A TRUE NATIONAL TREASURE LEADS WHEN IT MATTERS
Women’s hockey icon rallies Canadians to donate equipment for front-line workers
She was 18 years old the first time I saw her wearing Canadian red in competition at the women’s world hockey championship in Kitchener, Ont. She was the player you couldn’t stop watching. She was the one.
Hayley Wickenheiser was so quiet back then. She was shy and uncomfortable around a camera or a notebook, speaking in as few words as possible, sounding like just about every other teenage hockey player we hear, hoping the reporters will soon go away and stop asking questions.
That really was the beginning of her public life, and in many ways, we’ve been along for the ride with Wickenheiser ever since. We watched her play hockey at five Winter Olympics, winning four gold medals for Canada.
We’ve watched her grow up, almost before our very eyes.
You might remember, if you remember things like this, that she was a backup infielder on the Canadian softball team at the 2000 Olympic Summer Games in Sydney, Australia.
Four years later, the quiet girl who didn’t care for microphones was doing television coverage on the largest sporting event in the world. I remember joking with her about doing television on a national network.
You might remember that she was the woman — the one non-goaltender woman — working in men’s professional hockey in Finland, in between winning more medals at Olympics and world championships. She was breaking down barriers with every stride she took.
That was before the Hockey Hall of Fame called. That was before she played her final Olympic Games in Sochi on a broken foot, like the legendary Bobby Baun.
That was before she got to parade her son, Noah, around the ice in Salt Lake City in 2002, flashing her gold medal and proudly carrying her pride and joy. That was before she announced her retirement. And that was before she decided to go to medical school, to become Dr. Wickenheiser, I presume, and to do all this while being a mom who was growing into her 40s.
Who does that? Who can do that?
Really, Wickenheiser has grown into our own version of Oprah, in a very different kind of way in a different kind of country — a woman who can do just about anything and everything. When necessary, she could probably slip on the cape and become Canada’s Superwoman — Captain Canada, the female version.
We all need heroes of some kind. Right now, more than ever. We need people to look up to, people to admire, people to believe in.
But Hayley Wickenheiser isn’t just a figure. She’s flesh and blood and heart — and oh so Canadian.
There was Wickenheiser on social media on Twitter on Sunday night, with the country on hold, a lot of us alone or afraid or both, reaching out and asking for surgical masks and gloves and necessary equipment for medical workers in front-line peril of contracting COVID -19.
She was asking others to get as involved as she was. And before you knew it, famous Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds was right there, working to support Wickenheiser. Helping any way he can. That’s the Reynolds guy who has 15.7 million followers on Twitter. It may not be the 111 million that Justin Bieber has, but it’s a lot. A whole lot.
Reynolds did his interview for the news over his cellphone and Wickenheiser was in Burlington on Monday night, wearing Canada’s red in national news shots, helping to unload boxes from trucks, rolling up her sleeves, giving back, being prominent, standing in front of the cameras and the microphone, standing tall, standing smart, confident, sharp: More than anything else, she was involved when involvement of some kind mattered most.
She probably deserves an Order of Canada for all she’s done on so many levels, but she already has that. She probably deserves a place in the Hall of Fame, but she already is a first ballot entry into that house.
There’s nothing left to give her except maybe more of our admiration.
The worst of times can bring out the best in people in this country. We’ve seen that before. We’re seeing it again on a variety of levels.
Her world started in sports, that little girl who dressed by herself to play arena games played mostly by boys. The little girl who never felt like part of a team until she got on the ice. Then she kept her hair just short enough so not everybody would notice who she was.
All these years and all these accomplishments later, everybody notices who she is and what she has become — and how much of a Canadian treasure she’s grown into.
Wickenheiser has grown into our own version of Oprah, in a very different kind of way in a different kind of country — a woman who can do just about anything and everything.