Former Canada captain Christine Sinclair leads B.C. Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2025

By The Canadian Press on October 16, 2024.

VANCOUVER – Former Canada soccer captain Christine Sinclair is headed to the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame.

The 41-year-old from Burnaby, B.C., who added to her distinguished resume with a goal in the Portland Thorns’ 6-0 win over Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite in CONCACAF W Champions Cup play Tuesday at B.C. Place Stadium, is joined by four other athletes, three builder-coaches, one team, one pioneer, one media member and the winner of the W.A.C. Bennett Award in the 2025 induction class.

The other athletes are hockey’s Ray Ferraro, mountain biking’s Cindy Devine, rugby’s Nathan Hirayama and para swimming’s Walter Wu.

The builder-coach inductees are Saul Miller (sports psychology), Wes Woo (weightlifting) and the late Chandra Madhosingh (table tennis).

They will be joined by the 2000 B.C. Lions in the team category.

Broadcaster Jim Hughson enters the media category with the W.A.C. Bennett Award going to Robert Wright. The Meraloma Club founders go in as multi-sport pioneers.

Since 1966, the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame has inducted 452 individuals and 69 teams.

“Honouring the past – and inspiring the future – is at the very heart of the mission of the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame and this year’s honourees truly exemplify the best of sport in this province and beyond,” Hall chair Tom Mayenknecht said in a statement.

The Class of 2025 will be honoured at the Hall of Fame Induction gala in May.

Sinclair, who retired from international football last December, is in her final soccer season. She leaves as the all-time leading goal-scorer for both men and women with 190 goals scored in 331 international appearances.

Sinclair played for the Canada senior side from 2000 to 2023, captaining the women to three Olympic medals: gold and two bronze. She was named Canada’s Player of the Year 14 times.

Devine, a Canadian pioneer in her sport, won the first-ever official UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) world downhill mountain bike championship in 1990 at Durango, Colo., one of only two Canadian women ever to win this title.

The Venezuelan-born Devine, who now makes her home in Rossland, B.C., won world championship bronze medals in 1991 and ’92. A five-time Canadian national downhill champion (1990-94), she was inducted into the World Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2003.

Ferraro scored 20-plus goals 12 times and 40-plus goals twice during an 18-season NHL career (1984-2002) with the Harford Whalers, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, Atlanta Thrashers, and St. Louis Blues.

His 1258 NHL regular-season games, 408 goals, and 898 points ranked fourth, fifth, and seventh all-time among B.C.-born players as of 2024. He has worked as an NHL analyst and colour commentator since 2002.

Hirayama enters the Hall as one of Canada’s greatest rugby sevens players. Retiring in 2021, he ranked third-highest in scoring in World Rugby sevens play with 1,859 career points and led all Canadian men in both appearances (363) and scoring after 15 years on the national sevens team (2006-21).

Wu won 14 career Paralympic medals, including eight gold, four silver, and two bronze, ranking sixth all-time among Canadian Paralympic athletes. A native of Richmond, B.C., he also won eight career world championship medals: seven gold and one silver. Visually impaired since birth, he still holds three Canadian national records 20 years after retiring from competition.

Madhosingh, who died in December 2020, spent more than six decades in the sport of table tennis as a coach, organizer, administrator, official, and volunteer.

Miller, who now lives in North Vancouver, spent more than 40 years as a sports psychologist working with teams from the NHL, MLB, NFL, NBA and USFL, as well as pro hockey teams in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and Norway.

Vancouver’s Woo was one of Canada’s most successful weightlifting coaches over three decades and served as Canadian weightlifting head coach at three Olympics (1968, 1976, 1980), the first Chinese-Canadian coach of any Canadian Olympic team.

The 2000 B.C. Lions won the Grey Cup, defeating the Montreal Alouettes 28-26 in Calgary. And they did it the hard way, becoming the first CFL team to lift the trophy after a sub-. 500 regular season at 8-10.

Running back Robert Drummond was named Grey Cup MVP, while fullback Sean Millington was named Most Valuable Canadian. Lions quarterback Damon Allen scored two touchdowns and kicker Lui Passaglia, in his final game, kicked two field goals, two singles, and two conversions.

Founded in the summer of 1923 as a swimming club by a group of 12 friends at Vancouver’s Kitsilano Beach, the Meraloma Club has lasted more than a century and is one of the province’s longest-standing and largest multi-sport clubs.

Nearly 100 Meraloma athletes have gone on to represent Canada internationally in their sports while close to another 50 have played professionally.

Hughson spent more than 40 years in the broadcast booth, including 16 as play-by-play broadcaster on Hockey Night in Canada (2005-21). He also broadcast Toronto Blue Jays and Montreal Expos games. Hughson, who was born and raised in Fort St. John, B.C., won the NHL Broadcasters Association’s Foster Hewitt Memorial Award in 2019.

Wright, the W.A.C. Bennett Award winner, is a longtime administrator who served as chair of Tennis Canada from 1989 to 1991. Now living in Coquitlam, B.C., he was on the International Tennis Federation’s Federation Cup Committee (1987-89), chair of Sport BC (1986-88), chair of Tennis BC (1983-85) and chair of Basketball BC (1981-84).

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024

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