UBC helped launch Wright's Olympic career
Two-time Olympian won three conference, two national team titles as a Thunderbird
EDMONTON - Before appearing in a pair of Olympic Games, Thelma Wright was honing her running skills as a UBC Thunderbird.
Wright was announced Thursday as the 68th Canada West Hall of Fame inductee. She is the first addition of the New Year, as the conference continues its march to 100 inductees during the 2019-20 season.
The only UBC female track athlete to appear in two Olympics, Wright was one of the world's top middle distance and cross-country runners in the 1970s.
Known as “The Mighty Atom”, Wright competed in both track and cross country at UBC, where she was part of three conference championships and two Canadian championship-winning teams between 1969 and 1974.
Wright represented Canada at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and won consecutive bronze medals in the 1,500-metre at the 1970 and 1974 Commonwealth Games.
To read more about her Hall of Fame career, click here.
ABOUT THE CANADA WEST HALL OF FAME
For the last century, organized university sport has been a central part of the student experience at institutions across Western Canada. Beginning with the University of Manitoba capturing the first Western Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union (WCIAU) men's hockey banner in 1919-20, student-athletes have been competing to reach their full potential in sport and the classroom, while enriching campus life.
To commemorate 100 years of university sport across Western Canada, the Canada West Hall of Fame was created in the spring of 2019, with the first induction class set to be unveiled throughout the 2019-20 season.
VISIT: CanadaWestHallofFame.org