Heather Moyse

Heather Moyse (born July 23, 1978) is a Canadian athlete and two-time Olympic gold medalist, representing Canada in international competition as a bobsledder, rugby union player, and track cyclist and competing at the Canadian intercollegiate level in rugby, soccer and track and field.

Moyse was a two-time Female Athlete of the Year at Three Oaks Senior High School in Summerside, Prince Edward Island where she competed in soccer, basketball, rugby and track and field.

A graduate of the University of Waterloo kinesiology program, she was inducted into that school's Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.

In 2005–2006, her rookie bobsleigh season, Moyse and her partner Helen Upperton won the Canadian Championships and earned four medals on the World Cup circuit including a gold at an event in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Heather also set push start records on five international tracks.

Moyse received the Lieutenant-Governor's Award as P.E.I.'s outstanding athlete in 2006 and 2010, was named Prince Edward Island's Senior Female Athlete of the Year for 2005, 2006 and 2010 and has won ten Sport P.E.I. awards in total since 1998.

At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Moyse and Upperton finished in fourth place in the two-man bobsleigh event, missing bronze by five one-hundredths of a second behind the host Italian team.

The pair set the push start record for the Olympic track with a 5.16-second start time in their first heat.

Moyse represented Canada's national rugby team at both the 2006 and 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup.

Moyse is considered one of the best fullbacks in the game.

After a one-year absence due to educational commitments, Moyse returned to the World Cup circuit in 2007–2008 as one of two brakeman for Canada 1 pilot Helen Upperton.

In four races the duo earned a silver, bronze and two 5th-place finishes.

At the 2008 World Championships in Altenberg, Germany, Moyse raced with Canada 3 pilot Lisa Szabon and the pair finished in 11th place.

During the 2008–2009 World Cup season, Moyse returned from a serious shoulder injury (incurred while playing rugby for Canada).

In her only race with Canada 1 pilot Upperton the duo won gold in Igls, Austria.

Moyse and Canada 2 pilot Kaillie Humphries recorded a 5th in St. Moritz, silver in Whistler and 5th at the 2009 World Championships in Lake Placid, New York.

In four other races, Moyse did not race with any of Canada's three sleds.

During the 2009–2010 World Cup season, Moyse & Humphries finished second overall behind only Sandra Kiriasis and won four medals including gold in Altenberg, Germany.

They set or tied the track start record in every race in which they competed together.

In 2010, Moyse and bobsled pilot Kaillie Humphries were nominated as Sportswoman of the Year by the American Women's Sports Foundation in the Team category.

Heather also received the 2010 University of Waterloo Faculty of Applied Health Sciences Young Alumni Award.

She won a gold medal in the Two-woman competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics with Kaillie Humphries.

The silver medal was won by fellow Canadians Shelley-Ann Brown and Helen Upperton.

It marked the first time at the 2010 Olympics that Canadians had won two medals in one event.

For winning the gold medal, Moyse was on the cover of Hello! Canada in March 2010.

Moyse joins former University of Toronto student-athlete Jayna Hefford as the only University of Toronto graduates to claim a gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games.

Moyse missed the first half of the 2010–11 World Cup bobsleigh season due to an ankle injury suffered in the final game of the 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup.

Leading up to the 2010 Winter Olympics, Moyse held or had tied nine track start records with either Kaillie Humphries or Helen Upperton, including every track on the 2009–2010 World Cup circuit.

Three of those records have since been broken.

On April 14, 2011, she was named 2010 Ontario Female Athlete of the Year, making her one of the only, if not the only, athletes to win the same award in two provinces in the same year.

In 2012, she was named by Sportsnet Magazine as one of the 30 Most Beautiful Athletes on the Planet.

Moyse returned to the Canadian Bobsleigh Team in the fall of 2013, earning a spot as the top brakeman on the 2014 Canadian Olympic team.

Moyse also won the 2013 World Push Championships, held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in November 2013.

Start records held by Heather Moyse:.

In 2014, she was a recipient of the Order of Prince Edward Island.

Heather and Kaillie Humphries repeated as Olympic gold medallists at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, pulling ahead of rival USA 1, piloted by Elana Meyers and braked by Lauryn Williams, on the final run of the four-heat competition.

The pair became only the third Canadian Winter Olympians to repeat as gold medalists in a non-team sport and the only female gold medalists from the Vancouver Olympics to repeat as gold medalists in Sochi.

Humphries and Moyse were also selected by the Canadian Olympic Committee as Canada's flagbearers in the closing ceremonies.

Moyse retired from bobsleigh after the 2014 Olympics, however a couple of months before the start of the 2017–18 season she decided to return to the sport after push athlete-turned-pilot Alysia Rissling contacted her about it in August 2017, having turned down the opportunity to return to competition with Humphries the previous year.

With Rissling as driver, the pair finished 6th in the two-woman bobsleigh event representing Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics.