Hayley Wickenheiser

“Hayley Wickenheiser is an incredible human being. This is what a billion hours of hard work looks like.”

—Ryan Reynolds

A titan of sport and a leader both on and off the ice, Hayley Wickenheiser has won five Olympic medals—a silver from the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and four gold medals won in consecutive Olympic Games, including one at home in Vancouver and one in the Sochi Winter Olympics. She led her squad to six gold and three silver medals at the Women’s World Hockey Championships. She was inducted into the International Hockey Hall of Fame, dubbed one of Sports Illustrated‘s “Top 25 Toughest Athletes in the World,” and was appointed to the Order of Canada “for her achievements as an athlete and for her contributions to the growth of women’s hockey.”

Hayley retired as the country’s all-time leading scorer after 23 years on the Canadian women’s team and almost a dozen Olympic and World Championship medals. As a medical doctor and community leader, she now works to provide mentoring opportunities for young athletes, including founding the annual Wickenheiser Female World Hockey Festival. She is also the national bestselling author of Over the Boards: a funny, hopeful, and practical memoir on her path to stardom. Daily Hive called it “an absolute must read sports memoir.”

Hayley was also the first female player in the world to score a point in a men’s professional game while playing in Finland, and she is the first woman in history to have either played in or coached four NHL development camps with the Philadelphia Flyers, the Edmonton Oilers, and the Toronto Maple Leafs. She now works as the assistant general manager of the Leafs (as only the fourth woman to be named an assistant GM in NHL history).

Hayley’s passion for sport is paralleled by her drive to give back to the community in several ways, particularly to organizations with a commitment to children: such as KidSport, Right To Play, Dreams Take Flight, Clean Air Champions, and Spread The Net.