The Canadian Tire Wickenheiser World Female Hockey Festival, or WickFest is an annual festival showcasing women and girls hockey. It was started by Canadian Olympic Gold Medalist Hayley Wickenheiser.
The first WickFest was held in 2010 in Burnaby, British Columbia, following the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and had 47 teams participate. [1] By 2015, the tournament had grown to 2000 players from 100 teams, both from Canada and abroad. [2] In 2017, there were 2300 participants, including a Pee Wee team from China. [3] Attendees of the 2018 event, held at WinSport in Calgary included the Indian women's national ice hockey team. [4] The tenth WickFest was held in early 2019 in Surrey, British Columbia. [5]
Ice hockey is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Two opposing teams use ice hockey sticks to control, advance, and shoot a vulcanized rubber hockey puck into the other team's net. Each goal is worth one point. The team with the highest score after an hour of playing time is declared the winner; ties are broken in overtime or a shootout. In a formal game, each team has six skaters on the ice at a time, barring any penalties, including a goaltender. It is a full contact game and one of the more physically demanding team sports.
Hayley Wickenheiser is a Canadian former ice hockey player, resident physician and assistant general manager for the Toronto Maple Leafs. She was the first woman to play full-time professional men’s hockey in a position other than goalie. Wickenheiser was a member of Canada women's national ice hockey team for 23 years, from 1994 until announcing her retirement on January 13, 2017, and is the team's career points leader with 168 goals and 211 assists in 276 games. She represented Canada at the Winter Olympics five times, capturing four gold and one silver medal and twice being named tournament MVP, and one time at the Summer Olympics in softball, and is a seven-time winner of the world championships. She is tied with teammates Caroline Ouellette and Jayna Hefford for the record for the most gold medals of any Canadian Olympian, and is widely considered to be the greatest female ice hockey player of all time. On February 20, 2014, Wickenheiser was elected to the International Olympic Committee's Athletes' Commission. In 2019, she was named to the Hockey Hall of Fame, in her first year of eligibility. She was also inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2019, and Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2022.
Hockey Canada is the national governing body of ice hockey and ice sledge hockey in Canada. It is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation and controls the majority of organized ice hockey in Canada. There are some notable exceptions, such as the Canadian Hockey League, U Sports, and Canada's professional hockey clubs; the former two are partnered with Hockey Canada but are not member organizations. Hockey Canada is based in Calgary, with a secondary office in Ottawa and regional centres in Toronto, Winnipeg and Montreal.
Angela Marie Ruggiero is an American former ice hockey defenseman, gold medalist, and four-time Olympian. She was a member of the International Olympic Committee from 2010 to 2018 and served as a member of the Executive Board of the IOC after being elected the Chairperson of the IOC Athletes' Commission, the body that represents all Olympic athletes worldwide, a post which she held from 2016 to 2018.
Sports in Canada consist of a wide variety of games. The roots of organized sports in Canada date back to the 1770s. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey and lacrosse. Other major professional games include curling, basketball, baseball, soccer, and football. Great achievements in Canadian sports are recognized by numerous "Halls of Fame" and museums, such as Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.
Ice hockey tournaments have been staged at the Olympic Games since 1920. The men's tournament was introduced at the 1920 Summer Olympics and was transferred permanently to the Winter Olympic Games program in 1924, in France. The women's tournament was first held at the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Vicky Sunohara is a Canadian ice hockey coach, former ice hockey player, and three-time Olympic medallist. She has been described as "the Wayne Gretzky of women's hockey" and is recognized as a trailblazer and pioneer for the sport. In 2020, Sunohara was named to "TSN Hockey’s All-Time Women’s Team Canada," in recognition of her status as one of Canada’s best female hockey players of all time. She was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2025.
Caroline Ouellette is a Canadian former ice hockey player and current associate head coach of the Concordia Stingers women's ice hockey program. She was a member of the Canadian national women's ice hockey team and a member of Canadiennes de Montreal in the Canadian Women's Hockey League. Among her many accomplishments are four Olympic gold medals, 12 IIHF Women's World Championship medals, 12 Four Nations Cup medals and four Clarkson Cup championships.
Gillian Mary Apps is a women's ice hockey player. Apps was a member of the Canadian National Hockey Team that won back to back gold medals in three consecutive Olympic Games.
Jennifer Botterill is a Canadian former women's hockey player and current hockey broadcast television analyst who played for Harvard University, the Canadian national team, the Mississauga Chiefs, and the Toronto Aeros. She entered the ice hockey world after starting in the sport of ringette.
The 2009–10 women's national hockey team represented Canada at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Prior to the games, the national team participated in several tournaments during the 2009–10 season. The team won the gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The head coach was Melody Davidson, and she was assisted by Peter Smith and former Vancouver Canucks player Doug Lidster.
Meaghan Mikkelson is a Canadian ice hockey player, broadcaster, and former member of the Canadian national ice hockey team. She is currently affiliated with the Calgary chapter of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA).
The first instances of organized women's ice hockey in Canada date back to the 1890s when it was played at the university level. The Women's Hockey Association claims that the city of Ottawa, Ontario hosted the first game in 1891. In 1920, Lady Meredith, an avid sportswoman and wife of Sir Vincent Meredith of Montreal donated the Lady Meredith Cup to the Quebec Ladies' Hockey Association, said to be the first women's ice hockey trophy created for a competition in Canada. At the time women competed in ankle-length skirts.
The Calgary Dinos women's ice hockey team represented the University of Calgary in the 2010–11 CIS women's ice hockey season. The head coach is former Olympic gold medallist Danielle Goyette. She is assisted by another former Olympic gold medallist Kelly Bechard, Alison Goodman, and Logan Frison. For the season, the Dinos had 18 wins, 8 losses and 3 ties. Their conference record was 16-6-2.
The Calgary Dinos women's ice hockey team represents the University of Calgary in U Sports women's ice hockey. The Dinos compete in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association Conference in the U Sports athletic association. The program has won one conference championship in 2012 and have made five national championship appearances with a gold medal win in 2012.
The 2011–12 women's national hockey team represented Canada in various tournaments during the 2011-12 hockey season. The head coach of the National team was York Lions women's ice hockey coach Dan Church.
Ice hockey is among the most popular sports in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, and the province has been notable for producing a large number of hockey figures in both men's and women's hockey. Saskatchewan does not currently have a professional hockey team of its own, but it is home to a large number of junior and senior hockey teams. The sport is governed in the province by Hockey Saskatchewan.
Alexandra Vena "Alex" Gowie is a Canadian-Hungarian ice hockey player and member of the Hungarian national ice hockey team, currently playing in the European Women's Hockey League (EWHL) with the women's representative team of MAC Budapest.