, - !align=center style=background:pink , Seniors , -
(''Alberta'')
(''Ontario'')
(''Quebec'')
(''Canada West'')
(''Canada East'')
(''Canada East'')
(''Canada West'') , - , - !align=center style=background:pink , Juniors , -
(''Canada East'')
(''Canada East'')
(''Canada West'') , - , - !align=center style=background:pink , Juniors , - The Canada national ringette team (popularly known as Team Canada; ) is the

ringette Ringette is a winter team sport played on an ice rink using ice hockey skates, straight sticks with drag-tips, and a blue, rubber, pneumatic ring designed for use on ice surfaces. While the sport was originally created exclusively for female c ...

team representing

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

internationally. Canada has both a senior national team, Team Canada Senior, and a junior national team, Team Canada Junior. Both national teams compete in the

World Ringette Championships The World Ringette Championships (WRC) is the premier international competition in ringette and is governed by the International Ringette Federation (IRF). Unlike most international competitions, all of the WRC's elite athletes are female rather ...

(WRC) and are overseen by Ringette Canada which is a member of the International Ringette Federation (IRF). Some team members are selected from the

National Ringette League The National Ringette League (NRL) ''()'' is the premier league for the sport of ringette in North America and Canada's national league for elite ringette players aged 18 and up. The NRL is not a women's variant of a more well-known men's leag ...

. Team Canada and Team Finland have emerged as ringette's major international rivals at both the senior and junior level. Some of Canada's national teams have been inducted into the Ringette Canada Hall of Fame. Canada's first appearance in international ringette began at the inaugural World Ringette Championships which was the 1990 World Ringette Championships, when Canada sent six different regional teams from across the country to represent the nation. At that time, Canada had not yet established a national team, and rather, regional teams competed for the championship instead. Team Alberta, which was composed of members of the province's Calgary Debs who were all-star players from across Alberta, emerged victorious from the tournament. Canada achieved its first unified national ringette team in the 1996 World Ringette Championships. This was a significant milestone for the sport, as it marked the first time that only one team represented the nation in international ringette competitions. Previously, regional teams, like Team Alberta, represented Canada in international tournaments. The formation of this national team paved the way for greater standardization in the sport and allowed Canada to bring its best players together to compete on the world stage. The Canadian national ringette team has since become a dominant force in international ringette competitions, winning several gold medals in the World Ringette Championships. The next time Canada competed was at the 1998 Summit Series where both Team Canada Senior and Team Finland Senior competed exclusively in a European tour. The 2009 World Junior Ringette Championships was the first-ever international tournament exclusively for junior ringette players and took place in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. Two different teams represented the country: Canada East, and Canada West. This marked another important moment in the history of the sport, as it was the first time that nations specifically competed against each other with their best young players, all of whom were U19 (Under-19). Later, the junior tournament merged with the senior tournament at the 2013 World Ringette Championships during the 50th anniversary of the sport. That same year, Canada established its first-ever all-junior national ringette team, taking the opportunity to send upcoming players to the merged junior-senior tournament. The creation of the all-junior team allowed Canada to continue its tradition of success in the international scene and also provided a pathway for young players to represent their country on a global stage.

Early history

Canada was initially represented by six different amateur ringette teams at the inaugural

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

which took place in Gloucester, Ontario,

. In

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

, Canada's national ringette team became the first single representative Canadian team for ringette internationally, forming roughly 15 years after the death of

Sam Jacks Samuel Perry Jacks (April 23, 1915 – May 14, 1975) more commonly known as, "Sam Jacks," was a Canadian soldier in World War II, inventor, military and civic recreation director, sports coach, creator of the Canadian sport of ringette for girls a ...

in 1975, the Canadian identified as the sport's inventor. Until 2009, Canada only had world representation in ringette at the senior level due to the fact that it was the only level available for elite international ringette competition. Canada created two teams which formed in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

for the inaugural World Junior Ringette Championships in the

, but Canada wouldn't form its first, single representative all-junior national team until

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

World Championship record

Summit Series

The 1998 World Ringette Championships were replaced by a ''Summit Series'' between Team Canada and Team Finland, both of which were senior teams. Team Canada finished in second place while Team Finland finished in first.

