Emma Reinke and the Canadian Women’s Goalball team are the country’s People’s Choice Award winner for Most Trending Moment of the Year

The Canadian Women’s Goalball team and St. Thomas native Emma Reinke are celebrating more than just the holidays.

They’ve been named the winner of the 2023 People’s Choice Award for Most Trending Moment of the Year through the Canadian Sport Awards for their golden victory at the 2023 Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile.

The two-week national online campaign pitted 10 unforgettable Team Canada moments from the past year against each other, capturing over 1,700 votes from coast-to-coast-to-coast.

Rounding out the podium were Olympian ice dance figure skaters Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier for their perseverance through a successful 2022-23 season following Gilles’ ovarian cancer diagnosis, along with wheelchair rugby Paralympian Zak Madell’s entertaining Instagram series, highlighting both his own strength and that of his equipment in running over everyday items.

In their last chance to qualify for the Paris 2024 Paralympics, the same group of six players who finished in ninth place at the Tokyo Paralympics completed their comeback journey, defeating their rivals Team USA 4-3 in a tense gold medal match. The win earned Team Canada their first-ever gold in goalball at the Parapan Am Games, after three consecutive bronze medals.

More details on that can be found here.

Written by: K. Freeman