Prior to joining the Edmonton Chimos, defenseman Judy Diduck had been a skater, but had never played ice hockey; she claims to have played ringette until then because she had never even heard of women’s ice hockey. By 1998, however, she had joined the Canadian women’s national ice hockey team and won four gold medals at World Championships in 1990, 1992, 1994, and 1997. Her final international tournament was the 1998 Winter Olympics, where women’s ice hockey was being contested officially for the first time, and where she suited up for six games, scored one goal, and took home a silver medal. She retired from Team Canada in 1999 and soon entered the University of Alberta, where she played out the rest of her hockey career on the university’s squad until her retirement in 2004. Since 2005 she has worked as an assistant coach for the school’s women’s ice hockey team. She was also a successful ringette player in her younger days and won a gold medal at the first World Championship in 1990, which earned her an induction into the Ringette Canada Hall of Fame in 2005. Her older brother Gerald played for eight different National Hockey League teams in 17 year career (1984-2001) that spanned over 900 matches in the league.
Canada