Cherie Piper (born June 29, 1981) is a Canadian former

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

player residing in Markham,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

. She was a member of the Canadian national women's hockey team and played for the Brampton Thunder of the

Canadian Women's Hockey League The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; french: Ligue canadienne de hockey féminin ‒ LCHF) was a women's ice hockey league. Established in 2007 as a Canadian women's senior league in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, and Ottawa, the leag ...

(CWHL). Piper has won three Olympic gold medals with the Canadian national team in 2002, 2006 and 2010, as well as one world championship title in 2004.

Playing career

She competed for Canada's Under 22 team from 1999 to 2001. In 1999, she competed for Ontario in the Canada Winter Games. During the 2000–01 NWHL season, Cherie Piper played with the Beatrice Aeros and finished seventh in league scoring with 37 points. Piper was a member of the Under-22 team in 2002 when she was named to the Olympic team for 2002 Salt Lake City Games ahead of veteran Nancy Drolet as part of a move to shake up a Canadian team that had lost eight consecutive games to the United States. It was a decision that shocked other members of the team. She recorded a goal and an assist in her first game of the Olympics, and finished the tournament with five points in five games in helping Canada win the gold medal. She played four seasons at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

between 2002 and 2007, scoring 60 goals and 165 assists in 99 games for the Big Green. She missed the end of the 2003–04 season to play with the Canadian national team at the

2004 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships The 2004 IIHF World Women's Championships were held March 30 – April 6, 2004 in Halifax and Dartmouth, Canada at the Halifax Metro Centre (now known as Scotiabank Centre), and the Dartmouth Sportsplex (now known as Zatzman Sportsplex). The ...

where she won a gold medal. Piper was named a finalist for 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 ...

in 2005. She led Dartmouth in scoring that season with 60 points. She won a second Olympic gold medal in 2006 and her 15 points was second to Hayley Wickenheiser (17). A knee injury in her senior year at Dartmouth forced her off of the national team for over a year and caused her to miss the 2007 World Championships. She rejoined the team in time for the 2008 tournament where she won her second silver medal. She was cut from the 2009 team, but gained a spot on the 2010 Olympic team, winning a third consecutive gold medal.

Other

Piper was also a member of the Canada women's national inline hockey team, winning a gold medal at the 2002 FIRS Inline Hockey World Championships.

Personal

Piper was born June 29, 1981 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

, the third child of Alan and Christine Piper. She has two older brothers, Michael and Stephen, and followed her brothers in taking up the sport. She was educated in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough. Her middle school was Henry Kelsey Senior Public School and her elementary school was Alex Muir Junior Public School. Piper graduated from Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute and majored in sociology at Dartmouth. On June 7, 2018, Cherie married long-time beau, Joe Butkevich, in a ceremony at Memorial Gardens in Butkevich's hometown of North Bay, Ontario.

Career statistics

International

Dartmouth

Awards and honours

*2004-05 All USCHO.com Second Team * Patty Kazmaier Award Finalist, 2005

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piper, Cherie 1981 births Living people Brampton Thunder players Canadian women's ice hockey forwards Canadian women's national inline hockey team players Dartmouth Big Green women's ice hockey players Ice hockey people from Ontario Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2006 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2010 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics Mississauga Chiefs players Olympic gold medalists for Canada Olympic ice hockey players of Canada Olympic medalists in ice hockey Sportspeople from Toronto