Twelve athletes will be inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in October. The announcement was made Wednesday in Toronto.
Hockey players Paul Coffey and Danielle Goyette, freestyle skier Jennifer Heil, speed skater Susan Auch, judoka Nicolas Gill and soccer player Craig Forrest headline the new inductees.
The others are 2004 Olympic cycling gold medalist Lori-Ann Muenzer, Paralympic swimmer Michael Edgson, cross-country skiers Sharon and Shirley Firth, golfer Jocelyne Bourassa and field hockey coach Marina van der Merwe.
Coffey won four Stanley Cups – three with Edmonton and another with Pittsburgh. He is considered one of the greatest defencemen to play in the National Hockey League, scoring 396 goals and 1,531 points, second only to Raymond Bourque (410 and 1579).
Goyette was a two-time winner of Olympic Gold in women’s hockey and carried the Canadian flag at the opening ceremony at the Turin Olympics in 2006.
Heil won gold in women’s moguls at the 2006 Olympics, and added a silver at the 2010 Games in Vancouver. She won four world titles and five crystal globes as a World Cup season champion.
Auch competed in five Olympics between 1988 and 2002, earning a pair of solo silver medals at 500 metres and a bronze in the 3,000m relay.
Gill earned an Olympic silver in 2000 after getting a bronze in 1992. He also won three medals at the world championships.
Forrest played professionally as a goalkeeper in England, mostly with Ipswich, for 1985 until 2002, and made 56 international appearances for Canada.
Muenzer won the first ever gold medal in cycling for Canada, winning the match sprint event at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Edgson is among the most successful Paralympians of all time, winning having 18 gold medals in swimming.
The Firth twins competed at four Olympic Games and together won 79 medals at national championships. Shirley Firth Larsson died of cancer in 2013 at the age of 59.
Bourassa and Marina van der Merwe (field hockey) will enter the Hall in the builder category.
Bourassa had a distinguished amateur career and was named the LPGA rookie of the year in 1972.
Van der Merwe was the head coach of the Canada women’s national field hockey team from 1976 to 1995.
The induction ceremony will be held Oct. 21 at Toronto’s Mattamy Athletic Centre.
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