MONTREAL – Charline Labonté, a native of Boisbriand, Que., who backstopped the McGill University women's hockey team to three national championships, is among the latest group of inductees announced this week by the Quebec Sports Hall of Fame.
 
She joins a 2022 slate of laureates that includes current Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St-Louis, martial arts legend Georges St-Pierre, Olympic alpine skier Eric Guay and para-Olympic swimmer Benoit Huot. New additions to the builder category are basketball coaching great Olga Hrycak and Michelle Gendron, a long-time communications coordinator at SportsQuebec. The induction ceremony is planned for a date yet to be confirmed in the fall.
 
Labonté was double golden at the IIHF world championships and garnered three Olympic gold medals, in Turino, Vancouver and Sochi. She ranks second among Team Canada netminders in wins (45) and shutouts (16). Labonté played at McGill from 2006 to 2012, where she owned almost every goaltending record and led the school to CIS national titles in 2008, 2009 and 2011.

She initially graduated with a physical education degree in 2011, then followed that with a master's in sports psychology in 2015. A five-time RSEQ league all-star, she is one of very few McGillians to merit all-Canadian status five times.

Labonté set the U SPORTS all-time record with 37 career shutouts in regular-season play. A 5-foot-9 puck-stopper, she posted a spectacular 160-17-3 record and 81 shutouts in 180 starts overall, with a stingy 0.98 goals against average  and a stellar .948 save percentage.
 
The Quebec Sports Hall of Fame, founded in 1990, now has 283 inductees.

Labonté is the 20th McGill graduate to be inducted to the Hall, a group that includes former Martlets' teammate Kim St-Pierre.

Other McGillians honoured as athletes include Sylvie Bernier (diving; 1991), Jean-Philippe Darche (football; 2016), Ken Dryden (Hockey; 2014), Phil Edwards (track & field; 2005), Jennifer Heil (freestyle skiing; 2015), George Hodgson (swimming; 1974), Percival Molson (football, hockey, track; 2016), Richard Pound (swimming; 2001), Joannie Rochette (figure-skating; 2018), Sylvia Sweeney (basketball; 2000), George Vernot (swimming; 2016), Penny Vilagos (synchronized swimming; 2004) and Vicky Vilagos (synchronized swimming; 2004).

McGill grads in the builder category include hockey pioneer James G.A. Creighton (2017), baseball owner Charles Bronfman (1998), physical education professor Arthur S. Lamb (1974), football and baseball coach Frank Shaughnessy, Sr. (2016), and football player/owner Larry Smith (2015).

LINK TO ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT

SOURCE:
 
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
@EarlZukerman (twitter)