Canada 150: The 15 greatest Canadian athletes

To celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary, KelownaNow is shining a light on our amazing country. In the weeks leading up to July 1st, we will be releasing articles on the best Canada has to offer.

We kicked off our series of Canada 150 articles last week with Canada’s 15 best ski resorts.

This week it’s the top 15 athletes in Canada’s decorated sports history.

The list features athletes from a wide variety of sports and eras.

While there are 15 deserving athletes on this list, there are a number of incredible Canadian athletes that didn’t make the cut, which wasn’t an easy decision.

The list is in alphabetical order based on last name.

Donovan Bailey
Hometown: Manchester, Jamaica (immigrated to Oakville, Ontario)

Canada produced a pair of elite sprinters in the late part of the 20th century, but only one of them did it legitimately. Just a few years after Ben Johnson had his Olympic medals stripped due to doping, Donovan Bailey captured the hearts of a nation during the 1996 Atlanta games. The Jamaican born, Canadian sprinter won gold in the 100m setting a new world record of 9.84 seconds in the process. He also led the 4 x 100m relay team to a gold medal in the same Olympics.

Lionel Conacher
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario

Nicknamed “The Big Train”, Lionel Conacher might be the least known athlete on this list, despite having a national award named after him. Conacher succeeded in a number of sports including football, hockey, baseball, lacrosse, boxing and wrestling. He won a Grey Cup, a Memorial Cup, two Stanley Cups and even a baseball championship in the International League. The Canadian Press awards the Lionel Conacher award to the country’s male athlete of the year.

Nancy Greene
Hometown: Ottawa, Ontario

Nancy Greene, nicknamed “Tiger” for her aggressive style of skiing, is one of the most decorated alpine skiers in Canadian history. Previously dominated by the Europeans, Greene took over in 1967 winning the inaugural World Cup and seven out of 16 events on the circuit that year. She was named Canada’s Athlete of the Year in 1967 and followed it up with another World Cup title in 1968, as well as a gold and silver medal in the Olympics and another gold medal at the world championships. Greene is now a large figure in the B.C. ski industry.

Wayne Gretzky
Hometown: Brantford, Ontario

The first of five hockey players on the list is also the most obvious. “The Great One” holds almost every NHL record you can think of and helped Edmonton become the City of Champions in the late 1980s. Gretzky’s 1,963 assists in the NHL are greater than anyone else’s points totals, although Jaromir Jagr might have something to say about that before he hangs up the skates. At the time of his retirement, Gretzky held 61 NHL records.

Gordie Howe
Hometown: Floral, Saskatchewan

Gordie Howe, or “Mr. Hockey” as he is commonly known, still holds the record for most games played in the NHL. He’s a 23-time NHL All-Star and held a number of hockey’s scoring records until Wayne Gretzky broke them in the 1980s. Widely considered as the greatest all-around player in hockey history, Howe set the bar by playing until age 52, a mark that has never been beat.

Clara Hughes
Hometown: Winnipeg, Manitoba

Not only does Clara Hughes have six Olympic medals to her name, she’s one of two athletes since Second World War to win medals in both the Summer and Winter Games. Initially, Hughes won two bronze medals in cycling at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games. She followed those medals up with four medals over the span of three Winter Games in speedskating. She won bronze at the 2002 Salt Lake City games, a gold and silver in the 2006 Turin games and another bronze on home soil at the 2010 Vancouver games.

Ferguson Jenkins
Hometown: Chatham, Ontario

Despite having just one MLB team, Canada has produced some talented baseball players over the years, but none compare to “Fergie” Jenkins. He was the first Canadian, and first Cubs pitcher, to win a Cy Young Award as the league’s best pitcher and accumulated over 3,000 strikeouts in his long career. Jenkins wasn’t just a talented baseball player either, as he spent a few off-seasons playing for the Harlem Globetrotters.

