Ice hockey defenseman Colleen Sostorics played exclusively on boys’ hockey teams until the age of 17 and even captained one in 1996. She competed with Team Saskatchewan at the 1995 Canada Games and the 1997 Canadian Under-18 Championship prior to moving to Alberta to attend the University of Calgary in pursuit of a degree in economics. While there she also played on the school’s women’s ice hockey team. She joined Team Canada in 1999, in the Under-22 division, and a year later she was selected as the team’s captain. She won her first major international gold medal in at the 2001 World Championships and repeated this feat at the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics, as well as the 2004 and 2007 World Championships. She also took home a silver medal at the 2005 World Championships. Her final international accolade came on home soil, a gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and in September of that year she retired from the sport alongside Becky Kellar, Gina Kingsbury, and Carla MacLeod. On the national level, she suited up with the Calgary Oval X-Treme of the Western Women’s Hockey League.
Sostorics’ style of play was modeled after that of her idol, National Hockey League player Scott Stevens, who was known for his heavy body checking of opponents. In addition to ice hockey she excelled at soccer and fastball as a child and was named Saskatchewan provincial MVP in the latter in 1994 and 1995. After her first Olympics she also took up rugby and won a national championship with Team Alberta in 2003. She earned her bachelor’s in economics in 2004 and a street in her hometown of Kennedy, Saskatchewan, was named in her honor in 2002.
Canada