Eric Guay To Be Inducted Into Canada's Sport Hall Of Fame

Olympians Erik Guay, Kevin Martin, and Christine Sinclair are among the five athletes and two builders who have been announced as the Class of 2025 for Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

They will receive Canada’s highest sporting honour, the Order of Sport, during their formal induction this fall.

Guay is a three-time Olympian who is generally recognized as Canada’s most successful male alpine skier. Throughout his illustrious career, he was twice a world champion, stood on 25 World Cup podiums, and became the first Canadian alpine skier in 28 years to win a Crystal Globe.

Guay’s first world title came in the downhill in 2011. Six years later, he became the first Canadian to win multiple medals at one edition of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships when he took gold in the super-G after claiming silver in the downhill. At 35 years old, Guay became the oldest alpine skiing world champion ever. He was also just the fourth man to ever win world titles in both speed events.

Guay has earned more World Cup podium finishes than any other Canadian alpine skier in history. He finished the 2009-10 season with the overall World Cup super-G title after being victorious in the last two races of the season. That followed a pair of fifth-place finishes at Vancouver 2010, which included him coming agonizingly close to the Olympic podium in the super-G, missing a medal by just three-one hundredths of a second. A medal had also just eluded him in his Olympic debut at Turin 2006 where he finished fourth in the super-G.

Born in Montreal, Guay was five when he competed in his first ski race, and when he was twelve his father, himself a ski team coach, took him for professional coaching.

His first podium came in November 2003, when he finished 2nd in a downhill at Lake Louise. He finished in second twice in 2005 in the super-G and third once in downhill. Guay suffered an injury two weeks before the 2006 Winter Olympics, and withdrew from the downhill but finished in fourth place in the super-G, missing the podium by a tenth of a second.

He won his first World Cup race the following season at Garmisch, Germany. He was the first Canadian to win a World Cup men's downhill race since 1994, and the first man ever from Québec. Guay's performance in alpine skiing over the 2007 season was enough to place him in third position in the final world cup standings.[6] In 2009, Guay achieved ten top-20 finishes in World Cup speed events but reached only one podium, a third.

The 2010 Winter Olympics took place on home soil for Guay and he competed in three events in Whistler, where he narrowly missed the podium finishing in fifth place twice. Following the games, he achieved three straight podiums during March, including wins in the last two super-G races of the season, which enabled him to come from behind to win the discipline trophy in super-G in 2010 Alpine Skiing World Cup.[8] Guay became the first Canadian man to win a crystal globe for a discipline title since Steve Podborski in 1982.

Guay struggled with knee issues during the 2011 season, forcing him to miss events at both Kitzbühel and Wengen. During the 2011 World Championships at Garmisch, Guay won the downhill after not finishing the super-G earlier in the week. The win was Guay's only World Championship medal, and the second consecutive Canadian to win the world title in downhill, following John Kucera in 2009.

Guay continued to find the podium during the 2014 season. His victory at Val Gardena in December was his fourth and the twentieth World Cup podium of his career,[9] tying him with Steve Podborski as Canada's all-time leader. A week later he took third at Bormio to take the career lead. This boosted Guay's hopes of achieving his dream of winning an Olympic medal. Going into Sochi, Guay stated, "I won't be satisfied if I don't walk away with a medal."

An injury though threatened his ability to perform at his peak after suffering a slight meniscus tear earlier in January. He finished tenth in the downhill and missed a late gate in the super-G and was disqualified. The following week, he won a downhill at Kvitfjell, Norway. Guay missed all of the 2015 season recovering from his sixth knee surgery.

At the 2017 World Championships in St. Moritz, Guay won the super-G event. At 35, Guay became the oldest World Champion ever, replacing incumbent super-G champion Hannes Reichelt. That weekend, Guay also placed second in the downhill event.

Guay was unable to participate in the alpine skiing events at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang because of a back injury.

Hours before Guay was supposed to compete at Lake Louise in November 2018, he decided to retire from the sport after his teammate Manuel Osborne-Paradis suffered a violent crash. He had already planned to retire after the end of the season but hastened his departure after hearing that Osborne-Paradis had needed an emergency airlift

The 69th Annual Order of Sport Awards will be held at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec on October 29, 2025. This year marks the 70th anniversary of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, which was established in 1955 to preserve and promote Canada’s rich sports heritage. To date, more than 750 Hall of Famers have been honoured for their contributions to Canadian sport.