Cindy Klassen
Hometown: Winnipeg, Manitoba

Penny Oleksiak impressed the entire country with her four medals in last summer’s Summer games, but it doesn’t compare to Cindy Klassen’s performance at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Klassen won five medals for Team Canada, despite the fact that there are far less medals available in the Winter Games. Klassen also won a bronze medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, tying her with Clara Hughes for the Canadian record of six total medals at the Olympics.

Mario Lemieux
Hometown: Montreal, Quebec

Mario Lemieux was the first overall draft pick in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft, and he certainly didn’t disappoint. Lemieux is narrowly behind Gretzky for the highest all-time points per game in the NHL and the two Canadians are a half point higher than anyone else on the list. Lemieux’s career was ultimately shortened by injury, a mid-career retirement and even cancer, but number 66 is still considered one of the most talented and influential players to ever play the game.

Steve Nash
Hometown: Johannesburg, South Africa (immigrated to Regina, Saskatchewan then Victoria, B.C.)

From the ice to the hardcourt, there’s not much doubt about who Canada’s greatest basketball player is. Steve Nash was initially drafted by the Phoenix Suns in 1996, but was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in 1998 where established himself as one of the league’s best passers. The gifted playmaker returned to Phoenix in 2004 where he won back to back NBA MVP Awards. Nash retired with the highest free throw percentage in NBA history at 90.42%.

Bobby Orr
Hometown: Parry Sound, Ontario

Much like Mario Lemieux, there’s a good chance Orr would be considered the greatest hockey player of all time if his career wasn’t cut short by injury. He remains the only defenseman to lead the league in scoring, which he did twice, although Brent Burns is trying his best to join Orr in that regard this season. Orr won eight consecutive Norris Trophies as the NHL’s best defenseman and three consecutive Hart Trophies as the league’s MVP. He also scored one the most famous goals in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup (pictured above).

Christine Sinclair
Hometown: Burnaby, B.C.

Canada's national men's soccer team leaves much to be desired and are currently ranked 78th in the world. Canada's national women's soccer team, on the other hand, is one of the best in the world and are currently ranked fourth. A large part of that is the career of Christine Sinclair, who can be considered one of the best females to ever play the game. Sinclair serves as the captain of the national team and is Canada's all-time leader in caps (247) and goals (167). The 167 goals puts her second all-time in international goals scored, behind American Abby Wambach. She's a major reason why the team won back-to-back bronze medals in the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics.

Georges St. Pierre
Hometown: Montreal, Quebec

More common known as GSP, Georges St. Pierre was a large factor in turning the UFC from a marginally watched sport into the powerhouse it is today. He won three Welterweight Championships between 2006 and 2008 and was listed as the number one welterweight in the world for several years. named GSP the Canadian Athlete of the Year in 2008, 2009 and 2010, and only Anderson Silva (2,457 days) had a longer title run than GSP (2,204 days).

Mike Weir
Hometown: Sarnia, Ontario

There are a number of Canadians doing good things on the PGA Tour, but that wasn’t always the case. In the early 2000s, Mike Weir was the guy from Canada and he was one of the best players on tour. He spent five years inside the top 10 of the World Golf Rankings, sandwiched around his historic Masters win in 2003. Aside from the Masters, Weir had seven other PGA Tour victories between 1999 and 2007. He also piled up 11 top-10 and four top-5 major finishes in his career.

Hayley Wickenheiser
Hometown: Shaunavon, Saskatchewan

You could debate about which male hockey player on this list is the best, but there’s not much doubt that Hayley Wickenheiser is the greatest female hockey player in history. Wickenheiser was a member of the Canadian national team for 23 years, leading the team to four gold medals and a silver medal in Nagano when she was just 19. She retired in January of this year with 168 goals and 211 assists to her name in just 276 career games. Wickenheiser also represented Canada once in the Summer Olympics as a part of the softball team.

Young Honourable Mentions

There are a few incredible young athletes in Canada that have a good chance of making it onto this list by the time their careers are done. Those include Sidney Crosby, Milos Raonic, Penny Oleksiak and Andre de Grasse, just to name a few.