4 outstanding athletes named to the London Sports Hall of Fame

The 2023 inductees to the London Sports Hall of Fame in southwestern Ontario were announced at Budweiser Gardens on Monday morning.

Outstanding athletes who were honoured include:

• Don Luce, National Hockey League player and administrator.
• Miranda Ayim, three-time Olympic basketball player and flag-bearer at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
• Alex Kopacz, gold-medal winner in the two-man bobleigh at the 2018 Seol Winter Olympics.
• Tyler James (TJ) Sanders, Olympic volleyball player.

Ayim and Luce were on hand for the announcement, which was made during a ceremony where the London Sports Hall of Fame plaques are mounted on the wall at the gardens. 

"Well, it's definitely an honour," said Ayim. "You don't really go through your career anticipating or thinking that you will be inducted into a hall of fame one day, but it definitely is wonderful when when it arrives, especially going in with a class like this one."

Ayim was born in Chatham and later moved to London with her family in 1993. She began playing basketball while attending Emily Carr Elementary School, then went on to Saunders Secondary School.

After high school, Ayim attended Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., on a full scholarship, where she graduated with a degree in public relations and psychology. She was also named the university's Female Athlete of the Year in 2010.

Ayim began her professional basketball career with the Canadian National Senior Women's Basketball program in 2011. She would go on to represent Canada in a number of championships, games and three Olympics from 2012 to 2021.

"I've been really fortunate throughout my career, really blessed with a lot of opportunities. Sport is really beautiful in that way and I've learned a lot of tough lessons along the the way," said Ayim. "From the mental realm, the physical realm in putting those skills to use in building some key characteristics that helped me succeed in my career, and that's what I like to kind of pay it forward now."

Ayim now runs a wellness and performance coaching business called Cultivate Co.

Luce made hockey his lifelong career

Luce was born in London in 1948 and rose through the ranks of junior and minor hockey before signing with the Kitchener Rangers in 1965.

"It's an awesome feeling coming here and back to my hometown where I grew up and all my childhood memories," said Luce. "It's such a great feeling to be honoured and it's really hard to describe — you just feel so grateful that you know you're surrounded by the people that helped you with your career, and it all started here in London."

Luce was drafted by the New York Rangers in 1966, but played out his final two seasons with Kitchener before joining the Omaha Knights in the Central Hockey League. He stepped onto the ice for the Rangers in 1970, then spent his NHL career with the Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres, Los Angeles Kings and finally the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Once he hung up his skates in 1982, Luce was named general manager and head coach of the Pinebridge Bucks for the Atlantic Coast Hockey League. He was director of player personnel for the Sabres for 18 years and director of player development for the Philadelphia Flyers for a decade.

Luce was inducted into the Sabres Hall of Fame in 1986, the Greater Buffalo Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Omaha Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002.

"I think the most important thing is your attitude. You know you gotta have the right attitude and you have to have a positive attitude. You gotta believe in yourself," said Luce when asked about his advice for up-and-coming athletes.

"And the next thing is that has to be combined with the effort to bring out all your talent. Effort can take over talent with the right passion. You've got to be passionate about the game, you've got to wanna play, you've got to enjoy the game, whether you win or lose."

Bobsledder happened upon sport by chance

Kopacz has an incredibly varied background. He's a mechanical engineer who started out competing in varsity shot put and then switche gears to bobsleigh after a sprinting coach noticed his speed. He was competing in shot put for two years while attending Western University from 2011 to 2013, then tried out for bobsleigh.

Kopacz was a brakeman for two- and four-man bobsleigh teams, and began competing on the Bobsleigh World Cup circuit in 2014, earning a bronze two years later as part of a four-man crew in Lake Placid. In 2016, he also moved to Germany to train.

At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Kopacz and pilot Justin Kripps tied with the German team for gold.

Volleyball star leads Canada to 1st world medal and Olympics

Sanders moved to London from Winnipeg when he was eight years old. He played badminton, basketball, golf and volleyball while attending Oakridge Secondary School, but eventually pursued volleyball full time, joining the Canadian junior men's team in 2010.

Sanders made his Olympic debut in 2016 at the Rio de Janeiro Games, where Canada placed Fifth. That same year, the Canadian team won bronze at the FIVB World League Group 1, which was a first in Canada's volleyball history.

After suffering a serious back injury in 2018, Sanders went through 18 months of rehabilitation, and returned to the sport to play for Canada in the NORCECA Continental Cup, which led to a spot at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He officially retired from volleyball in 2022.

The 22nd annual London Sports Hall of Fame induction will take place on Nov. 2 at the Hellenic Centre. Details about the event and tickets will be made available closer to the that date.