Some of the most iconic moments in Canadian history are actually in Canadian sports. Like when Marilyn Bell swam across Lake Ontario in 1954. She was a long-distance swimmer who won virtually every possible athletic award. Marilyn was inducted into the Canada Sports Hall of Fame in 1958. But she is best known for being the first person to swim 51.5 kilometres across Lake Ontario from Youngstown, New York all the way to Toronto, Ontario. And she was only 16.

Another one was when Terry Fox ran the Marathon of Hope in 1980 after losing his leg to cancer at the age of 18. He did it to raise awareness and raise money for Cancer Research in a marathon that lasted 143 days before he was forced to stop due to the return of cancer in his body. We celebrate Terry’s legacy every year with elementary schools and high schools doing a Terry Fox run. It’s one of the most well-known Canadian sports things in history.

Or the time Cindy Klassen won 5 medals in 2006 at the Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy. She was a world-class speedskater and won 1 gold, 2 silvers, and 2 bronze that year. She had missed out on a second gold medal by just .04 seconds in the 100m race.

Or when Donovan Bailey became the fastest man in the world at the time in 1996. He made history for that one at a competition in Reno, Nevada, breaking the world record for the 50-metre indoor. He also ended up setting a new world record at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia for the 100-metre title, having a top speed of 12.10 metres per second. This was the fastest top speed ever recorded by a human being at the time. He also achieved a national record at 37.69 seconds for the Summer Olympics 4 x 100m title in the same year.

Where if you want something a little bit more recent, in 2019 the Toronto Raptors became NBA champions. They became the first Canadian team to win in NBA history. They had also won a conference title that year.

And don’t forget the time in Amsterdam in 1928 when we made Canadian history. That is when women started competing in the Summer Olympics and we ended up winning. We ended up bringing 4 medals home and 2 of them were gold.

But I think you get the gist of what I’m getting at. Canada has done a lot for sports and its history, including inventing basketball, lacrosse, and, surprisingly, 5-pin bowling. Maybe we should learn about some more.