The daughter of Olympian Doreen McCannell and a sports psychologist, forward Jennifer Botterill came from a strong athletic background, which she began applying to ice hockey at the age of thirteen, having played basketball in her younger days. Within four years she had joined the Canadian women’s national hockey team at the senior level and soon won a silver medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics, when women’s ice hockey was first made an official part of the program. At the tournament, as Canada’s youngest player, she suited up for six matches but did not score any goals. She also entered Harvard University that year, to earn a degree in psychology, and had a successful five-year tenure with their hockey squad that included a National Collegiate Athletic Association Championship victory in 1999 and stints as captain during the 2000-2001 and 2002-2003 seasons. Among the honors that she accrued during her collegiate career were a league MVP award in 1999 and the Patty Kazmaier Award as college ice hockey’s top female player, which she won in 2002 and 2003, making her the only person to capture the title twice. She also holds the NCAA scoring record with 319 points, having scored in all but one of her 107 games in the league. During that time she also won the Province of Manitoba’s Female Athlete of the Year Award in 2001 (an honor that her mother had picked up 36 years prior) and gold medals at the 1999, 2000, and 2001 World Championships, as well as the 2002 Winter Olympics. At the latter tournament she skated in five games and scored three goals. As of 2010 she has remained with the national team and won additional silver (2005, 2008, 2009) and gold (2004, 2007) medals at the World Championships as well as more gold medals at the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics. She also plays for the Mississauga Chiefs of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League. Outside of hockey she has donated her time to the Right to Play charity as well being a motivational speaker with the Royal Bank of Canada’s Olympians Program. Her brother Jason was also a hockey player and he spent eight years in the National Hockey League prior to joining the Pittsburgh Penguins as an administrator and eventually assistant general manager.
Canada