| Top 20 Cover Athletes of the Past 20 Years |
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Page 1 of 20 They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but in IMPACT Magazine’s case, please, judge away. By Chris Welner
For 20 years, some of the most amazing athletes in the world have graced the cover of IMPACT. From the first issue in September 1991, with 23-year-old Theoren Fleury on the cover, something special took shape for sport and publishing in Western Canada. With a budding superstar, a Stanley Cup champion and 51-goal scorer in the NHL on the cover, IMPACT gained instant credibility and a reputation for being a champion for better health and living through sport and fitness. What followed was 120 more issues of IMPACT over the next two decades, each magazine telling unique inspirational tales to a loyal and growing readership that tops 200,000 each issue. In preparing for this epic 20th Anniversary Edition it became obvious to us the quality of people we have been privileged to feature was unparalleled. So when we went looking for IMPACT’s top cover athletes of all-time, we asked our readers to help. And after almost 3,000 ballots cast on our website, IMPACT readers chose Catriona Le May Doan and Bret Hart as the top female and male cover athletes in IMPACT’s history. There’s little doubt that the most famous son of wrestling’s Hart family is our one cover athlete who is larger than life. An international superstar in a sport known as much for its fantasy as its athleticism, Hart’s legions around the world still follow his every move. When he gritted and scowled on IMPACT’s cover in 1994, the story was about how Calgary’s most famous son was helping to bring major junior hockey back to Calgary. Le May Doan has been IMPACT’s cover girl twice. The first time was in 1998 after she brought home gold and bronze medals from the Winter Games in Nagano. Almost four years later she was back on the cover with several members of Canada’s speed skating team ahead of the 2002 Salt Lake Games where Le May Doan would carry the flag for Canada and lead them into the opening ceremonies. She would also win her second consecutive 500M gold medal. The people on IMPACT’s covers make up a who’s who of sport in Canada. The common thread that runs through each of the 147 cover athletes who we are proud to call the faces of IMPACT, is that they are all ordinary people who have achieved extraordinary things. In a large way, that’s what IMPACT has been about for 20 years — showing the heights people can reach if they pay attention to the way they live. The stories in IMPACT may be about elite athletes and extraordinary accomplishments, but there’s no restriction on the limits any of us could reach. Our Top 20 in 20 Years list touches on each generation of IMPACT and crosses a broad range of sports. We know the list could have included many different names and IMPACT readers let us know. They wanted to know why hockey great Haley Wickenheiser and triathletes Paula Findlay and Lauren Campbell and skier Erik Guay were not on the list, among others. The short answer is they could have been and they would have been great choices. IMPACT’s Top 20 in 20 Years1991 & 1994: Theoren Fleury, hockey |
