Sarah Vaillancourt’s determination to enter a top American university caused her to move to Connecticut at an early age to attend Pomfret Prep School in order to develop her abilities as both an English speaker and an ice hockey forward. Within a year her school team had won the 2003 United States National Championship and she had been named a New England U.S. Prep School All-Star, both of which led to her captaining the school team the following year and being admitted to Harvard University, where she spent four years playing for the Harvard Crimson. In her first year she was named the Eastern College Athletic Conference’s Rookie of the Year and joined Team Canada, winning the first major gold medal of her career at the 2004 Four Nation’s Cup. She would later follow this up with three more consecutive gold medals at this tournament as well gold (2007) and three silvers (2005, 2008, 2009) at the ice hockey World Championships. In 2006 she took the year off Harvard to compete at that year’s Olympic Games and won a gold medal with the Canadian team at the ice hockey tournament, playing in five games and scoring two goals. In 2008, while playing with Harvard, she won the Patty Kazmaier Award, given annually to the best female ice hockey played at the collegiate level in the United States. In 2009, she completed her psychology degree at the university and won a second Olympic title the following year.
Canada