The Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame has changed its eligibility policy to welcome active athletes to the ultimate club of excellence for local athletes \u2014 a move sparked by the runaway international success of Ottawa curlers Rachel Homan and Emma Miskew, three-time world champions and five-time winners of the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts.<\/p>\n
Beginning with this year\u2019s induction of Homan and Miskew to the hall, the organization plans to grant eligibility to any Ottawa-area athlete who wins a world championship, Olympic medal or major international sporting event \u2014 not just retired athletes, which has been the policy for decades.<\/p>\n
Dave Best, chair of the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame, said the decision recognizes the remarkable achievements of Homan and Miskew \u2014 who are currently representing Canada at the Milano Cortina Winter Games in Italy \u2014 and the need to grant more women the highest tribute in local sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lack of women in (the hall) because women weren\u2019t competing back in the day,\u201d Best said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got some (active athletes) who are world champions, so do we wait until they are retired, or do we (induct) them now?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ottawa-curling-club-1200x881.jpg\")
The Ottawa Curling Club on O\u2019Connor Street has a sign boasting that it\u2019s the home rink of \u201cTeam Homan\u201d \u2014 a shifting foursome led by skip Rachel Homan and fellow Ottawa curler Emma Miskew and which has won multiple national and world titles. The two are currently steaming toward a playoff spot in the Olympic curling tournament in Italy. [Photo @ Brendan Melnic]<\/p>\n
Best said professional athletes in sports such as curling and golfing can compete for a long time, which pushes back their induction far into the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure (Homan and Miskew) were gonna end up (in the hall of fame) at some point with a rule change or not,\u201d said Christopher Drover, a member at the Ottawa Curling Club. \u201cI\u2019m glad it\u2019s happening, and I think it\u2019s fair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Burke, former president of the Ottawa Curling Club, said the induction is \u201cvery well deserved.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGood on them for sparking the change,\u201d said Burke. \u201cIt\u2019s important that people acknowledge their accomplishments when they\u2019re still active, so I think their induction is totally appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Best said the idea to induct active athletes came up about a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cA year ago, Rachel and Emma won the world championship. Brooke Henderson (of Smiths Falls, Ont.), Canada\u2019s winningest professional golfer, had just won another tournament, and (Ottawa tennis player) Gabriela Dabrowski was doing really well at the French Open and Wimbledon,\u201d said Best. \u201cWe realized there\u2019s a lot of current athletes who are clearly going to get in (when they retire). We decided that winning a major title will make you eligible to be voted in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henderson has 14 LPGA tournament wins, including two majors \u2014 the KPMG Women\u2019s PGA Championship in 2018 and the 2022 Evian Championship \u2014 and the Canadian Women\u2019s Open in 2018 and 2025.<\/p>\n
Dabrowski, a doubles specialist, has won four Grand Slam tennis titles, including two U.S. Open women\u2019s doubles titles in 2023 and 2025.<\/p>\n
Homan and Miskew have been curling together since they were 12. Burke said he is grateful that he gets the opportunity to curl in the same club as them.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to see them, watch them, and interact with them is special,\u201d Burke said. \u201cIt is not something that you are able to do in a lot of other sports.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very proud of (Homan and Miskew). \u2013 again, if he said \u201cthem\u201d, let\u2019s stick with that.) They call our club home,\u201d Burke said. \u201cYou can see from all the banners in our lounge, and we\u2019re reminded every day of their successes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Rachel and Emma have not only won multiple world and Canadian championships, but they\u2019ve been at the very top of their sport for an exceptional period of time. We\u2019re excited to see what they\u2019re still going to achieve in the future, but they\u2019re also unquestionably already among our city\u2019s best ever.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2014 Dave Best, chair, Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame<\/p>\n
In a press release announcing the honour for Homan and Miskew, Best stated: \u201cRachel and Emma have not only won multiple world and Canadian championships, but they\u2019ve been at the very top of their sport for an exceptional period of time. We\u2019re excited to see what they\u2019re still going to achieve in the future, but they\u2019re also unquestionably already among our city\u2019s best ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
The eligibility policy change has opened the gates for more active athletes to be potentially inducted into the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame. Best said this year\u2019s Olympics could include potential future inductees.<\/p>\n
Two Ottawa speedskaters \u2014 Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann \u2014 along with Quebec teammate Val\u00e9rie Maltais, took gold on Feb. 17 in the 2,400-metre women\u2019s team pursuit, defending their title from the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.<\/p>\n
Highlighting Blondin\u2019s achievements, Best said every Olympics will bring potential Ottawa medal winners into consideration for induction into the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho knows who is going to win a gold medal this time around, right? (If you win), we make you eligible. It doesn\u2019t automatically get you in, but it makes you eligible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Best said the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame wanted to announce Homan and Miskew\u2019s induction before the Olympic tournament began, since their accomplishments thus far have already made them eligible. The latest lineup of inductees was announced Jan. 27.<\/p>\n
Other 2026 inductees include former Ottawa Senators player Jason York, who played 14 seasons in the NHL, and Grey Cup-winning offensive lineman Val St. Germain, who played 14 years in the Canadian Football League with Ottawa, Montreal, Edmonton and Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n
Team Homan \u2014 which includes skip Homan, vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes and alternate Rachelle Brown \u2014 got off to a slow start at this year\u2019s Olympic tournament, but had a 5-3 won-lost record as of Feb. 18. One more win would assure the team a playoff berth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame has changed its eligibility policy to welcome active athletes to the ultimate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-485018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}