Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Three Canadian Olympic champion women’s hockey players retire

Jayna Hefford, Gillian Apps

VANCOUVER, BC - FEBRUARY 25: (L to R) Jayna Hefford #16 and Gillian Apps #10 of Canada celebrate with the gold medals won during the ice hockey women’s gold medal game between Canada and USA on day 14 of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at Canada Hockey Place on February 25, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Three Canadian women’s hockey players with a combined nine Olympic gold medals announced their retirements Thursday.

Jayna Hefford, one of three hockey players with four Olympic gold medals, Gillian Apps (three golds) and Catherine Ward (two golds) are done playing for Team Canada.

Hefford, 38, and teammates Hayley Wickenheiser and Caroline Ouellette are the only hockey players with four Olympic titles. Hefford and Wickenheiser played in every Olympic hockey tournament since women joined the Olympic program at Nagano 1998.

Ouellette, the only athlete to enter at least four Olympic events and win them all (Summer or Winter), reportedly retired after the World Championship in April. Wickenheiser is still active.

Apps, the granddaughter of a Hall of Fame NHL player who won the Lady Byng Trophy, is also known for accumulating penalty minutes and delivering head injuries to multiple Americans.

MORE HOCKEY: Amanda Kessel to miss another season following concussion

Follow @nzaccardi