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Basketball player and coach Jay Triano, the 1990 Canadian women’s hockey team, and Indigenous sports leader Chief Wilton Littlechild were named the 2026 inductees into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame on Wednesday.
The 2026 honorees will receive the Order of Sport on November 4 at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec.
Since 1955, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame has inducted more than 750 Canadians as athletes, builders, and trailblazers.
This year’s class is called the “Legacy Edition” and will be inducted in the “Trailblazer” category, recognizing those who broke barriers, transformed their sports, and created opportunities for future generations.
The Hall of Fame operates both physically and online, sharing stories through a national school program and the Indigenous Sport Heroes Education experience. Its collection of 100,000 objects and 60,000 archival records is housed at the Canadian Museum of History.
“The Legacy Edition of the Order of Sport Awards allows us to recognize the full ecosystem that makes Canadian sport so powerful—from trailblazing athletes and visionaries to families, community leaders, and organizations whose leadership has shaped opportunity for generations,” said Hall of Fame president and CEO Cheryl Bernard.
Jay Triano made history as the first Canadian NBA head coach, leading the Toronto Raptors for three seasons starting in 2008, followed by a stint with the Phoenix Suns in 2017. The 67-year-old from Tillsonburg, Ontario, is currently an assistant coach with the Dallas Mavericks.
Triano captained the Canadian men’s basketball team at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games. He also coached the national team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where Canada, led by Steve Nash, narrowly lost to France in the quarterfinals.
The 1990 Canadian women’s hockey team won the first-ever International Ice Hockey Federation-sanctioned world championship in Ottawa. Their victory helped legitimize women’s ice hockey internationally and paved the way for the sport’s Olympic inclusion in 1998.
Chief Wilton Littlechild will be honored by the Hall of Fame for a second time after his induction as a builder in 2018. The 82-year-old from Maskwacis, Alberta, formed Alberta’s first all-Indigenous hockey team in the 1970s, co-founded the North American Indigenous Games in 1990, and championed the first International Indigenous Games held in 2015.
Littlechild also made history outside of sports as the first Treaty First Nations person elected to Canadian Parliament in 1988.
The Hall of Fame invites Canadians to nominate individuals for induction. A selection committee reviews submissions and votes before recommending inductees to the board of governors.
Alongside the inductees, this year’s Legacy awards will go to sports businessman Larry Tanenbaum, the Southern family of Calgary’s Spruce Meadows, the Canada Games Council, and Special Olympics Canada.
Tim Adams of Edmonton, founder and executive director of Free Play for Kids, will receive a community champion award.
