• Competed for the Pandas track & field and cross-country teams for five years.
• Canadian champion in race walking 13 times, setting Canadian records for the 10k and 20k events.
• Represented Canada at the World Athletics Championships, the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games, and the Pan American Games.
• Set World Masters records in the 4 x 400m and 4 x 800m indoor relay events.
• The only woman to represent Canada in both the race walk and the marathon.

International competitions have been an integral part of Janice McCaffrey’s life for the past 20 years. Over that span of time, she has competed as a race walker in World Athletics Champions, Olympic, Commonwealth, Pan American Games, World Race Walk Cups and Pan American Race walk cups. A remarkable career for a remarkable athlete. An amazing feat considering that Janice did not begin to train in this sport until her university career in track and field athletics was nearing an end.

Janice had become a serious track & field athlete as a member of the powerful Strathcona High School track & field teams of the 1970’s. She entered the University of Alberta in 1977 and immediately joined the track & field team. Over the next years, she continued to compete in her favourite middle distance events and in cross-country. In 1980 a quirk of fate lead her coach, Roger Burrows, to introduce her to Race Walking and the rest is history. Janice has been a force in this event for more than 20 years and dominated it for a decade. She has been Canadian champion 13 times, Jeux de la Francophone champion, Pan American Racewalk Cup silver medalist, bronze medalist in the 1994 Commonwealth Games (the second of her three appearances), and this amazing athlete has competed in 3 Pan American Games, 7 World Race Walk Cups (more than any other Canadian), 4 World Athletic Championships and 3 Olympic Games (1992, 1996 and 2000).

Janice McCaffrey holds the Canadian record for both the 10k and 20k events. No other Canadian has broken 1h40 for the 20k distance; Janice has done it seven times. Her record presently stands at 1h34:52 and since she set this record at the age of 40, it is also considered the World record in Master’s competition.

Since 1995, Janice also returned to her running roots and “relaxed” during her off-season by competing in marathons. She has run 14 marathons and is the 2001 Canadian Female Masters Marathon champion. Her times (many below 2h50 minutes), place her as one of the top-ranked marathoners in Canada. As a 40 year old, Janice racewalked in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and then represented Canada as a marathon runner the following season at the 2001 Francophone Games. Janice’s elite performance in the marathon, combined with her Canadian dominance of Race Walking, is a “double” that is not only remarkable, it is unprecedented.

Not satisfied with her domination in these two sports, in 2003, Janice competed as a member of the running team that set the World Masters records in the 4x400m and 4x800m indoor relay events. She is truly a remarkable athlete.

Many groups have recognized the athletic excellence of this inductee over the years. In 1981, Janice was named the University of Alberta Female Cross Country Athlete of the year followed, in 1984, by the Edmonton Olympic Club Female Athlete of the Year. She has received an Alberta Achievement Award (1990), the Calgary Booster Club Special Achievement (1995), the Calgary Booster Club Honored Athlete Award (1996), has been a 4-time winner of the Calgary Track West Female Athlete of the Year, a 3 time winner of the Athletics Alberta Female Athlete of the Year and most recently was named Athletics Alberta Female Masters Athlete of the year (2003). Janice is the only woman ever, and the only Canadian athlete since the great George Goulding in 1908, to represent Canada internationally in both the Race Walk and the Marathon (for both events, her best times surpassed Goulding’s times).

Janice is married to Bill, her university of Alberta sweetheart, and they have two children. She is a chartered Psychologist and conducts corporate seminars as a career. She is in demand as a motivational speaker and one of her most memorable challenges was delivering the “send-off” message to the Canadian Olympic team that was leaving for the Nagano Winter Games. Janice continues to run competitively and contributes to her sport by coaching Race Walkers and running enthusiasts in Calgary. The University of Alberta is proud to add Janice McCaffrey’s name to the Sports Wall of Fame.