The Order of Sport, Canada’s highest sporting honour is a National Level Award established by Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, a Nationally Accredited Sports Museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The award supports the organization's statement of purpose, to Build Canada through the transformative power of sport and its mandate to raise the profile, visibility, and stature of Canadian sports champions, enabling them to return value to their communities as Canada’s Sport + Spirit Champions.This national level award recognizes Canadians who have achieved the highest level of sporting accomplishment and who have the purpose and passion for going beyond their sport success, educating all Canadians on the transformative power of sport.”
Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame created the Order of Sport award to modernize recognition and reflect the growing cultural significance of sport to Canadians; one that connects Canada’s greatest sports champions to the greater good.
Click here for more info about the class of 2024
HISTORY
The Order of Sport, established in 2019, is a formal acknowledgement that Canada’s shared values are sports shared values; respect, equality, fairness and openness, and that sport is a strong backbone for building diversity, inclusion and accessibility in Canadian communities.
Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame was established in 1955 as a recognition program and a historical archive of sport in Canada. Until 2019, Induction into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame did not have a named award. The Order of Sport Award was established to mark the occasion which, together with Induction, is Canada’s highest sporting honour.
What distinguishes Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame’s recognition program from other sports awards or hall of fame organizations is its consideration of any person’s significant contributions to sport in Canada irrespective of the type of sport or game, with whom the sport or game is accredited, or with whom or how it is organized within Canada or Internationally.
All sports competitors (athletes) and those who support sport (builders) who have helped build Canada through sport, Canadian or otherwise, amateur or professional, are eligible for nomination by the public for Induction into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame and awarded the Order of Sport, Canada’s highest sporting honour.
A full description of eligibility, nominations, and selection process can be found here.
Retroactive order of sport awards
Every member of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame is recognized as a peer of the Order of Sport. In 2020, all living Hall of Famer's will receive their Order of Sport award certificate, the scarf will be presented to each Hall of Famer when they attend the May Gala, the October Induction Festival or visit Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. The Order of Sport lapel pins will be made available for purchase, and certificates will be sent to the family members on file for posthumous members of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.
THE ORDER OF SPORT SYMBOL
The Order of Sport marque adopts an abstract maple leaf symbol based upon the identity developed for the 1967 Canadian Centennial by Stuart Ash which describes a country composed of different but equal parts. The adaptation by designer Greg Durrell proposes an expanded purpose for sport, beyond sports’ traditional boundaries defined by podiums, playing fields, rinks and medals, to create a broader impact for sport at the community level. Hence the design extends the border of the original abstract maple leaf to represent sport’s broader and open-ended social purpose to Canada.
