Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame

For further information on Ottawa sporting legends, be sure to check out the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame on the second level concourse at Scotiabank Place.

Founded in 1966, the Hall is open whenever Scotiabank Place is, and has since inducted more than 200 members, including Cyclone Taylor, Larry Robinson, Denis Potvin, Aurel Joliat, Mark Kosmos, Phil Maloney, Franklin Thomas Ahearn, Francis (Frank) Amyot, Marjorie Blackwood, Donald Booth, Sheryl Boyle, Cyril Joseph (Cy) Denneny, Francois Xavier (Frank) Boucher, and John George (Buck) Boucher.

Barbara Ann Scott: Canada’s Sweetheart

The preeminent figure in the history of skating in Ottawa is Olympian Barbara Ann Scott. Known as “Canada’s Sweetheart,” Scott was the first Canadian to win Olympic figure skating gold at the 1948 Winter Games in St Moritz, Switzerland. She was also the first citizen of a non-European nation to win a world figure skating championship. And if that weren’t enough, the Reliable Toy Company created a Barbara Ann Scott doll to honour her Olympic accomplishments. When she retired from skating, Scott turned to equestrian competition. She was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1955, the American Sports Hall of Fame in 1980 (as North American skating champion) and into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.

Kevin Frost: a Feel for Skating

You don’t necessarily need to see where you’re going—or hear, for that matter —to be a speed skating champion. This may sound unbelievable, but in the case of Kevin Frost, a resident of Ottawa suburb Orléans, it’s true. Unfortunately, though, the International Paralympic Committee doesn’t recognize deaf-blind speed skating as a sport. Frost suffers from Usher Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes progressive hearing and vision loss; Frost’s sight has been reduced to tunnel vision at eight percent of normal visual range, and he’s only able to hear sounds that register at 90 decibels (imagine heavy traffic or a noisy home appliance) or above. Still, he managed to graduate from Gloucester High School with the help of a hearing aid and learning to lip-read. On top of it all, he won two silver and two bronze medals in his rookie year of competitive speed skating. He has been petitioning for years to get his category accepted as a Paralympic sport. 

Ice Skating in Ottawa

Officially the world’s longest outdoor skating rink, the Rideau Canal stretches 7.8 kilometres (4.8 mi) of “skateway” from downtown Ottawa to Dow’s Lake near Carleton University – roughly the equivalent of 100 hockey rinks end-to-end. Skating on the canal remains one of the key elements of the Winterlude festival in February of every year, despite the fact that the changing temperatures have been shortening the skating season over the past few winters.

During Winterlude, various points along the canal include heated shelters, rest areas, change rooms, skate rentals, washrooms, picnic tables, and fire pits, as well as almost 40 sets of stairs along its length. Another place for free skating is the outdoor rink in front of Ben Franklin Place at 101 Centrepointe Drive (no hockey sticks, strollers, or human chains allowed on the ice).

If skating on the canal freaks you out (though it shouldn’t), there’s always the historic Minto Skating Club (733-5292) and Minto Skating Centre (ice rental, 733-7800) at 2571 Lancaster Road, where many an Olympian got her start (including figure skaters Barbara Ann Scott and Lynn Nightingale).

Checking Conditions

If you’re looking for current ski or skate conditions, the National Capital Commission offers information lines: Gatineau Park Information and Ski Conditions at 819-827-2020 or 1-800- 465-1867, and Rideau Canal Skateway Conditions at 239-5234.