30 greatest female athletes of all time
By Nick Villano
15. Hayley Wickenheiser
Ice Hockey
There are so many female hockey players who have brought the sport to where it is today. Brianna Decker, Amanda Kessel, Cammi Granato, and Cassie Campbell-Pascall all had a hand in making this sport popular for women. However, only one can take home the moniker of “greatest,” and that’s Hayley Wickenheiser.
Four Olympic gold medals, seven World Championship gold medals, and she won silver at the initial inclusion of women’s hockey in the Olympics in 1998. That year, Team Canada faced off with Team USA, starting one of the greatest rivalries in sports. There have been seven gold medal games for women’s hockey. Six of them were USA vs. Canada. After Wickenheiser and Canada lost that first one, they won the next four gold medals at the Olympics.
Her best performance came in the 2006 Olympics when she scored 17 points at the tournament in just five games. She’s always been dominant, putting up Wayne Gretzky numbers at every big tournament. In total, she has 18 goals and 51 points just at the Olympics.
She was the first woman to play full-time professional men’s hockey in a position other than goalie. She went over to Europe and played in the third men’s league in Finland. There, Wickenheiser received a promotion to the second league. It was inspiring just to see Wickenheiser try it, playing well to show it was more than a publicity stunt.