A star ice hockey defenseman from Canada, Geraldine Heaney was born in Ireland and moved to Canada at a young age, quickly discovering that she had a talent for ice hockey. She joined the Canadian women’s national ice hockey team in 1990, the year that it was founded, and, until her 2002 retirement from the squad, captured every World Championship from its inception in 1990 until 2001, seven in total. At the 1992 and 1994 editions she won the Directorate Award as the tournament’s best defenseman. When women’s ice hockey was first made an official part of the Winter Olympics in 1998 she easily made the team and, with two goals in six matches, helped her country take home a silver medal. She was also successful at the national level during this period, participating in every national championship from 1987 through 2001 as a representative from Team Ontario, and was named the provinces’s best female defenseman in 1988, 1992, and 1993. In the lead up to the 2002 Winter Olympics she won the 2000 Canadian National Championship and was named best Canadian female defenseman in 1999 and 2001. Her final stop before retirement was the 2002 Winter Olympics, where she suited up for five games and helped capture the gold at the women’s ice hockey tournament. Since 2004 she has worked as the head coach of the University of Waterloo’s women’s ice hockey team. In 2008 she was one of the first three women, along with Cammi Granato and Angela James, to be inducted into the International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame and still holds the record for most games played with the women’s national team (125) and most career points as a defenseman (93). She also played roller hockey, winning the 1992 World Championship and placing second at the 1994 edition.
Canada