Hayley Wickenheiser

Hayley Wickenheiser (born August 12, 1978) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, resident physician and assistant general manager for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

She was the first woman to play full-time professional men’s hockey in a position other than goalie.

In 1991, she represented Alberta at the 18-and-under Canada Winter Games.

Alberta captured the gold medal in the tournament, with Wickenheiser scoring the game-winning goal and being named the Most Valuable Player of the final game.

At the age of 15 (1994), Wickenheiser was named to Canada's National Women's Team for the first time and remained a member until her retirement in 2017.

Her first international tournament was the 1994 World Championship, held in Lake Placid, New York.

She played three games, and picked up her first international point—an assist, and Canada won gold.

Wickenheiser has seven World Championship gold medals (1994, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2012) and three silver medals (2005, 2008, 2009).

She has also contributed to at least 10 gold medals for Canada at the 4 Nations Cup tournaments (1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010).

Her second World Championship in 1997 also produced a gold medal and she earned a spot on the tournament All-Star team, the first of four such honours (1997, 1999, 2000, 2005).

Wickenheiser was a member of Team Canada at the 1998 Winter Olympics, when women's hockey was introduced as a medal sport.

She also played 21 games for Team Canada during their pre-Olympic tour.

Canada won a silver medal at the event and Wickenheiser was named to the tournament all-star team.

Her performance at the 1998 Olympics impressed Men's Team Canada General Manager Bobby Clarke so much, that he invited her to participate in the Philadelphia Flyers rookie camps in 1998 and 1999.

In a bit of redemption for 1998, Canada won the gold medal by defeating Team USA in the final game.

Wickenheiser was named Tournament MVP and she was the top scorer on the Women's side.

Wickenheiser captained Canada to a gold medal at the 1998 Christmas Cup (World Women's Under-22 Championship).

In 1999, Wickenheiser helped Canada to another gold medal and was named tournament MVP.

She was named to Team Canada in 2001, but was unable to compete due to an injury, and was also on Canada's roster for the 2003 World Championship which was cancelled.

2002 was another chance at Olympic gold, and Wickenheiser was named to Canada's roster for the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, Utah.

On Team Canada's pre-Olympic tour, Wickenheiser played 26 games and racked up 36 points.

At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Canada was defending its gold medal status.

When the final match was set, Canada was facing off against Sweden, a surprise finalist.

They won gold again, and Wickenheiser once more was named tournament MVP, Top Forward, and to a berth on the all-star team.

She also led the tournament in scoring,

with five goals and 17 points in five games.

At the 2006 Four Nations Cup, she served as team captain.

On February 17, 2010, Wickenheiser became the all-time leading Olympic goal scorer as Canada defeated Sweden 13–1 at the Vancouver Olympics.

Wickenheiser reached her record total of 16 career Olympic goals by scoring once on Wednesday as Canada followed up their 18–0 win over Slovakia and 10–1 defeat of Switzerland.

Wickenheiser attended the World Hockey Summit in 2010, to address the status of women's hockey internationally.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge stated that the tournament might be eliminated from the Olympics since the event was not competitively balanced.

On February 20, 2014, Wickenheiser was elected to the International Olympic Committee's Athletes' Commission.

Wickenheiser was a member of Canada women's national ice hockey team for 23 years, from 1994 until announcing her retirement on January 13, 2017, and is the team's career points leader with 168 goals and 211 assists in 276 games.

She represented Canada at the Winter Olympics five times, capturing four gold and one silver medal and twice being named tournament MVP, and one time at the Summer Olympics in softball, and is a seven-time winner of the world championships.

She is tied with teammates Caroline Ouellette and Jayna Hefford for the record for the most gold medals of any Canadian Olympian, and is widely considered to be the greatest female ice hockey player of all time.

In 2019, she was named to the Hockey Hall of Fame, in her first year of eligibility.

She was also inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2019.

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.

Wickenheiser continued playing minor hockey in Calgary, Alberta after moving there with her family.