Senior Canada

Junior Canada

Team Canada Senior

Canada's first appearance in international ringette took place at the first World Ringette Championships in 1990 with six different Canadian senior amateur ringette teams representing the country: Team Alberta (Calgary Debs), Team Ontario, Team Quebec, Team Manitoba, Team Saskatchewan, and Team Gloucester (host). The winners of the 1989 Western Canadian Ringette Championships, the ''Calgary Debs'' advanced to the first World Ringette Championships in 1990 as ''Team Alberta''. The team went on to become the first to win the World Ringette Championship and the Sam Jacks Trophy. Clémence Duchesneau was named the tournament's top goalie, an award she also claimed at the next tournament. Canada was represented by two separate teams, ''Team Canada East'' and ''Team Canada West'', during the 1992 World Ringette Championships and the 1994 World Ringette Championships. Since the 1996 World Ringette Championships only one national Canadian team has served as the Canadian senior representative; it has won the competition twice, in 1996 and in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

Team Canada Junior

Team Canada Junior first competed in the World Junior Ringette Championships. The 2009 World Junior Ringette Championships marked the first time an international competition took place specifically for junior players between ringette playing nations. The tournament was created separately from the major competition between senior national teams (the

) and was established by the International Ringette Federation. In 2009, Canada was represented by two different Canadian junior amateur ringette teams, Team Canada East and Team Canada West. At the 2012 World Junior Ringette Championships, Canada was represented by two separate teams: Team Canada East Under-19, and Team Canada West Under-19. The first single representative national junior ringette team in Canada was formed in

after the World Junior Ringette Championships tournament merged with the larger World Ringette Championships and a Junior division was created. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the 2021 World Ringette Championships were cancelled and therefore there was no Team Canada Junior for that year.

Medal record

Senior medal record

In conjunction with a gold medal, the winning senior national ringette team is awarded the Sam Jacks Trophy which was first introduced at the world inaugural

(WRC) in

in Gloucester, Ontario, Canada. A new redesign of the Sam Jacks Trophy was introduced during the 1996 World Ringette Championships in

Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. 1996 was the year Canada sent the first all–Canadian national ringette team to the WRC whereas before Canada had sent regional teams.

Junior medal record

In conjunction with a gold medal, the winning junior national ringette team is awarded the Juuso Wahlsten Trophy which was first introduced during the 2019 World Ringette Championships (WRC) in

Burnaby Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard In ...

, Canada. 2013 was the year Canada sent the first all–Canadian junior national ringette team to the WRC whereas before Canada had sent regional teams to the World Junior Ringette Championships (WJRC) in 2009 and 2012, after which the tournament merged with the WRC.

Notable people

Players

* Keely Brown *

Julie Blanchette Julie Blanchette (born January 9, 1977, in Montreal, Quebec) is an elite level Canadian ringette player who has also worked as a trainer and coach and served as the captain of several ringette teams including Team Canada. Blanchette plays for th ...

* Lyndsay Wheelans * Stéphanie Séguin * Shelly Hruska * Erin Cumpstone * * Claudia Jetté - goalie, goalie coach, played for the Montréal Mission of the

for 13 years, played in the Finnish national ringette league for Team Helsinki in Finland in 2006, 18 Canadian Ringette Championships, played for Team Canada 2007 (Sr.) at WRC 2007, goalie coach for Team Canada Juniors 2016 (gold medal), coach for one of the Team Canada Senior teams at the 2023 World Ringette Championships

Samuel Perry Jacks

Samuel Perry Jacks, commonly known as

, is the Canadian who created the sport of ringette. Ringette's preeminent international award for ringette athletes, the World Ringette Championships, '' Sam Jacks Trophy'', is awarded to the winning team in the Senior Pool and is named in his honour.

Mirl Arthur McCarthy

Mirl Arthur McCarthy, commonly known as "Red", was the Canadian responsible for designing ringette's first set of official rules.

Team Canada goalies

Below is a list of ringette goalies who have been members of Canada's national ringette team or a have been goalies for one of the regional Canadian ringette teams at the World Ringette Championships. SENIORS * Deb Marek * Anne Gillespie * Sandra Fenton * Tamara Anderson * Clémence Duchesneau * Amanda Snell * Keely Brown * Leanne Fedor * Shannon Anderson * Stacey McNicho * Claudia Jetté - Reserve * Bobbi Mattson * Meghan Pittaway * Stacey McNichol - Reserve * Amy Clarkson * Jasmine Leblanc * Breanna Beck * Laurie St-Pierre JUNIORS (U19/U21) *Ashley Miller *Élizabeth Audette-Bourdeau *Kassy Bailey *Elise Crocker *Jessie Callander *Jasmine LeBlanc *Karly McMullen *Stacey Bjornsson *Anj Grewal *Lynn Seraphim *Sydney Catlin *Sarah Brown *Rianne Munro *Ellen Hoban *Ryann Bannerman *Madison Ford *Laurie St-Pierre *Grace MacKenzie *Marie-Ève Dubé *Kiana Heska *Holland Kozan *Rachael Pelisek *Paige Roy *Kaylee Davies *Maddy Nystrom U18 DEVELOPMENT *Julia Harvie *Aeva Lott *Cadence Howe *Annabelle Sylvestre

Gallery

File:Ringuette 12 février 2012 120.jpg,

, former Team Canada player File:Ringuette 024.jpg, Stéphanie Séguin, former Team Canada player

References

1996 establishments in Canada National sports teams established in 1996