Manon Rheaume set the standards for women in hockey, breaking many preset boundaries for the sport. As a goaltender, she played in the professional minor leagues on seven teams leading her to play on the Canadian Women’s national hockey team that propelled them to win medals in the Women’s World Championship and Winter Olympics.
Rheaume was an unassuming lady from Lac-Beauport, Quebec, Canada. But hockey was in her blood at an early age. At the age of 3, she donned her first pair of hockey skates and began dreaming of playing on a real team. Her younger brother also played hockey and Manon would volunteer in the goalie net as practice for him. As she got older, it didn’t matter how talented she was. Getting involved in any of the games was rough, simply because she was a girl.
The tenacity that Rheaume demonstrated paid off. In a 1991-1992 season, Rheaume broke all preconceived ideas about women in hockey when she played in a Junior A men’s hockey game. Her talent was apparent and she set new standards of perception when it came to the role women could play in hockey.
In 1992 Rheaume signed up as a free agent with the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team. She proved to be such an incredible player, that they asked her to play on the farm team of Atlanta Knights and Tampa Bay Lightning. An unprecedented selection in history and one that skyrocketed Manon into history.
She was the goaltender in 1992 on the Women’s Canadian National Team and the gold medal that she helped the team to win was just the first. By 1994 Rheaume proved herself again when she played in the Women’s World Championships, achieving yet another gold medal for the team. In 1998 Manon was a member of Team Canada and this time she helped the team achieve a Silver medal in the Nagano Games.
Rheaume became a celebrity and accomplished quite a few personal appearances on such shows as “Late Night with David Letterman”, “The Today Show”, ESPN, “Entertainment Tonight”, “Good Morning America”, “Maury Povich”, “A Current Affair” and “MTV’s House of Style”. Her notoriety continued as she progressed in the documentary “Portraits of Courage” (also staring Boomer Esiason and Shirley Muldowney) as well as “Cross Training with the Pros”, “Woman Behind the Mask”, and “Reebock’s Winning Body Workout” (also starring Liz Masakayan and Nancy Kerrigan) No matter what personal attention Rheaume was receiving, her main focus was always for the team. Manon was aware that her performance and her position in the world of hockey set a precedence for the topic of women in hockey.
Manon’s desire to give encouragement to young girls who wanted to play hockey allowed her to pen an autobiography, “Alone in front of the net”. In 2008, Rheaume established the “Manon Rheaume Foundation”. The organization is a way for Manon to give back to the world, inspiring girls to reach for their personal goals and achieve their dreams of playing hockey.