Fans of Canadian hockey at the international level are bound to have heard the name of Cassie Campbell. The talented Campbell was a staple on Team Canada for many of the women’s most successful bids both at the Olympics and during other international competitions. Here is a little bit more about one of hockey’s most impressive ambassadors. Cassie Campbell was born in 1973 in Richmond Hill (Ontario) and spent most of her life in Brampton. She first started playing hockey at the age of five, at a time when more girls were starting to join what had been thought to be a men only sport. Hockey became a lifelong passion of the left-winger, and she continued to play throughout her high school and university years (she attended the University of Guelph, also in Ontario). Campbell has played on several different league teams in women’s hockey, including the Toronto Aeros, the Mississauga Chiefs, and the Calgary Oval X-Treme. It is her participation on Team Canada, however, that offered Campbell the platform from which to launch her career as one of the county’s true sports superstars. Team Canada first recruited Cassie Campbell to their squad when she was 22 years old. At that time women’s hockey still had not made a major mark on the Canadian scene, largely due to the fact that it was a new event at the Olympic level. In 1998, the Team won its first medal, silver, losing gold to the Americans. In fact, the team that Campbell had been a part of for so long has only ever lost four major tournament games (in the Olympics and the IIHF). For the 2002 Olympics, Campbell was named captain of Team Canada and led the women to a gold in Nagano. She agreed to fill the role in 2006 in Turin, and once again Team Canada captured a gold medal. The successes of the women’s team led to a huge growth in the number of women and girls who now play hockey in Canada, plus the opportunities available for females, and the interest of Canadians in this aspect of the sport in general have also grown. It also served to launch Campbell into the spotlight as a true ambassador of the game; among other things, she received several endorsements. Cassie Campbell announced her retirement from Team Canada in 2007, making way for some of the younger players who owe their presence in part to the road paved by Campbell and others. She continues to make inroads in the world of hockey, most notably in offering colour commentary on Hockey Night in Canada, becoming the first woman in history to do so. For these reasons and mores, Campbell has been inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.
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