Recognized as the "World’s Fastest Man" in 1997, Donovan received the Order of Sport in 2004 for his decorated individual career.

After winning gold in the 100m sprint at the 1995 World Championships, Donovan set a world record en route to gold at the next year's Olympic Games in Atlanta, earning him the rare triple title of world champion, Olympic champion, and world record holder.

He is one of only 10 people who have been awarded the Order of Sport and inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame twice.

Herb Carnegie was likely one of the best ever players to never play pro league ice hockey.

Herb dominated the Quebec provincial leagues alongside two other black players, his brother Ossie, and Manny McIntyre. Herb won the MVP award for three consecutive years.

After retirement from playing, Herb founded the Future Aces Hockey School, and later the Future Aces Foundation. Nearly $1 million has been given out by the Foundation to young people to enable them to pursue post-secondary education.

More than a decade before Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947, the Chatham Coloured All-Stars were barnstorming their way through southern Ontario and challenging discriminatory perceptions of what black athletes could accomplish in white-dominated leagues.

Despite their championship calibre, the Chatham Coloured All-Stars regularly faced discrimination on and off the field, playing through racial taunts and threats of violence, injuries deliberately perpetrated by opposing teams, and questionable officiating calls.

The All-Stars won multiple city and provincial championships blazing a trail for generations of Black athletes.

Phil Edwards was one of Canada's most prized track-and-field stars of the late 1920s and early '30s, as well as its most decorated Olympic athlete.

Amazingly, Phil achieved the majority of his Olympic success while studying medicine at McGill University. After establishing himself as a world-class athlete, Dr. Edwards became a leading physician and tropical disease expert in Montreal.

In 1957, he and Jim Worrall initiated Canada's first international sports development project. This program, which was geared toward assisting young athletes in the eastern Caribbean, was the forerunner for the Canadian Sports Development Program.

Charmaine made the very first Canadian women’s national soccer team in 1986 and became the first player to be capped 100 times.

Over her 20-year career, she appeared in 129 games, scoring 71 goals for Canada. That included three appearances at FIFA Women’s World Cups, the most recent coming in the USA in 2003 when she helped Canada win its first ever game in the international tournament en route to qualifying for the semi-finals.

At that historic World Cup, Charmaine moved up from her position on defence to head in a free kick in the eighth minute. It was the only goal in the team’s 1-0 win over China, and is among the most celebrated moments in her distinguished career.

Growing up in a poor family of 21 in rural Nigeria, Baraladei Daniel Igali could not afford to look past the next day, let alone look to a future which involved competing at the Olympic Games. 

In 1994, Daniel, while wrestling for Nigeria at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, decided to claim refugee status from his war-torn country and remain in Canada.

He continued to wrestle, with his breakthrough coming with his gold medal win at the world championships in 1999, the first time a Canadian had done so. Daniel was flawless at the 2000 Olympic Games. Daniel Igali was an Olympic champion - a hero and an inspiration.

It used to be a rarity for a Canadian to crack the lineup of a major league baseball team, and even more uncommon for a northerner to shine in this American-dominated sport. Ferguson Jenkins was just such an anomaly; he took both the American and National Leagues by storm as he toured the majors for 19 years.

Ferguson's outstanding record includes more than 3,000 strikeouts and fewer than 1,000 walks, a rare combination of power and control. He was also only the fourth pitcher in history to have won more than 100 games in both the American and National Leagues.

In 1991, he became the first Canadian to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.