COC Celebrates 2015 Year of Sport
TORONTO — The Canadian Olympic Committee is celebrating the success of Canadian athletes during the 2015 Year of Sport by releasing a recap of notable achievements, records and medals from the year.
Toronto 2015:
Canada had its most successful Pan Am Games ever with 219 medals (78 gold, 70 silver, 71 bronze).
- The previous Canadian gold medal record was 64 (Winnipeg 1999)
- The previous Canadian total medal record was 196 (Winnipeg 1999)
- Canada’s most decorated athlete of the Games was artistic gymnast Ellie Black with 5 medals
- Canadian athletes set 12 Pan Am records during the Games
- Canada had 9 gold-silver finishes at the Games
Summer Sport World Championships:
Canada won 18 world championship medals (3 gold, 5 silver, 10 bronze) in 8 sports (athletics, canoe/kayak sprint, track cycling, diving, judo, rowing, swimming, wrestling) in Olympic events.
- Canada’s three world champions are Derek Drouin (athletics – high jump), Shawn Barber (athletics – pole vault), Mark de Jonge (canoe/kayak sprint – K-1 200m)
- Canada had its most successful athletics world championships ever with 8 medals (2 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze)
- Canada’s double world championship medallists were Ryan Cochrane (swimming – 400m freestyle bronze and 1500m freestyle bronze) and Andre De Grasse (athletics – 100m bronze and 4x100m relay bronze)
- Ryan Cochrane’s medals brought his career world championship total to 8, the most ever by a Canadian swimmer; he maintained a podium streak in the 1500m freestyle dating back to 2009
- The women’s eight maintained a podium streak at the world rowing championships dating back to 2010; coxswain Lesley Thompson-Willie won her 10th career world championship medal
- The women’s team pursuit maintained a podium streak at the world track cycling championships dating back to 2012
Winter Sport World Championships:
Canada won 21 world championship medals (3 gold, 11 silver, 7 bronze) in 12 sports (alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, luge, ice hockey, skeleton, snowboard, short track speed skating, long track speed skating) in Olympic events.
- Canada’s world champions are Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford (figure skating – pairs), Justine Dufour-Lapointe (freestyle skiing – moguls), men’s ice hockey
- Duhamel and Radford capped an undefeated 2014-15 season (which included wins at Skate Canada International, NHK Trophy, ISU Grand Prix Final and Four Continents Championship) by winning their first world title and Canada’s first by a pair since 2001
- The Canadian men went undefeated (10-0) throughout the world hockey championship to win their first gold since 2007
- Alex Harvey became the first Canadian cross-country skier to win 2 medals at a world championship (sprint silver and skiathlon bronze), bringing his career total to 4
- Nathan Smith became the first Canadian man to win a medal at the biathlon world championships with his silver in the 10km sprint
Records and moments:
Mikaël Kingsbury recorded his 29th career World Cup victory on December 12, breaking the previous career men’s moguls mark of 28 held by France’s Edgar Grospiron.
Long track speed skater Ted-Jan Bloeman set the world record in the 10,000m (12:36.30) on November 21, taking more than five seconds off the previous mark of Dutchman Sven Kramer which had stood since March 2007.
At 17 years 11 months 6 days, Brooke Henderson became the LPGA Tour’s third youngest winner ever when she captured the Cambia Portland Classic in August. She was the first Canadian to win an LPGA event since Lorie Kane in 2001 and was granted LPGA Tour membership by special petition before her 18th birthday.
Daniel Nestor sits on 999 ATP World Tour victories as he looks to become the first doubles player to reach the 1000 win mark.
Brianne Theisen-Eaton posted the best heptathlon score in the world in 2015, earning 6808 points to win the Hypo-Meeting in Götzis, Austria in May.
Kadeisha Buchanan won the Young Player Award at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. At age 19 she was the youngest member of the Canadian team and played every minute of the tournament. She was one of 10 candidates for FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year.
The Canadian women’s rugby team secured its first ever tournament win in the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series in Amsterdam in May.
Canada secured Olympic berths in 19 sports (diving, swimming, synchronized swimming, archery, athletics, basketball, canoe/kayak slalom, canoe/kayak sprint, road cycling, equestrian, field hockey, artistic gymnastics, trampoline, modern pentathlon, rowing, rugby, sailing, shooting, wrestling).
QUOTE
“The 2015 Year of Sport was an outstanding time for our athletes and for our sports in Canada. This year, Canada’s athletes showed their country and the world that they are a force to be reckoned with. From our best-ever performance at the Pan Am Games, to multiple records set and medals won, we truly solidified our place in the sport world as a fierce contender.”
Tricia Smith, President, COC