Search for "Paralympic Games"

Robert (Bob) Daniel Steadward, CC, AOE, educator, sports scientist, founding president of the International Paralympic Committee (born 26 May 1946 in Eston, SK). Robert Steadward began working with wheelchair athletes in the 1960s, while a student at the University of Alberta. In 1978, he founded the University of Alberta’s Research and Training Centre for the Physically Disabled (now known as The Steadward Centre for Personal & Physical Achievement). Steadward helped establish the International Paralympic Committee and was elected its first president in 1989. A professor at the University of Alberta from 1970 to 2001, he is now Professor Emeritus.

Sonja Gaudet (née Melis), Paralympic wheelchair curler (born 22 July 1966 in North Vancouver, British Columbia). A three-time Paralympian, Gaudet won gold for Canada at the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games in Turin, at the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver and at the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi. She is the first wheelchair curlerever to win multiple Paralympic gold medals. She is also a three-time world champion, having helped Canada win gold at the World Wheelchair Curling Championship in 2009, 2011 and 2013. Gaudet has been inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame and the BC Sports Hall of Fame. She was named to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame on 27 May 2020 and will be formally inducted in 2021.

The 1988 Olympic Winter Games were held in Calgary, Alberta, from 13 to 28 February 1988. Canada sent 112 athletes (82 men and 30 women) and finished 12th in the overall medal count with five medals (two silver and three bronze). Canadian athletes won medals in alpine skiing and figure skating. Karen Percy won bronze in the women’s downhill and super giant slalom, Brian Orser and Elizabeth Manley won silver in men’s and women’s figure skating and Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall won bronze in ice dancing.

The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) is the organization responsible for Canada’s participation at the Olympic Games, Pan American Games, and Youth Olympic Games. It helps select and financially assist Canadian cities in their efforts to host an Olympic Games or Pan American Games. It also manages programs that promote the values of the Olympics throughout Canada. The organization, which was known as the Canadian Olympic Association (COA) from 1912 to 2002, has a staff of more than 100 people. Its offices are in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

Own the Podium is a non-profit organization that assists national sports bodies in Canada with their investment and training strategies. Based in Ottawa and Calgary, the program provides financial assistance to high-performance Canadian athletes and coaches. It enables them to compete as well as possible at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, with the goal of medalling (reaching the podium) as much as possible. It was created in 2005, in advance of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. Own the Podium is funded by the Government of Canada, the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Canadian Paralympic Committee and the Canadian Olympic Foundation.   

Kaetlyn Osmond, figure skater (born 5 December 1995 in Marystown, NL). Figure skater Kaetlyn Osmond has competed at two Olympic Winter Games, winning bronze in women’s figure skating (2018) and gold (2018) and silver (2014) in the team event. In 2018, she won gold at the World Figure Skating Championships, becoming the first Canadian women’s world champion in 45 years. She has also been Canadian champion (2013, 2014, 2017), has won gold medals at several international events, including Skate Canada International and the Nebelhorn Trophy.

Jennifer Judith Jones, curler, lawyer (born 7 July 1974 in Winnipeg, Manitoba). Jennifer Jones has competed as a skip in the Canadian women’s curling championship, the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, 15 times. She is tied for the record with six gold medals. Her championship-clinching shot in the 2005 tournament — known simply as “The Shot” — is considered one of the most iconic curling plays of all-time. Jones is one of only two women to reach 100 wins at the Canadian championships. She also skipped Canada to its second gold medal in Olympic women’s curling, at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. Her rink was ranked No. 1 in Canada between 2005 and 2018. In 2019, a TSN panel named Jones the greatest Canadian women’s curler of all time.

Ernestine “Ernie” Jean Russell, gymnast, coach (born 10 June 1938 in Windsor, ON). Ernestine Russell was Canada’s best female gymnast of the 1950s. She was the first woman to represent Canada in gymnastics at the Olympic Summer Games, at Melbourne in 1956. She was also the first Canadian gymnast ever to medal in an international competition, at the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago, where she won four gold medals and two silver. She won 46 gold medals at the Canadian Gymnastics Championships between 1954 and 1960. She also had a successful career coaching women’s gymnastics at the NCAA level and with Team USA. She has been inducted into the Canadian Amateur Athletic Hall of Fame and the US Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

Kaillie Humphries (née Simundson), bobsledder (born 4 September 1985 in Calgary, AB). Kaillie Humphries is the most decorated Canadian bobsledder in Olympic history. She became the first Canadian woman to pilot a Canadian bobsled team to victory at an Olympic Winter Games, winning a gold medal with Heather Moyse in the two-woman bobsled at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. At the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, Humphries and Moyse won gold again. They became the first women’s bobsled team ever to successfully defend an Olympic title. Humphries won bronze at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games. She has also won two world championships and four World Cup titles. She is the first Canadian female bobsled driver to win the World Championship, and one of the first two women to compete in international four-man bobsleigh competition. She won the Lou Marsh Trophy in 2014 as Canada’s athlete of the year.

Christa Deguchi, judoka (born 29 October 1995 in Nagano, Japan). Christa Deguchi is the only Canadian ever to win a gold medal at the World Judo Championships. The Japanese Canadian judoka won the bronze medal at the 2018 World Judo Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, and a gold medal at the 2019 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan. Deguchi competes in the women’s 57 kg weight class and is a member of the Kyodokan Judo Club in Lethbridge, Alberta. She was considered one of Canada’s top athletes heading into the postponed 2020 Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo.

Diane Elaine Clement (née Matheson), OC, track and field sprinter (born 27 September 1936 in Moncton, New Brunswick). Diane Clement held numerous Canadian sprinting records and won a bronze medal for Canada in the women’s 4x110 yard relay at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. In 1956, she became the first athlete born in New Brunswick to represent Canada at an Olympic Summer Games. In 1959, she became the first female coach of the University of British Columbia women’s track and field team. She was also the first female president of an athletic federation in Canada and the first woman to be the honorary vice-president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation Congress. Clement has been inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame and the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame and Museum and is a Member of the Order of Canada.

Andrew Christian Wiggins (born 23 February 1995 in Toronto, ON). Andrew Wiggins is a Canadian professional basketball player with the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Raised in Vaughan, Ontario, Wiggins first rose to fame as the world’s top-ranked high school basketball player and was a second-team All-American in college. In 2014, he became the second Canadian to be selected first overall in the NBA draft. He is the first Canadian player to be named the NBA’s Rookie of the Year and the first to score more than 40 points in a game. Wiggins also helped Canada secure three bronze medals in international competition. He is the highest-paid Canadian athlete of all time.    

Whistler, British Columbia, incorporated as a resort municipality in 1975, population 11,854 (2016 census), 9,824 (2011 census). The resort municipality of Whistler is located about 120 km north of Vancouver near Garibaldi Provincial Park. Whistler is named after the hoary marmots (called “whistlers” because of their high-pitched warning call) that are common on Whistler Mountain.

Caroline Ouellette, OC, hockey player, softball player (born 25 May 1979 in Montreal, QC). Caroline Ouellette is one of only five athletes to win a gold medal at four consecutive Olympic Winter Games (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014). She also won six gold medals and six silver medals with Team Canada at the IIHF Women’s World Championship and four Clarkson Cup titles as the champion of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL). Ouellette was a formidable power forward early in her career and became an excellent playmaker. Upon retiring from women’s hockey in 2018, she ranked second all-time among Canadian women’s hockey players in assists (155) and third in points (242). She was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2019.