Clara Hughes is keeping some pretty select company these days.
The Winnipeg-born speed skater will be inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, part of a class that includes hockey great Patrick Roy and auto racing’s Jacques Villeneuve.
“I am surprised but thrilled with this honour,” Hughes told the Sun in an e-mail, Monday. “The class of 2010 is a pretty rich one and to be honest it hasn’t quite sunk in that I am really done, yet. So it is somewhat strange.”
Hughes announced her retirement shortly after the Vancouver Winter Games, where she won a bronze medal in the 5,000 metres. That gave her six career medals, joining fellow Winnipegger Cindy Klassen as Canada’s most decorated Olympians, ever.
But Hughes went one further, competing in both Summer and Winter Games.
Her two trips to the podium in cycling make her the only athlete to win multiple medals in both seasons.
Now living in Glen Sutton, Que., Hughes’ four speed skating medals include a gold in the 5,000 four years ago.
The others in Hughes’ induction class include gymnast Kyle Shewfelt, Paralympic wheelchair athlete Chantal Petitclerc, freestyle skier Jean-Luc Brassard and two builders: the late Bob Ackles of the CFL’s B.C. Lions and former Own the Podium head Roger Jackson.
The Class of 2010 will be honoured at an induction dinner in Calgary, the Hall’s planned new home, in November.
“It is going to be quite an event,” Hughes said. “Something to really look forward to.”
