John Lennon once sang about “another year over and what have you done?” Quite a lot, as it turns out. Here are the top-10 Island sports stories of 2022:
1. GOLDEN GIRL: Micah Zandee-Hart of Saanichton became the first player from sa国际传媒 to win Olympic gold in women’s hockey as she diligently guarded the blue line for sa国际传媒 at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
2. SILVER BULLET: That described Cassie Sharpe of Comox as she slid and flipped to the silver medal in ski half-pipe at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics to follow up her gold medal from Pyeongchang 2018 to become a study in Olympian consistency.
3. MARATHON MAN: Cam Levins of Black Creek set a blistering pace and destroyed his own Canadian record by more than two minutes in placing fourth at the 2022 world track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon.
4. CREASE MAGICIAN: Goaltender Dylan Garand of Langford was outstanding in backstopping sa国际传媒 to the 2022 world junior hockey gold medal.
5. A STAR IS BORN: Youthful Canadian captain Sophie De Goede of Victoria became a planetary rugby revelation in leading sa国际传媒 to the semifinals of the 2022 women’s World Cup in New Zealand.
6. HOST WITH THE MOST: It was another significant year of sports hosting with sa国际传媒 playing several internationals in Greater Victoria. Christine Sinclair and the national women’s soccer team met Nigeria at Starlight Stadium as part of the Tokyo Summer Olympics gold-medal celebration tour, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and NBA-player-laden sa国际传媒 beat Argentina in a key men’s basketball World Cup qualifier at a sold-out Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre and De Goede led sa国际传媒 to victory in a pre-World Cup rugby tune-up at Starlight Stadium.
Also notable on the year was CARSA gym at UVic hosting the Toronto Raptors training camp.
7. PITCH WARS: Although the story was national in scope, each community from Tofino to St. John’s, got to gather in front of their TVs to finally again watch sa国际传媒 play in the men’s World Cup of soccer for the first time in 36 years. Although the national team is now heavily eastern based with Brampton, Ont., the new Victoria, many of the stories looking back focused on the Island because of its strong connection to the 1986 World Cup team.
In the Canadian Premier League, Pacific FC’s 2021 league championship brought with it a real Caribbean and Central American feel to Langford with 2022 CONCACAF League games played at Starlight Stadium.
8. BRUMMIES: More than 50 Island or Island-based athletes took part in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. The Island total of three medals was very much on the light side in comparison with past Olympic, Commonwealth and Pan Am Games. But there were 19 Island top-five performers and a host of young athletes introduced to the multi-sport Games stage such as Victoria diver Renée Batalla, 15, rugby sevens semifinalist Krissy Scurfield from the UVic Vikes, 19, gold-medallist swimmer Nicholas Bennett of Parksville, 18, silver medallist hammer-thrower Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, 20, UVic field-hockey star Anna Mollenhauer and Victoria-cyclist Riley Pickrell, 20.
9. FORE!: Island golfers had it covered on both male and female tournament courses with 21-year-old Jackson Rothwell of Victoria winning the 2022 men’s sa国际传媒 amateur championship. Shelly Stouffer of Nanoose Bay, meanwhile, had a blockbuster year by winning the U.S. senior women’s amateur championship, Canadian amateur, mid-amateur and mid-master championships, sa国际传媒 senior women’s championship and mid-master championship and Pacific Northwest senior women’s championship.
10. HARBOUR CITY SPORTS MACHINE: It was a big year for Nanaimo teams with the Clippers and Timbermen making their respective sa国际传媒 Hockey League and Western Lacrosse Association finals, the latter for the first time since 1968, and the NightOwls their West Coast League baseball debut.
HONOURABLE MENTION: No varsity blues this year. It was a strong year with the UVic Vikes winning their fourth consecutive U Sports national women’s field hockey crown, the UVic Vikes their first sa国际传媒 West men’s hoops title since 2015, the Camosun College Chargers the men’s national volleyball championship and the VIU Mariners dynasty their fourth consecutive women’s national volleyball title.
