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Canada is blessed with many talented athletes of all different backgrounds. Athletes of various ethnicities, religions and upbringings have represented this country and thrived on the biggest stages in sports.
Over the years, we have seen many great Black athletes don the red and white colours of Canada. These athletes have done it all in their respective sports: MVPs, individual accolades, championship trophies, gold medals and much more.
Specifically, Black Canadian women have paved the way for young girls to follow in their footsteps and grow the world of sports in Canada.
Here are a few of the great Black Canadian female athletes who have represented this nation in recent years.
Kia Nurse
Kia Nurse comes from a family of athletes. Her father Richard played in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and her mother Cathy played basketball at McMaster University. Nurse’s older brother, Darnell, plays in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Edmonton Oilers, while her older sister Tamika played basketball in university for Oregon and Bowling Green. Nurse’s cousin is Sarah Nurse, who plays in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) for the Toronto Sceptres, and her uncle is former Pro Bowl NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb.
Given this incredible athletic family lineage, it’s no wonder the point guard would go on to have a successful basketball career.
Kia Nurse’s career accolades include two NCAA Championships with the University of Connecticut (UConn) in 2015 and 2016, a Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) All-Star appearance in 2019, two championships in the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) in Australia in 2019 and 2020, as well as a WNBL MVP award in 2020.
She has also represented Team Canada at the Olympic Games three times in a row at Rio in 2016, Tokyo in 2020, and Paris in 2024.
In seven WNBA seasons, Nurse holds career averages of 9.2 points per game, 2.4 rebounds per game and 1.7 assists per game. Still only 29 years old, Kia Nurse will likely continue to lead the way for many Canadian women in basketball for the foreseeable future.
Camryn Rogers
In 2024, Camryn Rogers achieved arguably her greatest career accomplishment to date. According to Olympic.ca, Rogers became Canada’s first ever Olympic medallist in women’s hammer throw when she won the gold medal at Paris 2024 with a best throw of 76.97m. Rogers also became the first Canadian woman to win Olympic gold at an individual track and field event since 1928.
Aside from her Olympic gold medal, Rogers has a long list of accolades over the course of her career. These include a silver medal at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, a gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, as well as two gold medals at the U20 Pan American and World athletics championships in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Rogers also set a personal best and Canadian women’s record for hammer throw in May 2023 with a distance of 78.62 metres. She then followed this up three months later at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, winning a gold medal in hammer throw with a distance of 77.22 metres.
At 26 years old, Camryn Rogers figures to be one of Canada’s best sportswomen for years to come and will likely add more medals to her already impressive trophy cabinet.
