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Memory Lane: Remembering local Olympians past and present

The Greater Sudbury area has a long and proud history of sending local amateur athletes to compete on the world’s biggest stage

The 2022 Olympics in Beijing, China, are over with Team Canada winning four gold, eight silver and 14 bronze.

Sudbury's Rebecca Johnston, a member of the women's hockey team, earned a gold medal when Canada beat the United States 3-2 in the Feb. 17 final. One of the top-10 all-time scorers on the national women’s team, Johnston competed at the Olympics in Vancouver, Sochi, Russia, and PyeongChang, South Korea. Her total medal count is three gold and one silver.

Abby Roque, a member of the American women's hockey team, has ties to the Sudbury area. Born in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., she is a dual citizen and a member of the Wahnapitae First Nation. Her team won the silver medal.

Sudbury.com introduced readers to some Olympic athletes with Sudbury ties in the Memory Lane column Feb. 9. There is an impressive long list dating back to the 1930s. 

The list includes speed skater Alexander Hurd who won two medals in 1932 at Lake Placid, New York.

After his Olympic experience, he worked for Inco and trained at Stanley Stadium in Copper Cliff. It was the only indoor arena with artificial ice in the area. Sudbury Community Arena was not built until 1951.

His sister, Florence Hurd McIntyre, was still a teenager when she also competed in speed skating at the 1932 Olympics. Women's speed skating was a demonstration event that year – it would not become an Olympic sport until 1960.

Florence was a featured guest at the opening of Stanley Stadium in January 1935. She and her brother gave a demonstration of their skating abilities. When she moved to Copper Cliff to train, the local newspaper announced, "Ice queen now Sudbury girl."

Her daughter, Joyce Camus, lives in Sudbury, and when she saw the Memory Lane article two weeks ago, she contacted Sudbury.com and provided more details about her mom's amazing athletic achievements.

"Since I have retired, I have organized all her volumes of data, putting it in order from the time she first started to skate. At the present time, I have four binders on her early career, at the Olympics, and sharing her skating career with the Sudbury district afterwards," she said.

Florence lived most of her life in Copper Cliff. Born in North Sydney, N.S., she started competing in 1926 when she lived in London. As a teen, she also lived in Hamilton and Kirkland Lake. Her father was an official with the Salvation Army and held several postings in Ontario.

She met her future husband, Robert McIntyre, in Copper Cliff, and they married in 1938.

Her daughter said she was aware of her mother's achievements, but "Mom never talked about these things." 

Florence was a North American speed skating champion and competed until the late 1940s after her children were born. Her son, Donald, was athletic like his mom and became a physical education teacher in Espanola.

"Mom tried to get young people interested in speed skiing," in the area, said Camus, who was a medical records librarian for many years.

She had limited success in mentoring girls and was instrumental in getting a championship event held in the city.

In later years, she took up curling and was active with the Order of the Eastern Star at the local, regional and provincial level.

Florence died in 1989 at the age of 75.

At one time, some of Florence's trophies and skates were displayed at Sudbury Arena.

Camus says she would like to see the city establish a proper sports museum where her mother's treasures could be safely stored and displayed. 

In 2019, plans for the Greater Sudbury Sports Hall of Fame to be built as part of the Kingsway Entertainment District were announced.

There are countless sports champions to celebrate including almost 100 NHL players and many Olympic competitors who have Sudbury connections.

Homegrown heroes who competed at the Winter Olympics include:

  • Meagan Duhamel who grew up in Lively, and her skating pairs partner Eric Radford, won two medals at PyeongChang 2018. They won a bronze medal in the pairs event, and a gold in the team event. The figure skaters won World titles in 2015 and 2016 and helped Canada win a silver in the inaugural Olympic team event in Sochi. She now coaches elite figure skaters in Oakville.
  • Cross-country skier Devon Kershaw, spent his boyhood in Sudbury and skied for Laurentian Nordic Ski Club. He moved to Canmore, Alberta, to train with the Canadian team. He competed in PyeongChang (2018) Sochi (2014), Vancouver (2010) and Turin, Italy, (2006) Kershaw's best individual finish was fifth in the 50 km event, and fourth in the team sprint with teammate Alex Harvey in Vancouver in 2010.
  • Tessa Bonhomme was an Olympic gold medalist as a member of the Canadian national women’s hockey team in 2010.
  • Figure skater Jeff Buttle won a bronze medal in Turin in 2006. He started skating when he was two and began competing when he was six. In 2008, he won the world title in Sweden and later that year announced his retirement from competitive skating. He went on to perform in ice skating shows and is now a skating choreographer.
  • Darren Derochie competed in cross-country skiing in Albertville, France, in 1992.
  • Competing in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1976, ice dancer Sue Carscallen and her partner, Eric Gillies of North Bay, finished 11th overall. Carscallen was a member of the Sudbury, Copper Cliff and Capreol skating clubs.
  • Norm Krumpschmid, who was born in Sudbury and played for the Wolves, had dual citizenship and played on the Austrian hockey team in Nagano, Japan, in 1998.
  • Sudbury men who played hockey for Team Canada include Brian Savage, who was a member of Canada's silver-medal-winning team in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway. Todd Bertuzzi played in Turin in 2006 and Dave Hannan from Onaping Falls represented Canada in Albertville, France, in 1992. 

Vicki Gilhula is a freelance writer. Memory Lane is made possible by our Community Leaders Program. 


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