat, Alberta November 5, 1950. She was taught to shoot by
her father when she was 17 and by 19 she defeated 1300 men at an
international shoot in Nevada! In the 1976 Olympics in Montreal she was
the only woman entered in the trap shooting event.
In the 1990 Commonwealth Games she became the
first woman to be entered in a shotgun event. She has set 4
world records and has been World Champion on 7 occasions. She is a member
of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. |
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Claudia
Kerckhoff-van Wijk
proved herself a worthy competitor in a male dominated sport. She held
the Canadian Women’s Whitewater Kayaking Championship position for an
entire decade from 1974-1984. She was the
first woman and the youngest competitor to participate in the grueling ten
sections of the Coureurs des bois gold category in the Canadian Ski
Marathon.
She now owns and operates Madawaska Kanu Centre which is the first kayak
and canoe school in North America. |
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Lori Fung.
Born Vancouver, British Columbia February 21, 1963. She has a passion for
her Rhythmic Gymnastics. She started at the British Columbia Rythmicka
Club. She was an able student and a good listener. These talents paid off
when in 1983 she became Canadian Champion and later that same year the
Four Continents Gold medalist . She would during her competative career be
Grand Champion of Canada seven times. To the media she was a relative
unknown contender, yet she won gold at the 1984
Los Angeles Olympics when the sport was inaugurated into the Olympic
Games. Retired from competition, she remains a valued coach in
her sport. She also works for Canadian charities in such positions as
Chairperson of the Canadian Cancer Society. She is a recipient of the
Order of Canada and a member of Canada's Sport Hall of Fame |
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Myriam Bedard
Born December 22, 1969. While
with cadets she took up biathlon and entered her first competition on
rented skis. In 1991
she was the first Canadian to win a World Cup in Biathlon. She
won a bronze medal in the Olympic games in 1992 . The next year it
was a a gold at the World Championship. She went n to win gold for
the 7.5 km inaugural event, and a gold in the 15 km event at the 1994
Lillehammer Olympics. She was
the first non-European to win gold in Biathlon.
She received the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s outstanding
athlete in 1994. She is a member of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. |
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Charmaine Crooks.
Born Jamaica. She emigrated to Canada when she
was 6 years old. At 16 she took her favourite sport of running seriously
and made the 1980 Olympic team. She would go on in her sport to win medals
at the Olympics, Commonwealth and Pan American Games as well as the World
Cup. She was time Canadian National Champion in the 400 and 800 metre
event and was the first Canadian to break the to minute barrier for the
800 m distance. In 1996 she was Canada's flag bearer for the opening
ceremony at the Olympics in Atlanta. She continued her Olympic commitment
by being a founding member of the International Olympic Committee Ethics
Commission and worked on the IOC Press Commission and the Culture and
Education Committee. She received recognition for her community service
with the 1992 Governor General's Award. It is no surprise to learn that
she is working on the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Committee!! |
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Beth
Leboff.
Born Montreal,
Quebec. It seemed that when she was growing up at her family cottage in
the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec that all she wanted to do was water
ski. Then she learned how to do it bare foot! She was hooked. The family
found her a coach. She won the Canadian National Slalom event in 1991. In
1992 she swept gold in the overall category. She was the Quebec Water ski
federation athlete of the Year for both 1991 and 1992.
It was in 1992 she would become the first
Canadian to win a world record elite title in barefoot water skiing.
She accomplished this honour in grace and determination setting
a new Canadian record in Women's jumping. She is currently practicing law
in fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S.A. where she is a mother of 2 children. |
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Beth Underhill.
Born Guelph, Ontario September5, 1962. In 1991 this equestrian jumper won
a double sliver medal at the Pan American Game. She also rode for the
Canadian team which won an Olympic Silver Medal at Barcelona, Spain.
In 1993 she was the first woman to win the Canadian World League. Her
favourite jumping horse partner was named Monopoly, with who she won over
one million in prize money!! |
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Chantal Peticlerc.
