Kevin Martin and Erik Guay say it’s not so much what they did in sport, but how they did it.
Olympic champion curler Martin and world champion alpine skier Guay are among five athletes who will be inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2025.
Soccer player Christine Sinclair, wheelchair racer Michelle Stilwell and softball player Darren Zack join them in the athlete category, while NHL coach Ted Nolan and sport leader Martha Billes will enter as builders.
“I’ve had some highlight moments that are always going to be very cherished in my memory, but I think what I’m most proud of is probably the fact that I’ve been through my entire career without any sort of blemishes,” Guay said. “I hope that I was an inspiration to a lot of the young athletes, not only in my hometown of Montreal, but also across Canada.”
The class of 2025 will receive the Order of Sport at an induction gala Oct. 29 at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que.
The Sports Hall of Fame has inducted over 750 Canadians, including three horses, since opening 70 years ago.
Sinclair, from Burnaby, B.C., is the all-time leader for international goals scored by men or women with 190 in 331 appearances with the Canadian women’s team. She was an Olympic gold medallist in 2021 and twice a bronze medallist before retiring from the national team in 2023. Sinclair is now a co-owner of the Northern Super League’s Vancouver Rise FC.
WATCH | Sinclair reflects on record-breaking career:
Christine Sinclair reflects on record-breaking career
Guay of Mont-Tremblant, Que., is a two-time world champion and the oldest to claim at world title when he took the super-G crown at age 35. He reached the podium 25 times on the World Cup circuit, and won five gold before he retired in 2018. He’s an Alpine Canada board member.
Edmonton’s Martin skipped men’s teams to Olympic gold in 2010 in Vancouver, and silver in Turin, Italy in 2006, as well as a world championship in 2008. He was a founder of curling’s Grand Slam, which contributed to the sport’s professionalization with large prize purchases and more television exposure for the sport.
A few years removed from the day-to-day quest to win, Martin, 58, and Guay, 43, now look at their careers through the lens of their legacies.
“I hope I can continue to be an ambassador for skiing. I try to give back as much as I can as much as time permits me,” Guay said. “I’m still very, very passionate about my sport and sport in general. It’s to continue to give back and making sure that the sport’s healthy for my kids and future generations.”
The Grand Slam curling property and building junior curling programs are what Martin says he’s most proud of in his career.
“When you’re playing, all you’re doing is playing the best you can, practice hard, work hard, and try to win all you can,” Martin said.
“But building the sport, that’s really important. You want it to be stronger and better for the next generation.
“No question, it would be certainly off the ice growing with the junior bonspiel around 17 [years] I think. And the Grand Slam is going terrific. We put it together 27 years ago for goodness sakes.”
Stilwell of Parksville, B.C., is a five-time Paralympic champion in wheelchair racing and also helped the women’s basketball team claim Paralympic gold in 2000. She served as an MLA in the B.C. government from 2013 to 2020 and was elected vice-president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee this week.
Zack, of Garden River, Ont., is an Ojibwe softball pitcher who helped Canada win Pan American Games gold in 1991, 1995 and 1999 as well as a world championship in 1992. He struck out 150 batters in 10 straight wins for the Toronto Gators at the 1995 International Softball Congress.
Nolan, also from Garden River, won the NHL’s coaching award in 1997 in his second season behind the bench of the Buffalo Sabres.
He coached the Sabres for four seasons and the New York Islanders for two. Nolan and his sons established a First Nations hockey school and the Ted Nolan Foundation provides scholarships to First Nations women.
Billes, controlling owner of Canadian Tire Corporation, founded the company’s Jumpstart program that assists financially disadvantaged families with the costs associated with sport. Jumpstart is in its 20th year.
The Hall encourages Canadians to nominate people for the Hall of Fame. A selection committee reviews submissions and votes to recommend inductees to the Hall’s board of governors.
The Hall’s 100,000 objects and 60,000 archival records were acquired by the Canadian Museum of History after the building in Calgary closed during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and didn’t reopen.
The main thrust of the Hall’s work is digital storytelling through a national school program and Indigenous Sport Heroes Education experience.
