Multi-sport star Heather Moyse named to rugby hall of fame

Heather Moyse has represented Canada in three different sports, but she feels an intimate connection to one in particular.

"Rugby is part of who I am, it's part of my makeup," Moyse said. "It's just such a great sport and anyone who's ever played will kind of understand that feeling."

Moyse, who won back-to-back Olympic bobsled gold medals with pilot Kaillie Humphries in 2010 and 2014 and also competed in track cycling at the 2012 Pan American Cycling Championships, will enter the World Rugby Hall of Fame on Thursday.

She'll be the second Canadian — after former men's captain Gareth Rees — to be enshrined.

"It's a huge honour because it doesn't just reflect solely what I've done on the rugby pitch, but it reflects what I've been able to contribute to the sport off the field of play and that's a big deal for me," Moyse said.

Moyse, originally from Summerside, P.E.I., was the leading try-scorer in both the 2006 and 2010 Women's Rugby World Cups, and also took part in the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament. 

She will be honoured along with 11 all-time rugby greats, including Irish talisman Brian O'Driscoll, golden-booted Englishman Jonny Wilkinson, speedy Welsh winger Shane Williams and English trailblazer Maggie Alphonsi.

Balancing multiple athletic pursuits was a constant throughout Moyse's career. She was recruited to compete in bobsled with pilot Helen Upperton five months ahead of the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy. The pair finished fourth in the two-woman event and Moyse went on to score seven tries at the World Cup only a few months later.

"The biggest hurdle for me to overcome in preparing for that [shift back to rugby] was building up my endurance and reintegrating with the team again," Moyse said.

Not everyone was as enthusiastic about her dual commitment. According to Moyse, representatives from a bobsled sponsor approached her in the fall of 2007 and told her to quit rugby. One of the representatives told her that it would be a high-risk investment because of the probability of injury in rugby

"I said, 'But don't you say in your industry. high risk, high reward?'" Moyse, who declined to name the sponsor, said. "And he just sort of looked at me like, 'Yeah, I guess so,' and I said, 'Well, it's your decision as to whether or not you think I'm a valid investment or not.'"

The sponsor ended up staying on, but Moyse broke her shoulder while playing rugby at a sevens tournament in Amsterdam in 2008.

"At that moment, as soon as I broke my shoulder, you could feel people kind of pulling away, kind of pulling away their faith in your ability to come back and do that," Moyse said. "I had the same feeling when I had my hip surgery before Sochi.

"People think it's a great story, the media loved it, but nobody really thought I was going to be able to recover from hip surgery in time to get to the rugby sevens World Cup or the Olympics, and it's just a really great feeling to be able to make that comeback and figure out what we're really capable of and give people reason to pause and think instead of just writing people off at the first sign of struggle."