Sarah Marie Vaillancourt (born May 8, 1985) is a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
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. She is a member of the
Canada women's national team and a member of
Montreal Stars
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...
(CWHL).
2-time Olympic Gold Medallist / World Championships Gold / 4-time World Championships Silver / Clarkson Cup Champion (2010–11). From 2003 to 2009 Vaillancourt played 88 international games for Team Canada and scored 36 goals adding 39 assists. She won 2 Olympic Gold medals for Canada, in 2006 and 2010. While playing for Harvard University she was named the Ivy League and ECAC Hockey Player of the Year. She led Harvard in scoring, and was ranked fourth overall in the NCAA in 2007–08. In 2008, she won the coveted
Patty Kazmaier Award
The Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award is given to the top female college ice hockey player in the United States. The award is presented during the women's annual ice hockey championship, the Frozen Four. The award was first presented in 1998.
The awa ...
.
Vaillancourt started skating at the age of two years and a half and playing hockey at five years. She made the national team when she was 18 and one of her favourite hockey moments is winning gold on home soil at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. She studied psychology at Harvard University and works as a skills coach. Vaillancourt is
openly lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
.
Playing career
Vaillancourt was the captain of Canada's under-22 team at the 2007 Air Canada Cup. In 2003, she was the captain of Team Québec at the
Canada Winter Games
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by total ...
that won the silver medal. One of her teammates was future Olympian
Catherine Ward
Catherine Ward (born February 27, 1987) is a member of the Canada women's national ice hockey team. She was also a member of the 2008–09 McGill Martlets women's hockey season, which won a Canadian Interuniversity Sport title. She was drafted ...
. She graduated from high school as a tri-varsity captain and athlete from
Pomfret School
Pomfret School is an independent, coeducational, college preparatory boarding and day school in Pomfret, Connecticut, United States, serving 350 students in grades 9 through 12 and post-graduates. Located in the Pomfret Street Historic District, t ...
in
Pomfret, Connecticut
Pomfret is a New England town, town in Windham County, Connecticut, Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 4,266 in 2020 according to the 2020 United States Census. The land was purchased from Native Americans in 1686 (the ...
, as a member of the class of 2004.
Harvard Crimson
She was a star for the
Harvard Crimson women's ice hockey
The Harvard Crimson women's ice hockey team represents Harvard University in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I women's hockey. Harvard competes as a member of the ECAC Conference and plays its home games at the Bright H ...
program and won the
Patty Kazmaier Award
The Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award is given to the top female college ice hockey player in the United States. The award is presented during the women's annual ice hockey championship, the Frozen Four. The award was first presented in 1998.
The awa ...
in 2008. Her freshman year was in 2004–05, and she finished fifth in the nation, and first among freshmen, in scoring with 2.31 points per game.
Hockey Canada
In 2005, she made the
Canadian national women's hockey team, where she would go on to play at the
2005 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships
The 2005 IIHF World Women's Championships was held April 2–9, 2005, in Linköping, at Cloetta Center (now called the Saab Arena), and Norrköping, at Himmelstalundshallen, in Sweden. USA won their first gold medal at the World Championships, de ...
in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
. In her first game ever, she led Canada with 6 points in a 13–0 win over the
Kazakhstani national women's ice hockey team. This tied a record for most points in a game on the Canadian national team. She would finish the tournament with 8 points. On February 20, 2006, Vaillancourt, as the second youngest member of the team, won a team gold medal in Turin with the Canadian women's hockey team beating Sweden in the final game and outscoring their opponents 46 to 2.
Montreal Stars
At 2010–11 season, Vaillancourt joined the Montreal Stars midway through the season and instantly become a fan favourite, managing to crack the league's top-10 leading scorers, with an impressive 28 points (11 goals and 17 assists) in only 15 games. In the championship game of the
2011 Clarkson Cup, Vaillancourt scored a goal in the third period. By winning the
2011 Clarkson Cup, Vaillancourt became an unofficial member of the
Triple Gold Club
The Triple Gold Club is the group of ice hockey players and coaches who have won an Ice hockey at the Olympic Games, Olympic Games gold medal, a Ice Hockey World Championships, World Championship gold medal, and the Stanley Cup, the championship t ...
(the accomplishment by women is not yet officially recognized by the IIHF), as she became one of only four women to win the Clarkson Cup, a gold medal in the
Winter Olympics
The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...
, and a gold medal at the
IIHF World Women's Championships
The IIHF World Women's Championship (WW or WWC), officially the IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship, is the premier international tournament in women's ice hockey. It is governed by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).
The offi ...
. The other women include
Caroline Ouellette
Caroline Ouellette (born May 25, 1979) is a Canadian retired ice hockey player and current associate head coach of the Concordia Stingers women's ice hockey program. She was a member of the Canadian national women's ice hockey team and a member ...
,
Jenny Potter
Jennifer Lynn Schmidgall-Potter (born January 12, 1979) is an American ice hockey player. She is a member of the United States women's national ice hockey team. She won a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics, silver medals at the 2002 Winter ...
and
Kim St-Pierre
Kim St-Pierre (born December 14, 1978 in Châteauguay, Quebec) is a Canadian ice hockey player. She is a three-time Olympic gold medallist and five-time IIHF world champion. She was announced as a Hockey Hall of Fame inductee on June 24, 2020. ...
. Surgery in the left hip held her outside the action this 2011–12 season.
Career stats
Hockey Canada
Awards and honours
*2004-05 All USCHO.com Rookie Team
*Top 10 Finalist for 2007 Patty Kazmaier Award
*First Team All-Ivy League, 2007–08, Harvard (junior), unanimous selection
*Ivy League Player of the Year 2007-08, Harvard (junior), unanimous selection
*2009 First Team All-Ivy League
*2009 First Team All-ECAC
*2009 ECAC Player of the Year
*
2011 Clarkson Cup Tournament Most Valuable Player
[ ]
References
External links
Profile on Canadian Olympic CommitteeRock em sock em pro-hockey with women's CWHL league-leading Montreal Stars The Gazette, January 6, 2012.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaillancourt, Sarah
1985 births
Living people
Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States
Canadian women's ice hockey forwards
Clarkson Cup champions
French Quebecers
Harvard Crimson women's ice hockey players
Ice hockey people from Quebec
Ice hockey players at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Ice hockey players at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Les Canadiennes de Montreal players
Lesbian sportswomen
LGBT ice hockey players
LGBT sportspeople from Canada
Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Olympic gold medalists for Canada
Olympic ice hockey players of Canada
Olympic medalists in ice hockey
Patty Kazmaier Award winners
Pomfret School alumni
Sportspeople from Sherbrooke