The Greater Sudbury Sports Hall of Fame is pleased to announce the Class of 2022.
With as many as one hundred individuals and teams reviewed in recent months, the Greater Sudbury Sports Hall of Fame Selection Committee is pleased to announce a group of four individuals who will be inducted on June 14th 2023, joining the Class of 2020 that was previously announced (pre-pandemic), but never feted.
The Class of 2022 features:
Karen Duguay Bunting: Athlete – RingetteInducted into the Ringette Canada Hall of Fame in 2020, the Sudbury native twice represented Canada at the World Championships (1998 & 2000) and was a mainstay at the Canadian Ringette Championships, participating in more than 15 sets of nationals.
Gilles Lafrance: Athlete – Para Track & Field
First cracking the Canadian Cerebral Palsy Team in 1981, Gilles Lafrance attended his first World Championships in Denmark a year later. He would compete at the Paralympic Games in New York City (1984) and Barcelona (1992) and in 1986, he broke the world record in both the 200m and 400m distances.
Jeffrey Buttle: Athlete – Figure Skating
Born in Smooth Rock Falls, Jeffrey Buttle enjoyed his formative years in the sport of figure skating in Sudbury, working with coach Wendy Philion and the Sudbury Skating Club. While he would develop to earn both gold (2008 – Gothenburg) and silver (2005 – Moscow) at the World Championships, he would always maintain a close connection to Sudbury, with Philion accompanying his parents to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin (Italy), with Buttle capturing bronze.
Fabio Belli (posthumous): Builder – Soccer
From a very early age, Fabio Belli would leverage his love of soccer to be involved in a variety of functions, as a volunteer and team manager, as a businessman (operating Just Soccer) and as tournament chair of the Panhellenic Soccer Tournament. Such was his commitment to the Sudbury community that Belli would find himself elected to council while just in his thirties, passing away sadly and unexpectedly on April 12th, 2014
As noted at the outset, the 52nd Annual Sudbury Sports Hall of Fame Dinner will take place on Wednesday June 14th 2023 in the upstairs hall of the Caruso Club. Tickets can be obtained by contacting either Randy Pascal (705-698-1627; info@sudburysports.com) or Joe Drago (705-207-3475), or by visiting the House of Kin on Regent Street South (cash or cheque only).
Tickets are being sold for $65/each, with children under 12 priced at $25 and a table of eight available for $460