Kelly Paige Bechard (born January 22, 1978) is a women's

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player. Bechard competed for Canada at the World Championships in 2000 and 2001. In 2002, she competed for Canada at the Winter Olympics in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

. Born in

Sedley, Saskatchewan Sedley ( 2016 population: ) is a village in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan within the Rural Municipality of Francis No. 127 and Census Division No. 6. It is southeast of the City of Regina on Highway 33. This village is located at ...

, Bechard was also a provincial doubles

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

champion in High School. In the gold medal game, Bechard was called for a tripping penalty late in the third period, and this led to

Karyn Bye Karyn Lynn Bye-Dietz (born May 18, 1971) is a retired ice hockey player. She was the alternate captain of the 1998 Winter Olympics gold-medal winning United States Women's Hockey Team. In 1998, she was featured on a Wheaties box. She entered t ...

of the United States scoring a goal. The goal made the score 3-2 in Canada’s favour, as Bechard was part of the first Canadian Women's Hockey Gold Medal hockey team in Olympic history. After the Olympics, Bechard returned to the

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...

, where she played for the university’s hockey team, and pursued a degree in management. From 2010-2014 she was assistant coach for the university of Calgary Dino’s, she took over head coach for the 2013/14 season. After that she left to be the assistant coach for the Calgary Inferno for their 2017/18 season. Bechard is now back as an assistant coach for the university of Calgary Dino’s In 1998, she was named to the CIAU’s First All-Star team and was presented the Award of Merit. She also played for Calgary’s Oval X-Treme and the

Brampton Thunder The Markham Thunder was a professional women's ice hockey team in the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL). From 1998 through 2017, the franchise was known as the Brampton Thunder and Brampton Canadettes-Thunder before relocating from Brampton, O ...

. She scored a goal in the 2003 Esso Women's National Hockey Championship to help Team Alberta win the

Abby Hoffman Cup The first instances of organized women's ice hockey in Canada date back to the 1890s when it was played at the university level. The Women's Hockey Association claims that the city of Ottawa, Ontario hosted the first game in 1891. In 1920, Lad ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bechard, Kelly 1978 births Brampton Thunder players Calgary Oval X-Treme players Canadian women's ice hockey forwards Ice hockey people from Saskatchewan Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics Living people Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Canada Olympic medalists in ice hockey