Hayley Wickenheiser

Lore & Background

Wickenheiser began playing minor ice hockey on outdoor rinks in her hometown of Shaunavon, Saskatchewan when she was five years old. She played exclusively on boys' teams until she was 13. She continued playing minor hockey in Calgary, Alberta after moving there with her family. In 1991, she represented Alberta at the 18-and-under Canada Winter Games, capturing gold and scoring the game-winning goal, named MVP of the final game. At age 15 (1994), she was named to the Canada women's national team and remained until retirement in 2017. Her first international tournament was the 1994 World Championship in Lake Placid, New York, where she played three games, earned her first international point (an assist), and Canada won gold. She has seven World Championship gold medals (1994, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2012) and three silver medals (2005, 2008, 2009). She was named to Team Canada in 2001 but was unable to compete due to injury, and was on the roster for the cancelled 2003 World Championship. At the 1998 Winter Olympics, Canada won silver and Wickenheiser was named to the tournament all-star team. Her performance impressed Men's Team Canada General Manager Bobby Clarke, who invited her to participate in the Philadelphia Flyers rookie camps in 1998 and 1999. At the 2002 Winter Olympics, Canada won gold, and Wickenheiser was named Tournament MVP and top scorer. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Canada won gold again, and she was named tournament MVP, Top Forward, and to the all-star team, leading the tournament in scoring with five goals and 17 points in five games. She captained Canada to gold at the 1998 Christmas Cup (World Women's Under-22 Championship) and contributed to at least 10 gold medals at the 4 Nations Cup tournaments (1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010). At the 2006 Four Nations Cup, she served as team captain. On February 17, 2010, she became the all-time leading Olympic goal scorer as Canada defeated Sweden 13–1 at the Vancouver Olympics, reaching a record total of 16 career Olympic goals. She attended the World Hockey Summit in 2010 to address the status of women's hockey internationally. With a third and fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal in women's hockey won by defeating the United States 2–0 in Vancouver and 3–2 in Sochi, Wickenheiser won 5 Olympic medals: 4 gold and 1 silver. At her retirement in 2017 she was the O

Reader's Guide

In 1996, Wickenheiser was named MVP of the Esso women's hockey nationals, helping Alberta to a fourth-place finish. In 1997 and 1998, she won Nationals with the Edmonton Chimos and Calgary Oval X-Treme respectively, named tournament MVP both years. Between 1999 and 2001, she continued to play for her club teams at the Esso Women's National Championships, winning a gold medal and two silvers. She played 2004–05 with the Calgary Oval X-Treme in the inaugural season of the Western Women's Hockey League, winning league champions, and was the regular season leading scorer and named to the league's all-star team. She also played for Alberta at the Esso National Championships, winning gold, leading the tournament in scoring, and being named MVP. In 2003, she became the first woman to score a goal playing in a men's semi-professional league (for HC Salamat in Suomi-sarja, Finland's third-division league). Over two seasons, she played 22 games, scoring 1 goal and 3 assists. She joined a European league to play professional hockey, as the game is more open and less physical than North American leagues. She was initially slated to play in Italy until the Italian Winter Sports Federation ruled women ineligible to play in a men's league. She turned down an offer from Phil Esposito to play for the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL. Finland's Hockey Federation unanimously supported letting women play in a men's league, allowing her to debut with HC Salamat on January 10, 2003. She played briefly with Salamat in 2004 after they won promotion to Mestis, but left after ten games. In 2007, she had a week-long tryout contract with Swedish club IFK Arboga IK in the Swedish male third league; after two practice games where she scored two goals in the first game, she was not offered a contract. In 2008, she signed a one-year contract with Eskilstuna Linden, also in the Swedish men's third league. She was named one of the 'Top 100 Most Influential People in Hockey' by The Hockey News—ranked #59 on the 2011 List—one of the '25 Toughest Athletes' by Sports Illustrated, and one of the 'Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Canada' by The Globe and Mail. She scored a goal as a member of Team Black in the 2nd Canadian Women's Hockey League All-Star Game. Appearing with the Calgary Inferno in the 2016 Clarkson Cup.

Did You Know?

• Wickenheiser is tied with teammates Caroline Ouellette and Jayna Hefford for the record for the most gold medals of any Canadian Olympian.
• She is one of only five athletes to win gold in four consecutive Winter Games, along with teammates Jayna Hefford and Caroline Ouellette.
• She was Canada's flagbearer at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014.