Podcast: Olympic & Paralympic heroes, college record holders, among vaunted 2025 Alberta Sports Hall of Fame class

“Alberta has always felt like a place that’s home and will always be a home that I can come [back] to. The sports hall of fame induction means the world to me.”

For Hughes, as she’s stated in the past, it wasn’t really ever about the medals, of which she won six, including a gold in Torino in 2006. The golden victory came in a gruelling 5,000 metre speedskating race against the incumbent champion Claudia Pechstein of Germany.

But whether it was on the ice, or on the bike, what it was actually about was connection, she explained.

Olympic legend, author and mental health advocate, Clara Hughes, spoke to rdnewsNOW prior to her Alberta Sports Hall of Fame induction on June 7, 2025.

“I think the most powerful way we connect is through story, and sport is such an amazing place [to do that]. Especially Olympic sports, they are the ones connecting people from all walks of life,” Hughes told us, then reiterated during her acceptance speech.

“For me, it was making those connections, not just by my performances, but by how I acted, how I behaved when I won and when I lost, and what I brought to the field in terms of sportsmanship and respect for myself, my competitors, and showing people what excellence was — it didn’t always mean winning an Olympic medal.”

Hughes continues to be an outspoken advocate for mental health causes and promoting female inclusion in sport.

On the Paralympic side, there’s quite possibly no one who’s done more for the sport of wheelchair basketball in Canada than Ross Norton.

Norton helped Canada to gold at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics and 2004 Athens Paralympics, and has, since 2014, been coaching various national teams for Canada.

In 2019, Norton took Team Alberta to a gold medal in wheelchair basketball at the Canada Winter Games in Red Deer.

“I’ve admired this hall ever since they had a physical building in Red Deer. I’ve been there a few times, looked at the displays, so to be inducted a second time, now as an individual, is pretty special,” said Norton, who was born in Calgary, raised outside Airdrie, then moved to Spruce View where he graduated high school before moving on to Red Deer College.

Ross Norton, winner of two Paralympic gold medals in wheelchair basketball (2000 and 2004), spoke with rdnewsNOW prior to his induction into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in Red Deer on June 7, 2025.

Norton, who at 15 was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, the cause of his paralysis, was first inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 2008 as a member of the Northern Lights basketball team. In 2005, that squad became the first Canadian team in the 57-year history of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association to win the championship.

“Historically in Canada, I think we’ve had a lot of support from community, government, and everyone for para sport. In the last 20 or 30 years, it’s everywhere else in the world now catching up to Canada in terms of resources and the perception of people with disabilities,” he said.

“I’ve been very fortunate to feel like I’ve just been an athlete, as opposed to ‘someone with a disability’ and I think that’s what we all want.”

Then there are the RDC Volleyball Queens.

Oh, how they ruled the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) thoughout the 1980s.

An unfathomable eight straight provincial titles, from ’82 to ’89, wrote them into the history books for eternity.

The team also won a national title in 1984.

Through their miraculous run, there was much turnover, as is the nature of college sports, but there was indeed one constant — head coach Cor Ouwerkerk.

Mike Harnett (left), a power hitter for the 1981-1983 RDC Queens volleyball team, and Cor Ouwerkerk, who coached the program to eight consecutive ACAC titles from 1981-1989, spoke with rdnewsNOW from the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame before being inducted with the rest of the team’s multiple rosters, in Red Deer on Saturday, June 7, 2025. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

“It’s not me as much as the girls that played that whole stretch. The idea of coming into the hall of fame is beyond my comprehension. I admire how the girls played under my tutelage,” said Ouwerkerk, who coached the Queens for about a quarter-century, and had coached the Kings volleyball squadron before that.

From 1981 to 1983, for two ACAC titles, Mike Harnett was the Queens’ power hitter.

“So many of the players Cor brought onto his squad were from small towns. He was always looking for those gems in the wild. Just the fact I’d gotten an invite to come try out was so mind-numbing for me, and things like the hall of fame you would never expect,” she said.

“I think I knew from the get-go, and we knew that if we made the team, we were with a very special group of people, and that made us united to get to where we are as an organization. Cor was able to not just pick the best players, he picked the players who could build off each other and work together as a team. The hall of fame is icing on the cake, and it was never anything we were aiming for.”

Alberta Sports Hall of Fame officials encourage fans of the hall to get excited because they have an announcement coming up over the next few months related to future significant enhancements set to take place at their facility.

More details are also come about a special ceremony happening in the fall.

For more information on the site and all its honoured members, visit albertasportshall.ca.

by Josh Hall | @Vancan19

Podcast: Olympic & Paralympic heroes, college record holders, among vaunted 2025 Alberta Sports Hall of Fame class

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