Most athletes find success in one sport. Winnipeg native Theresa Brick excelled at two with a record-breaking career as a thrower and as weightlifter.
Despite only beginning training in 1984, Brick took to the discus right away, qualifying for the 1985 Canada Games. In 1985, Brick began training with the hammer throw, becoming one of the first women in Canada to throw it.
From 1987 to 1997, she captured 10 Canadian titles in the hammer and three in discus and held numerous Canadian records in the hammer including a career best throw of 56.26 metres. Her best toss in discus was 58.40, fifth all-time in Canada.
As a thrower, Brick represented Canada at the 1993 World Championships (32nd in the discus), at the Pan American Games in 1991 (sixth in discus) and 1995 (seventh in discus and fifth in hammer), at the 1994 Commonwealth Games (eighth in discus) and at two World Francophone Games. During the 1994 Commonwealth Games, she organized a hammer throw event to encourage more women to take it up.
She was named the 1988 Manitoba Female Athlete of the Year by the Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association and won the Athletics Canada Best Canadian Thrower Award in 1993.
Brick was just as accomplished as a weightlifter.
Brick competed in 12 Senior World Championships, two World Cup Galas, and the 1999 Pan Am Games in Winnipeg, where she placed fourth, barely missing out on a bronze medal. Between 1987-1996, she competed in 10 straight World Championships, setting a Guinness Book World Record. Her streak ended in 1997 due to her pregnancy with her first child, a daughter Kayla born in March 1998. She and her husband and coach Dennis Van Laeken also have a son Evan born in November 2001.
Her overall results at the Senior Worlds included four fourth-place finishes (1992, 1993, 1995, 1996) and she medalled in the snatch event in 1996.
The only Canadian invited to the World Cup Gala, she placed sixth in 1991 in Spain and third in 1994 in Greece. She also represented Canada at four North American, Central American and Caribbean Islands Championships, capturing the event three times.
All in all, Theresa Brick captured 10 Canadian Senior Championships from 1988-2000 and established numerous Canadian records, some of which still stood at the time of her Induction.
b. May 4, 1965
