Labonte retires, with four gold medals
Four-time Olympic gold-medallist Charline Labonte is retiring from the Canadian Women’s Hockey League.
The veteran goaltender announced last year she would not try to make the national team for the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea, but continued to play for the CWHL’s Les Canadiennes.
She also began work on a posthockey career, taking classes at the École des métiers de la restauration et du tourisme de Montréal, a top school for aspiring chefs.
The 34-year-old made the announcement Monday at Les Demoiselles, a restaurant and coffee shop where she has worked parttime under chef Vanessa Trahan, a graduate of the same school.
Labonte first made her name when she became only the second female to play in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League after goalie Manon Rhéaume.
After playing on high-level boys teams in Boisbriand, Que., she was drafted by the AcadieBathurst Titan.
She didn’t think she’d make the team, but ended up dressing for 26 games in 1999-2000.
Her numbers weren’t great — 4-9-2 with a 5.22 goals-against average and an .841 save percentage — but the experience helped put her on the women’s national team, where she was an alternate on the Canadian squad that upset the United States at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
She started three games at the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy, including the final. She got into only one game at the ’10 Olympics in Vancouver then had two winning starts in Sochi, Russia in ’14 as Canada won its fourth straight women’s hockey gold.
Labonte also won two gold and five silver medals at women’s world championships, and helped the McGill Martlets to three Canadian university titles in five seasons.
She also earned a master’s degree in sports psychology.
In 2013, she joined the Montreal Stars (now Canadiennes) and two years later was the CWHL goaltender of the year.