Canada's Bruny Surin concentrates before starting in the men's 60 metres first round on the first day of the three-day World indoor athletics championships at Bercy stadium in Paris March 7. Surin is among the favorites of the race. Photo by Eric Gaillard REUTERSEric Gaillard/Reuters
ATHLETES
Caroline Brunet - She was a five-time Olympian in kayak, and one of only 13 athletes to win medals at three successive Olympic Games in the same event. Brunet reigned in the solo K-1 500 metres, with two silvers and a bronze medal between 1996 and 2004. She was world champion 10 times and collected 21 medals at world championships. Brunet was the flag-bearer who led Canada into the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games opening ceremony.
Bruny Surin - He was a four-time Olympic competitor for Canada as a long jumper, 100-metre sprinter and relay runner. He weathered unsubstantiated doping suspicions as the fastest Canadian post-Ben Johnson's scandal, but in an unblemished career, won a 1996 gold medal with the men's 4x100-metre relay team, two world championship relays in 1997 and 1995, silvers in the solo 100 metres in 1995 and 1999, and two indoor 60-metre world championships.
Susan Auch - She competed in speed skating at five Olympic Winter Games, from short track in 1988 (it was a demonstration sport in Calgary) to 2002 at Salt Lake City. She won long-track silvers as a sprinter in 1998 at Nagano and 1994 at Lillehammer, along with a relay bronze in the Calgary demo. The Winnipeg native dominated long track with six national sprint titles. In 1995 Auch and U.S. star Bonnie Blair duelled around the globe, with Auch finishing second in the World Cup standings and winning bronze and silver medals at the world sprint championships.
COACH
Paul Poce - The running coach founded the distinguished Toronto Olympic Club in 1954, the city's oldest running club. He remains the head coach and club administrator. He has also served as national team head coach at several major Games, including the Olympic, Pan American and Commonwealth Games. Poce was personal coach to such national-team athletes as John Craig, Paul Craig and Jerome Drayton.
BUILDERS
Walter Sieber - He's been a technical expert in the organization of major sporting events since being hired as director general of sports for the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games. The consummate behind-the-scenes expert, Sieber worked as an adviser or board member for the Moscow, Seoul and Calgary Games, and was chef de mission for Canada at Albertville. Sieber has been involved in Canadian Olympic bids since 1980, serving as vice-president, sport, for both the Toronto (1996) and Quebec City (2002) bids.
Peter Lougheed - The premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985 and a former player with the Edmonton Eskimos was instrumental in developing and backing the bid for the 1988 Calgary Olympics. He was honorary chairman of the Calgary organizing committee. Lougheed, who developed a bill of rights in his province, was awarded the Canadian Olympic Order in 2000.
Carol Anne Letheren - She was president of the Canadian Olympic Association from 1990 to 1994 and chief executive officer from 1995 until her sudden death from an aneurysm in 2001. Her most visible moment was as chef de mission for the 1988 Olympics, when she had to retrieve Ben Johnson's steroid-tainted gold medal. Letheren, internationally qualified as a gymnastic judge, was an IOC member in Canada and received the Canadian Olympic Order.
The COC will also make some special honours along with the Hall of Fame inductions. Three will be presented with the Canadian Olympic Order: Jack Poole, founding chairman of the Vancouver Games organizing committee and the man who sold the bid; John Furlong, who served as chief executive officer of both the Olympic and Paralympic Games; and Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia, whose province backed the Games.
In addition, the COC will recognize outgoing executives Michael Chambers, who has been the COC president, and Chris Rudge, chief executive officer of the COC. Both men were instrumental in the success of the Vancouver bid for the 2010 Olympics and the Toronto-centred bid for the 2015 Pan American Games.
James Christie