Browse "Athletes"

Hockey fans have long since become accustomed to the mercenary nature of modern professional sports: players whose seven-figure salaries are not enough to anchor them to a team or a town, and even teams themselves that abandon those towns for newer arenas and sweet tax concessions elsewhere.

As the First World War dragged on in Europe, a group of remarkable young women turned the hockey world upside down.

On 15 April 1947, Jackie Robinson played in his debut game with the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African American to play in the major leagues in the modern era. Prior to that point, professional baseball in the United States was segregated, with African Americans playing in the Negro leagues. When Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s colour barrier in 1947, he entered American history books. What many baseball fans may not realize, however, is that Robinson was embraced by Canadian fans one year earlier as a member of the Montreal Royals, a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Tired and coming down with a cold, Elvis Stojko just wanted to collapse on the sofa in his Richmond Hill, Ont., apartment. But that was not in the cards.

In the early-morning light, the craggy peaks of the Serra de Sintra mountains glowed amber against the pale blue sky. Nearby, fishing boats from Cascais headed into the Atlantic. And in between, Jacques Villeneuve was making a terrible racket.

Canadians have never needed banana peels as a cure for rare displays of over-confidence; ice works well enough. It was ice last week on the speed-skating oval and in Salt Lake City's figure-skating arena that momentarily flattened Canada's self-described "best ever" Winter Olympic team.

WHEN THERE was no one left to beat in Canada, Adam van Koeverden went looking for the rest of the world. Digging deep into his own pockets a couple of years back, the 22-year-old Oakville, Ont.

Raised in Laval, Qué, Abel began DIVING in 1996. During her second year competing nationally, Abel became national champion in the 1 m diving event. Over the next 4 years, Abel continued to compete nationally as an individual diver.

Abigail Hoffman, track and field athlete, sport administrator (b at Toronto 11 Feb 1947). As a 9-year-old hockey player, she unwittingly caused controversy by entering a male-dominated sport; she later joined the Toronto Olympic Club and competed at international events.

For a few suspenseful seconds last week, tens of millions of hearts beat a little faster across North America. Maintenance workers hovered in the doorways of executive offices to catch a glimpse of the television screen.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir rose above politics and scandal to show what it means to be Olympic greats

Ada Mackenzie, golfer (b at Toronto 30 Oct 1891; d at Richmond Hill, Ont 25 Jan 1973). Mackenzie paved the way for women to take golf seriously by founding the first club restricted to women, the Ladies' Golf and Tennis Club, in Thornhill, Ont, in May 1925. Mackenzie's own play set high standards.

Adam van Koeverden, kayaker (born 29 January 1982 in Toronto, ON). Adam van Koeverden, Canada’s most successful paddler, has won four Olympic medals at three Games. At the 2004 Olympic Summer Games in Athens, he won a bronze medal in the men's K-1 1000 m event, followed a day later by victory in the K-1 500 m. He was Canada's first double-medalist in the Summer Olympics since Donovan Bailey and Clara Hughes at Atlanta in 1996, and received the Lou Marsh Trophy in 2004 in recognition of his accomplishment. At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Van Koeverden won silver in the K-1 1500 m event and at the 2012 Olympics in London, he took silver in the men's K-1 1000 m. Van Koeverden is an athlete ambassador for Right To Play, and a graduate of McMaster University in Kinesiology (2007), where he was elected class valedictorian. In January 2019, he became the Liberal candidate for the federal riding of Milton in southern Ontario.

Sharon Adele Wood, mountaineer, guide (b at Halifax 18 May 1957).

Barbara Aileen Wagner, figure skater (b at Toronto 5 May 1938). Wagner and partner Robert Paul formed the outstanding Canadian figure skating team that dominated the international pairs event 1957-62.

Albert H. MacCarthy, mountaineer (b at Ames, Iowa 1876; d at Annapolis, Maryland 11 Oct 1956). Though by vocation a US naval officer and entrepreneur, MacCarthy was by avocation a mountaineer with a passion for pioneering new climbs in western Canada.

Julius Gustav Albert Schneider, "Bert," boxer (b at Cleveland, Ohio 1 July 1897). Schneider's family moved to Montréal when he was 9 and he took up boxing in high school. He later joined the Montreal Amateur Athletic Assn and became its welterweight champion.

​Albertine Lapensée (“Miracle Maid”), hockey player (born 10 August 1898 in Cornwall, ON; date and place of death unknown). Albertine Lapensée was arguably Canada’s first female hockey superstar.

Aleksandra Wozniak, tennis player (born 7 September 1987 in Montréal, QC). Aleksandra Wozniak is a world-ranked tennis player. In 2008, she captured the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California, becoming the first Canadian woman to win a WTA singles world title since Jill Hetherington-Hultquist in 1988, and the first woman from Québec to achieve the honour.

Alex Baumann showed his potential as a world-class swimmer at a young age. Under coach Jeno Tihanyi, Baumann won 10 age-group events and set 9 records during his first year of competition. His abilities became widely recognized and several American universities subsequently sought him out.