Browse "Sports & Recreation"

The Tournament of Hearts is the annual Canadian women's curling championship. Created in 1981 in St. John's, NL, it is sponsored by Kruger Products, and named after a brand of facial tissue, Scotties.

Rifle shooting is divided into 3 basic categories based on the type of rifle used: smallbore, fullbore and air rifle. Further subdivisions in competitive shooting are based on the type of shooting position: prone, kneeling and standing. The average weight of a rifle is between 5 and 8 kg.

Although informal ski jumping had taken place for decades, the first officially measured jump (30.5 m) was made by Sondre Norheim in Norway in 1860. About 20 years later, Scandinavian miners and lumbermen brought the sport to western Canada, where it flourished.

The birth of modern skiing in North America, nearly 1000 years later, can be credited to their direct descendants.

Cross-country skiing is a derivative of skiing, whereby participants glide horizontally on a snow surface. In Canada, cross-country skiing has evolved from a means of winter transportation to a form of recreation enjoyed by nearly 4 million Canadians. For a few elite athletes, cross-country skiing provides an opportunity to compete at the Olympic level.

Para ice hockey (also known as sledge hockey) is a version of ice hockey played by athletes with a lower-extremity disability. Players use a two-bladed sledge, as well as sticks with spikes at one end for propulsion and curved blades at the other end for shooting. Canada is a world power in the game and has won medals at all of the Paralympic Games except 2002 and 2010. In 2016, the International Paralympic Committee decided to rename and rebrand the sport under its jurisdiction. Since November 2016, sledge hockey has been officially known as para ice hockey.

Snowboarding is the sport of riding a large flat ski downhill over snow. Unlike downhill skiing, snowboarding does not require the use of poles and both feet are placed sideways on the same board. A relative newcomer to the family of winter sports, snowboarding began to gain popularity in the 1960s and rose in status from the latest "gimmick" to an accredited Olympic event in 1998, a relatively short period of time. Canadians have had great success over the years in international snowboarding at the Olympic Winter Games, Winter X Games and World Snowboarding Championships. Eight Canadian snowboarders have won Olympic medals — Ross Rebagliati, Dominique Maltais, Mike Robertson, Maëlle Ricker, Jasey-Jay Anderson, Mark McMorris, Max Parrot and Laurie Blouin. Rebagliati, Ricker and Anderson won Olympic gold, while Maltais and McMorris are multiple medallists.

A snowmobile is an automotive vehicle for travel on snow. It is steered by skis at the front and propelled by a belt of track at the back. Québécois mechanic Joseph-Armand Bombardier made the first snowmobile in 1935. Today, there are more than 600,000 registered snowmobiles in Canada. They are used for transportation, recreation, hunting and trapping, especially in rural areas and the North.

After an initial growth in the sport of snowmobiling through the 1970s, participation and the sale of new snowmobiles fell off in the early 1980s. In recent years, however, snowmobiling participation has seen a dramatic increase

Snowshoeing is a form of physical activity that uses two wooden-frame "shoes," each strung together with interlaced webbing, to walk or run over snow. Snowshoeing has become a popular pastime among Canadians.

Soccer (Association Football) is a sport played by two teams of 11 players each, using a round ball, usually on a grass field called the "pitch."

The Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum is an organization that aims to “collect, record, interpret and commemorate the soccer heritage of Canada.”

Softball, see BASEBALL.

Solitaire is the common name for 13 species of New World thrushes, one of which occurs in Canada.

Special Olympics is a global sports organization for people with intellectual disabilities. The impetus for the organization was research done by Canadian sports scientist Dr. Frank Hayden, who helped develop the first International Special Olympics Games in Chicago in 1968. The World Games are now held every two years and alternate between summer and winter events. The 2015 Summer Games were held in Los Angeles, California, and the 2017 Winter Games will be held in Austria. Canada began holding National Games in 1969, thanks to the efforts of broadcaster Harry “Red” Foster. Like the World Games, the National Games alternate between summer and winter events, with the 2014 Summer Games held in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the 2016 Winter Games held in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador. Special Olympics Canada has chapters in all provinces and territories, except Nunavut, and there are currently more than 40,000 children, youth and adults registered in Special Olympics programs across the country.