Hall of Fame
Born on Aug. 20, 1961 and raised in Ste. Foy, Que., Lizanne Bussières went on to attend Massey Vanier high school and John Abbott College before graduating from McGill with a medical degree in 1986. Over her four seasons with the McGill Martlets, she become an all-star distance runner, meriting All-Canadian second-team honours in both cross-country (1982) and track and field (1986).
Bussières captured the league's individual cross-country title at both the 1982 and 1984 QUAA conference championship meets. In her senior year, she won silver in the 3,000 metres at the 1986 CIAU national track and field championships. She was awarded the Muriel Roscoe Trophy in 1986 for proficiency and leadership over her McGill career.
Bussières went on to a prolonged international running career, winning the 1983 Montreal marathon in two hours, 36.05 minutes and a decade later, won the Pittsburgh marathon in 2:35:39.
She ran at three Commonwealth Games, finishing fourth in the marathon in Edinburgh (1986; 2:35:18), ninth in the 3,000m at Auckland (1990), and claimed silver in the marathon at the 1992 Games in Victoria, B.C., where she was clocked in 2:31:07.
She struck bronze in the 10k race at the 1989 FISU World University Games in Duisburg, Germany and merited silver in the 10k at the 1994 Francophone Games in Paris, France.
Bussières served as a spare for Canada at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, then competed at the 1988 Games in Seoul and at the 1992 Games in Barcelona (2:35:03).
She was fourth at the 1984 New York Marathon (2:37:34), third at the 1986 Boston Marathon (2:32.16) and in 1988, set a personal best in Boston, placing fifth in 2:30.57. Three decades later, she still ranks as the fourth-fastest Quebec woman to run any marathon.
