It was a glittering, nostalgic evening at the Westin Bear Mountain on Saturday night as eight prominent sports individuals and a 100-year old club were inducted into the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame. It was the 26^th Annual event.

The eight inductees are Ryan Cochrane (Swimming), Mike Piechnick (Fastball), and Rob Short (Field Hockey) – all inducted in the athletes category. In addition Susan Morriss was honoured in the officials category for her services to Figure Skating, Wynn Gmitroski in the coaching category for athletics, and Stacie Louttit and John McRoberts in the teams category for sailing. The builders category was represented by the Victoria Motorcycle Club. The Sid Thomas Media Award was presented to Alex Robertson for his services to television. 

In his address Doug Jennings, President of the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame, heralded this year’s inductees. “These great champions are truly worthy of inclusion amongst their peers in our Hall of Fame, which now comprises more than 220 athletes, teams, coaches, officials, builders and media personalities.”

Cochrane is Canada’s most decorated swimmer achieving eight FINA World Championship titles, two Olympic medals – silver and bronze – as well as three gold medals at the Pan Pacific Championships. Piechnick pitched his way to 10 Provincial Championships, four Canadian Championships, two U.S National Men’s Championships, and two winning Pan Am gold medals. Short played for Canada at two Olympic Games, two World Cups, four Commonwealth Games and five Pan American Games before becoming a successful coach and founding the Rob Short Coaching Academy.

Morriss has been a figure skating official for 50 years and is internationally certified in all four skating disciplines – singles, pairs, dance and synchronized skating. Gmitroski has coached some of Canada’s top middle distance and distance runners for 33 years bringing home many Olympic, Commonwealth and World Championship titles. Louttit and McRoberts competed in two Paralympic Games, winning a bronze medal in Beijing in 2008.

One of the oldest continuous motorized sporting clubs in Canada, the Victoria Motorcycle Club has been active for over 110 years, producing many champion riders from Canadian scrambles champion in the 1950s to International Six Day Trials medalists in the 70s and multiple national champions in the early 2000s.

Robertson was CHEK-TV Sports Director from 1974 through 2003 producing over 14,000 stories, almost all featuring local athletes, coaches and teams, although he also interviewed international athletes such as Muhammed Ali, Wayne Gretzky and a young Tiger Woods.

“The displays outlining these remarkable careers can be viewed with our other inductees on the concourse level of the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre,” added Jennings. “Additional displays are at Bear Mountain Resort and at Royal Athletic Park. We invite everyone to view these displays as we continue to engage the Greater Victoria community in recognizing and celebrating outstanding performances and contributions in sport.”