The 1998 Winter Olympics
Women made history when they stepped onto Olympic ice in Nagano in 1998. Four of the 20 women to play on the first women’s national Olympic team—Cassie Campbell-Pascal (Ontario), Nancy Drolet (Quebec), Sami Jo Small (Manitoba), and Hayley Wickenheiser (Alberta)—also made history in Charlottetown when they participated in the inaugural women’s hockey tournament at the Canada Games in 1991. Captaining Team Ontario at the 1995 Winter Games, Jayna Hefford also represented Canada at the 1998 Olympic Games.
Campbell-Pascal, the first captain of Team Ontario and a three-time Olympian, captained Team Canada to their first two gold medals in 2002 and 2006, and is the only Canadian hockey player, man or woman, to captain Team Canada to two Olympic gold medals.20 Hefford, the second captain of Team Ontario and a five-time Olympian, was the sixth female inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.21 Wickenheiser, representing Team Alberta at just 12 years of age in 1991 and a five-time Olympian, is Canada’s all-time leading scorer in women’s hockey, and often seen as the greatest female player to ever play for Canada.22 Hefford and Wickenheiser are two of only three women’s ice hockey players who have won four Olympic gold medals.23
In an interview with Calgary Hockey Magazine in 2017, Campbell-Pascal reflected on her experience in the Canada Games, “It was a really nice experience and it gave me perspective on what it would be like to be an elite athlete. It came at a time in my life when a lot of girls quit because they didn’t see a future in it. That event kind of kept me in the game.”24
In 2019, Gina Kingsbury, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who represented Team Quebec in 1995 and 1999, also reflected on her experiences in the Canada Games. “To me, Canada Games, I put them right there with my Olympic Games,”25 Kingsbury said in an interview with the Canadian Press. “It’s even more impactful when you’re 13 or 15. It leaves a huge mark on you.”26
Prior to 1991, programs for high-performance women’s hockey did not exist. Girls who wanted to play competitively had to play on boys’ teams; however, there was a considerable lack of support from minor hockey communities.27 Without the inclusion of women’s hockey at the Canada Games, athletes like Campbell-Pascal could have been lost through the sheer lack of programs available. Consequently, not only was the 1991 Canada Games important to the development of high-performance women’s hockey in Canada, but it was critical to keeping young girls in hockey, a sport that has come to symbolize what it means to be Canadian.