(August 18, 2006)
Figure skating champion Elvis Stojko is among the 2006 inductees in Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. The gala Induction Dinner, hosted by Brian Williams, will be held on November 1, 2006 at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto.
Inducted in Skate Canada’s Hall of Fame in 2004, the three time World Champion from Richmond Hill, is remembered as the first skater to complete a quadruple jump combination in a World competition, and the first to complete a quadruple / triple combination. Silver medalist at the 1994 and 1998 Olympic Games, Stojko collected five Skate Canada International gold medals and seven senior national titles. He has received both the Norton Crowe (Canadian Male Athlete of the Year) and Lionel Conacher (Athlete of the Year by the Canadian Press) awards, and the Meritorious Service Cross by the Governor General of Canada.
Since retiring from competitive skating, Stojko has explored other interests. He won a gold medal in the soft style discipline and a bronze in the traditional weapons category at the 2005 Canadian Karate Championships, followed by a silver medal at the 2005 World Kickboxing and Karate Associations Championships a few months later.
Singing is another interest Stojko has pursued and he just finished recording his debut adult contemporary album which should be in stores by Christmas.
The other 2006 inductees into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame are wheelchair sports competitor and Man In Motion World Tour legend Rick Hansen, golfer Moe Norman, squash racquet star Jonathon Power, as well as national team coaches Al Morrow (rowing) and Julie Sauvé (synchronized swimming) honoured as Builders together with Ron and Margaret Southern who constructed and developed Calgary’s world-renowned Spruce Meadows Equestrian Centre. The addition of these athletes and builders brings the total number of Honoured Members in Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame to 481.
Other figure skaters already in Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame are Norris Bowden, Isabelle Brasseur , Kurt Browning, Petra Burka, Toller Cranston, Frances Dafoe, Lloyd Eisler, Don Jackson, Maria Jelinek, Otto Jelinek, Karen Magnussen, Paul Martini, Donald McPherson, Brian Orser, Robert Paul, Louis Rubenstein, Barbara Ann Scott, Barbara Underhill and Barbara Wagner.