Born Saint-Marc-des Carriéres, Quebec December 15, 1969. This television
host for Lotto Quebec has become the first
woman Canadian star in the sport of wheelchair athletics. In
the summer of 1995 she won 5 gold medals at the world championships for
wheel chair athletics, and in 1996 she brought home 5 medal from the
Paralympics. Go ahead find out more about Chantal and other paralympians
on the Internet. |
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Maryse Turcotte. In 1990, while a
student in high school, she helped out at a sports event in weightlifting
and she fell in love with the sport. In
1997 she made history by becoming the first woman in the
America's to lift double her body weight.
She has earned a silver medal at the 1998 World Championships, a gold
medal at the Pan American Games in 1999 and gold in both 2000 and 2001
College and University World Games. She placed forth in the Olympics in
Sydney Australia. |
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Sandra Schmirler. Born
Biggar, Saskatchewan June 11, 1963 Died March 2, 2000. Curling was her
passion. She was a three time Canadian and World Champion. The
Schmirler team worked as a real sisterhood and dominated their sport for 6
years. In 1998 Schmirler led her foursome, Joan McCuster, Jan
Betker, Marcia Gudereit and Atina Ford to
the first ever Olympic gold medal in women's curling. She and
her team are members of the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame and she is a
member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. |
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Caroline Brunet.
Born
March
20, 1969. In March 1998, Caroline became the recipient of the Velma
Springstead Award to become Canada's Outstanding Female Athlete of the
Year. Her recognition began in 1995 when she won a gold and 2 silver
medals at the World Championships. In Atlanta's Olympic Games in 1997 she
claimed the silver medal. She swept the World Sprint Canoe Championships
in 1997 when she won three gold medals which represented "a best ever"
Canadian Kayak team performance.
Her gold medal represented a first for a Canadian woman in a singles
canoeing event.
She also won a medal in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.
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Marlene Streit. (née Stewart) Born Cereal, Alberta March 9,
1934.
A powerful
golfer she would win the Canadian ladies champion title 11 times between
1951 and 1973. She was the Canadian Female Athlete of the Year in 1951 and
1956. In 1967 she was inducted as an officer in the Order of Canada. During
her golfing career she would win 24 Canadian Ladies Golf Association
Championships and by 2003 she had a career total of 30 national or
international championships with at least one championship each decade .
She claimed her third U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur in 2003,
the oldest person to ever triumph in that event.
She is the only person to have won the Australian, British, Canadian and
United States womens’ amateur championships! She is a member of the
Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and in 2004
she became the first Canadian member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
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Haley
Wickenheiser.
Born Shaunavon, Saskatchewan December 8, 1978. Team sports are her
favourite. She played in competition in the World Junior Softball
Championships in 1995. Then it was hockey. She played with a gold medal
team at the 1997-99 World hockey Championships and the silver medal team
at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. She was invited to play with the Philadelphia
Flyers training camp which she found a great opportunity to learn at the
NHL level. She has done studies science and the
University of
Calgary
and was the first woman to have
accepted a contract to play hockey on a men's team. She played her sport of
hockey in
Finland. |
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Beckie Scott.
Born Vegreville, Alberta August 1, 1974. She began cross country skiing at
the age of five. She participated at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games
in Nagano, Japan and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City,
Utah. Scott won a gold medal in cross-country skiing at the Salt Lake City
games. She originally finished third in the five-kilometer pursuit, but
she was soon upgraded to the gold medal when winner and runner-up were
disqualified for using darbepoetin, a performance-enhancing drug. She
became the first Canadian and first North
American woman to win an Olympic medal in cross-country skiing.
Beckie is equally well known for her outspoken stand on anti-doping and
drug-free competition. She relentlessly challenged the International Ski
Federation (ISF) to be more aggressive in its efforts to catch cheats. On
March 29, 2005 Scott agreed to join the World Anti-Doping Agency’s athlete
committee. Aware of the world outside of sport, she spearheaded a Canadian
team challenge to donate all prize money won from the Continental Cup
competition in British Columbia to the UNICEF efforts in Afghanistan. |
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