The second biggest country in the world has produced its fair share of top-class sports stars. Here are five of Canada’s very finest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ask anyone from outside Canada to name one of that country’s biggest athletes and you can bet your last dollar Wayne Gretzky will be among the first listed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Canada has produced any number of superstar skaters, skiiers, pitchers, runners, boxers and hockey stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s difficult to nail down a definitive top five but here are five they are especially proud of. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Headed by the legendary Gretzky, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You don’t get the nickname ‘The Great One’ without good reason and it was a moniker Wayne Gretzky never failed to live up to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gretzky was a world junior champion whose status was so assured, even as a teenager, that when he joined the Edmonton Oilers in 1978 he did so on a ten-year contract (with a ten-year extension option!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’d be easier to list what Gretzky didn’t achieve in hockey rather than what he did, suffice to say on his retirement 21 years later the 13-time All-Star and nine-time MVP held or shared 61 NHL records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n