Sarah Marie Vaillancourt (born May 8, 1985) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

women's

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. She is a member of the Canada women's national team and a member of

Montreal Stars Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

(CWHL). 2-time Olympic Gold Medallist / World Championships Gold / 4-time World Championships Silver / Clarkson Cup Champion (2010–11). From 2003 to 2009 Vaillancourt played 88 international games for Team Canada and scored 36 goals adding 39 assists. She won 2 Olympic Gold medals for Canada, in 2006 and 2010. While playing for Harvard University she was named the Ivy League and ECAC Hockey Player of the Year. She led Harvard in scoring, and was ranked fourth overall in the NCAA in 2007–08. In 2008, she won the coveted

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 ...

. Vaillancourt started skating at the age of two years and a half and playing hockey at five years. She made the national team when she was 18 and one of her favourite hockey moments is winning gold on home soil at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. She studied psychology at Harvard University and works as a skills coach. Vaillancourt is openly lesbian.

Playing career

Vaillancourt was the captain of Canada's under-22 team at the 2007 Air Canada Cup. In 2003, she was the captain of Team Québec at the Canada Winter Games that won the silver medal. One of her teammates was future Olympian Catherine Ward. She graduated from high school as a tri-varsity captain and athlete from

Pomfret School Pomfret School is an independent, coeducational, college preparatory boarding and day school in Pomfret, Connecticut, United States, serving 350 students in grades 9 through 12 and post-graduates. Located in the Pomfret Street Historic District, ...

Pomfret, Connecticut Pomfret is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 4,266 in 2020 according to the 2020 United States Census. The land was purchased from Native Americans in 1686 (the "Mashmuket Purchase" or "Mashamoquet Purchase ...

, as a member of the class of 2004.

Harvard Crimson

She was a star for the

Harvard Crimson women's ice hockey The Harvard Crimson women's ice hockey team represents Harvard University in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I women's hockey. Harvard competes as a member of the ECAC Conference and plays its home games at the Bright ...

program and won the

in 2008. Her freshman year was in 2004–05, and she finished fifth in the nation, and first among freshmen, in scoring with 2.31 points per game.

Hockey Canada

In 2005, she made the Canadian national women's hockey team, where she would go on to play at the

2005 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships The 2005 IIHF World Women's Championships was held April 2–9, 2005, in Linköping, at Cloetta Center (now called the Saab Arena), and Norrköping, at Himmelstalundshallen, in Sweden. USA won their first gold medal at the World Championships, ...

in Sweden. In her first game ever, she led Canada with 6 points in a 13–0 win over the

Kazakhstani national women's ice hockey team The Kazakhstan women's national ice hockey team represents Kazakhstan in top international ice hockey competition, including the International Ice Hockey Federation's Women's World Championship. The women's national team is controlled by Kazakhst ...

. This tied a record for most points in a game on the Canadian national team. She would finish the tournament with 8 points. On February 20, 2006, Vaillancourt, as the second youngest member of the team, won a team gold medal in Turin with the Canadian women's hockey team beating Sweden in the final game and outscoring their opponents 46 to 2.

Montreal Stars

At 2010–11 season, Vaillancourt joined the Montreal Stars midway through the season and instantly become a fan favourite, managing to crack the league's top-10 leading scorers, with an impressive 28 points (11 goals and 17 assists) in only 15 games. In the championship game of the

2011 Clarkson Cup The 2011 Clarkson Cup was contested at the Barrie Molson Centre in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. The four competing teams included three from the Canadian Women's Hockey League and one from the Western Women's Hockey League. All teams played e ...

, Vaillancourt scored a goal in the third period. By winning the

, Vaillancourt became an unofficial member of the

Triple Gold Club The Triple Gold Club is the group of ice hockey players and coaches who have won an Olympic Games gold medal, a World Championship gold medal, and the Stanley Cup, the championship trophy of the National Hockey League (NHL). The International Ice ...

(the accomplishment by women is not yet officially recognized by the IIHF), as she became one of only four women to win the Clarkson Cup, a gold medal in the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

, and a gold medal at the

IIHF World Women's Championships The IIHF World Women's Championship (WW or WWC), officially the IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship, is the premier international tournament in women's ice hockey. It is governed by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The off ...

. The other women include

Caroline Ouellette Caroline Ouellette (born May 25, 1979) is a Canadian retired ice hockey player and current associate head coach of the Concordia Stingers women's ice hockey program. She was a member of the Canadian national women's ice hockey team and a memb ...

Jenny Potter Jennifer Lynn Schmidgall-Potter (born January 12, 1979) is an American ice hockey player. She is a member of the United States women's national ice hockey team. She won a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics, silver medals at the 2002 Winter ...

and Kim St-Pierre. Surgery in the left hip held her outside the action this 2011–12 season.

Career stats

Hockey Canada

Awards and honours

*2004-05 All USCHO.com Rookie Team *Top 10 Finalist for 2007 Patty Kazmaier Award *First Team All-Ivy League, 2007–08, Harvard (junior), unanimous selection *Ivy League Player of the Year 2007-08, Harvard (junior), unanimous selection *2009 First Team All-Ivy League *2009 First Team All-ECAC *2009 ECAC Player of the Year *

Tournament Most Valuable Player

References

External links

Profile on Canadian Olympic Committee

Rock em sock em pro-hockey with women's CWHL league-leading Montreal Stars
The Gazette, January 6, 2012. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaillancourt, Sarah 1985 births Living people Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Canadian women's ice hockey forwards Clarkson Cup champions French Quebecers Harvard Crimson women's ice hockey players Ice hockey people from Quebec Ice hockey players at the 2006 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2010 Winter Olympics Les Canadiennes de Montreal players Lesbian sportswomen LGBT ice hockey players LGBT sportspeople from Canada Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Canada Olympic ice hockey players of Canada Olympic medalists in ice hockey Patty Kazmaier Award winners Pomfret School alumni Sportspeople from Sherbrooke