Manitoba sisters score gold, make hockey history for Canada on international stage

Sara and Kate Manness stood atop the world stage with their teammates on Sunday after capturing gold at the women's under-18 hockey championship, but the Manitoba twins stand alone in setting another historic mark.

The 17-year-old Mannesses are the fifth set of sisters to represent Canada at the U18 women's worlds, but they're the first to do it together, according to Hockey Canada, which posted about the accomplishment on its Instagram page.

Canada went undefeated in six games at the tournament in Vantaa, Finland, capped by a 3-0 shutout of the United States for the championship. In that span, Sara collected six goals and two assists, while Kate added two assists.

"I'm just thrilled. They are such hard workers, they deserve this," said Michele Moore Davison, co-owner at the Burlington Pond, a hockey training centre in Ontario where the sisters have worked on their skills for the past two years.

"I love seeing when athletes are putting in the work behind the scenes … the days when it's not easy and they still show up and we push through and we fine tune what they need. The medal is the part that everybody sees, but I get to see the gruelling, the behind-the-scenes part.

"So you're just so, so thrilled for them, because that achievement is so well-deserved."

The Mannesses are from La Salle, a small community just south of Winnipeg, and started playing hockey on boys teams in Winnipeg before shifting to the team at Balmoral Hall, a private all-girls school in Winnipeg, and playing in the Manitoba Women's Junior Hockey League.

They moved to Burlington in 2023 to play for the Barracudas, a U22 team in the Ontario Women's Hockey Association, and have since committed to play for Clarkson University, an NCAA team in Potsdam,