Gold Hockey

Three-time Olympic medalist shares behind-the-scenes insight into the beloved Canadian National Women’s Hockey Team Men’s hockey in Canada may hog the limelight, but interest in women’s hockey has never been higher. The Role I Played is a memoir of Sami Jo Small’s ten years with Canada’s National Women’s Hockey Team. Beginning with her experience as a rookie at the first-ever women’s Olympic hockey tournament in Nagano in 1998 and culminating with Canada’s third straight Olympic gold medal in Vancouver in 2010, the veteran goaltender gives the reader behind-the-scenes insight into one of the most successful teams in sports history. Small offers insider access, writing with unflinching honesty about the triumphs of her greatest games and the anguish of difficult times. This book honours the individuals who sacrificed so much of their lives to represent Canada on a world stage and celebrates their individual contributions to the team’s glory. While bringing the personalities of her teammates to life, Small takes the reader into the dressing rooms and onto the ice for an up-close glimpse into the ups and downs of athletes pursuing a sport’s highest achievement.

Celebrate another historic gold medal with the behind-the-scenes story of the Canadian World Junior program, from bestselling author Mark Spector. On the World Juniors hockey stage today, Canada is known as the team to beat. They hold the record for the most gold medals won (eighteen since the tournament’s inception), their games draw millions of fans each year, and the tournament serves as a showcase for each year’s best talent. But things weren’t always so rosy. For years, Canada languished in obscurity at the World Juniors. Wearing the red-and-white wasn’t a mark of honour but merely a sideshow to the players, owners resented the interruption to their league operations, and Canada was an afterthought at the tournament. Canada was supposed to be better at hockey than any nation on earth, but no one took them seriously. So, the team set out on a reclamation mission. The Program of Excellence was born, and with it, a new hope for hockey’s future in Canada. No more would Canada be content with merely showing up. Instead, each year, the country would send its best talent—from Gretzky to Lemieux to Crosby to McDavid—to reclaim its spot at the top of the hockey world. Tracing the owner disputes, off-ice antics, and riveting on-ice action of nearly forty years at the World Juniors, Road to Gold is full of inside stories from hockey greats. And, this edition features a new chapter reliving the amazing final game against Russia in January 2020 that brought the gold medal back to Canada. Funny, smart, and clear-eyed, Mark Spector traces the remarkable rise of the Canadian World Junior program and shows how Canada created not just a new team, but a new dream for the sport.

"Now after 50 years, it's time for Canada to stand up and cheer. Stand up and cheer everybody! The Olympics Salt Lake City, 2002, men's ice hockey gold medal: Canada!" --Bob Cole, CBC play-by-play broadcaster There was no iconic Paul Henderson moment, nor a Sidney Crosby golden goal, but Canada's 5-2 victory against the rival United States in the men's 2002 Olympic gold medal game wiped out 50 years of frustration for the nation that invented ice hockey. Canadians from coast to coast were whipped into a frenzy, with impromptu celebrations on streets like Granville in Vancouver, Yonge in Toronto, Ste-Catherine in Montreal, and Portage and Main in Winnipeg. Gold is the definitive chronicle of how the men of Team Canada made history. Marking 20 years since the momentous victory, Tim Wharnsby delivers the inside story of how Gretzky built the team and Pat Quinn got them to the gold medal, featuring exclusive interviews with players, coaches, and personnel. Readers will hear directly from Gretzky, Jarome Iginla, Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman, and more in this thrilling and immersive narrative of Olympic triumph.

This is the true inside story of the "Miracle on Ice," in which a ragtag team of collegiate and amateur athletes united in the shadow of the Cold War to defeat the seemingly invincible Soviet ice hockey team at the 1980 Winter Olympics. Sixty-two action photographs complement this triumphant tale.

"Now after 50 years, it's time for Canada to stand up and cheer. Stand up and cheer everybody! The Olympics Salt Lake City, 2002, men's ice hockey gold medal: Canada!" —Bob Cole, CBC play-by-play broadcaster There was no iconic Paul Henderson moment, nor a Sidney Crosby golden goal, but Canada's 5-2 victory against the rival United States in the men's 2002 Olympic gold medal game wiped out 50 years of frustration for the nation that invented ice hockey. Canadians from coast to coast were whipped into a frenzy, with impromptu celebrations on streets like Granville in Vancouver, Yonge in Toronto, Ste-Catherine in Montreal, and Portage and Main in Winnipeg. Gold is the definitive chronicle of how the men of Team Canada made history. Marking 20 years since the momentous victory, Tim Wharnsby delivers the inside story of how Gretzky built the team and Pat Quinn got them to the gold medal, featuring exclusive interviews with players, coaches, and personnel. Readers will hear directly from Gretzky, Jarome Iginla, Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman, and more in this thrilling and immersive narrative of Olympic triumph.

The stories behind the 2002 Olympic gold medals of the men's and women's hockey teams.

He’s the playboy she shouldn’t want. She’s the woman he can’t live without. Brit has spent her entire professional career trying to prove that she deserves a spot with the guys. So when she meets Stefan, the Gold's captain, she is determinedly not interested in the well-known playboy. But when management pushes Brit and Stefan together to gain good press for the beleaguered team, Brit finds that her carefully calculated disinterest doesn’t mean anything. She wants him. And the more she falls, the more she risks it all.