Hazelton’s Olympic hero Carol Huynh is being inducted in Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
The Hall Wednesday revealed the six Athletes, one team, and two sport “builders” who will make up the Class of 2017. Induction into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame is considered the country’s highest sporting honour and reinforces the incredibly successful athletic careers of the nominees.
This year’s Class has broken down barriers, blazed new trails, and served as proud international ambassadors for Canadian values. Each of the inductees selected to join the Class of 2017 have fostered inspiration both on and off the field of play, using sport as a platform to build a better country for their fellow athletes and all Canadians.
In attendance, on behalf of the Government of Canada, the Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, officially welcomed the Class of 2017.
“On behalf of our government, I offer my heartfelt congratulations to all the 2017 inductees to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. What an amazing group of sport leaders. Thank you for the contributions you have made to sport and for helping build strong, inclusive and active communities for all Canadians, especially our young people,” she said.
“We are thrilled to announce the Class of 2017 – a class that features Canada’s greatest Indigenous, National, Olympic and Paralympic sport heroes who will inspire Canadians in sport and life. This group of people is a great reflection of Canada’s rich 150 year sporting history,” said Mario Siciliano, president and CEO of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
The distinguished Class of 2017 inductees includes:
– Carol Huynh, two-time Olympic medallist, wrestling
– Cindy Klassen, the most decorated Canadian Winter Olympian in history, speed skating
– Lanny McDonald, Stanley Cup champion, ice hockey
– Gaylord Powless, one of Canada’s most outstanding lacrosse players
– Mike Weir, the only Canadian to win the Masters, golf
– Simon Whitfield, two-time Olympic medallist, triathlon
– Dr. Robert W. Jackson, founder of the Paralympic movement in Canada, builder
– Dr. Charles Tator, scientist and neurosurgeon with profound impact on the world’s understanding of concussions, builder
– The Edmonton Grads basketball team, the best basketball team the world has ever seen.
The Class of 2017 will be officially inducted during the Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame 2017 Induction Celebrations on Nov. 9 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame is a national charitable organization established in 1955. Each year, a class of the country’s most influential and inspiring athletes and sport Builders are inducted. They are true Canadian sports heroes with achievements and life lessons that can inspire all Canadians to be the best they can be in all aspects of life.
Carol Huynh BIO
The middle child of five siblings, Carol Huynh was born in Hazelton, British Columbia and was the first Canadian-born child after her family emigrated as refugees from Vietnam. She was introduced to wrestling by her high school coach and progressed in the sport, entering the University scene, first with Simon Fraser University. She won two World Championship medals, Bronze in 2000 and Silver in 2001, and was the World University Games Champion in 2005. Carol then moved to Alberta and started wrestling for the University of Calgary Dinos Wrestling Club in 2007.
Carol was a 2-time Junior National Champion (1999 and 2000), an 11-time Senior National Champion (2000-02, 2004-2008, and 2010-12), a two-time Pan American Games champion in 2007 and 2011, the 2010 Commonwealth Games champion, and a four-time world wrestling championship medallist (Silver in 2001, Bronze in 2000, 2005, and 2010). At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, she was not favoured to win, but made history by becoming the first Canadian woman to win Olympic Gold in the women’s 48 kg division. It was Canada’s first-ever Olympic Gold medal in women’s wrestling and it was not long before she was on the podium once again when she won a Bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Carol retired from competitive wrestling after the 2012 Olympic Games, but has since given back to her sport and her community in multiple ways in Canada and around the world. When wrestling was taken out of the Olympic programme after the 2012 Olympic Games, Carol was chosen by fellow world-class wrestlers to advocate on their behalf at the 125th International Olympic Committee Session in Buenos Aires in 2013 to have wrestling readmitted which she did successfully. She is an assistant coach at the Dinos Wrestling Club at the University of Calgary and Next Generation coach at the Canadian Sport Institute in Calgary.
In early 2015, she was appointed as a United World Wrestling Super 8 Ambassador for the global campaign focusing on the development of women in wrestling and she is currently the President of the United World Wrestling Athletes Commission. Carol has exhibited passion, class, and extraordinary commitment to sport and her community throughout her career as an athlete, coach, and sports advocate.
