One of Ontario’s most decorated athletes on his way to hall of fame
Peterborough’s Steve Caban will be honoured June 8
The second in a series profiling the 2024 Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame induction class to be honoured June 8 at 7 p.m. at the Memorial Centre. Today’s subject is Steve Caban who is the first Special Olympics athlete to be inducted into the local sports shrine.
No Peterborough Special Olympian has been decorated with as many provincial, national and international medals as Steve Caban.
Peterborough Special Olympics will celebrate a milestone when Caban, 48, becomes their first athlete inducted into the Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame.
Since the age of 10, Caban has competed in local, provincial, national and international competition in many sports, including cross-country skiing, floor hockey, swimming, soccer, softball, basketball and 10-pin bowling. He has travelled the world competing for Canada as an elite Special Olympian. He represented Canada at the 1999 world Special Olympics summer games in North Carolina, winning swimming gold medals; the 2005 world winter games in Nagano, Japan, winning gold in the 5K cross-country, fourth in the 1K and fifth in the 4x1K relay; he medalled in the 2009 winter games in Boise, Idaho; and won bronze in crosscountry skiing at the 2013 Winter Games in Pyenongchang, South Korea.
Caban has medalled at many provincial and national winter and summer games as well. At the 2008 national winter games in Quebec City, he took home three crosscountry skiing gold medals; in the 2016 national winter games in Corner Brook, N.L., he won one silver and two bronze in cross-country skiing. In 2023, he, along with a number of other Peterborough Special Olympians, won gold at the provincial qualifier swim meet in Pickering. In 2024, Caban and his Ontario team won silver in floor hockey at the national winter games in Calgary. He will be competing in swimming at the 2024 Ontario Spring Games in Waterloo.
Caban is one of Ontario’s most decorated Special Olympians. In 2017, he was awarded the Ontario Special Olympics Lifetime Achievement Award.
“It feels really exciting,” Caban said, of his Hall of Fame induction. “I’ve never got picked to go there before.”
His mother, Linda Caban, and his stepfather, Bill Strode, before his passing in 2017, were by his side volunteering for Special Olympics and insuring he got to all of his sports activities.
“We’re really proud,” Linda said. “These guys don’t get the recognition they deserve. They work really hard.”
She said Bill would also be very proud.
“He’s the one who got Steve started in Special Olympics. I’d like to recognize him for doing that. Ray Walt was the one who started Special Olympics in Peterborough and I think it was through Ray Bill got started in Special Olympics. Bill did a lot for them. He coached a lot of teams and did their book keeping.”
Caban’s favourite of all his sports is skiing and it may explain his success in the sport.
“I like to get out in the winter time,” he said.
They visited the Hall of Fame last week and were quite impressed. “I really liked it,” said Steve. “They need more room there from the looks of it” said Linda. “It’s pretty crowded. I can’t get over what they have there.”
She’s glad that Steve was excited by the news of his induction.
“He’s put a lot of time and effort into the sports he gets into. He works on top of that, so he has to balance all the hours he puts in. He’s done really, really well.”
Caban remains as active as ever. Monday nights it’s floor hockey, Tuesday is swimming, Wednesday is basketball, Thursday is swimming, Friday is bowling and that’s just the winter. In the summer he does track and field, ball hockey, baseball and soccer.
“It keeps him busy and out of trouble,” Linda said, with a laugh.