Athletics coach passed the baton

For Wayne McMahon, it has never been about personal fame and glory. It has always been about helping his young athletes reach their full potential.

The long-time athletics coach reflected on his storied career Monday after being named a 2026 inductee to the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame.

Seeing his athletes achieve their dreams in competition and join the coaching ranks themselves to help the next generation has been one of the greatest rewards from more than five decades of coaching, McMahon said.

His impact on the sport has been far-reaching. He regularly runs into former athletes that have caught the coaching bug across Canada.

“I was at nationals a couple years. I looked around and realized how many of these coaches and officials that I coached over the years… and now they’ve spread out across the country,” he said.

“The highlight was having one of my old athletes approach me and say, ‘Here I am. I’m coaching here in B.C.,” McMahon added. “You see them and see how they’re doing and where they’ve gone.”

McMahon was named to the hall as an athlete-builder. His fellow inductees include curling legend Don Duguid, rugby player Mandy Marchak, multi-sport athlete Diane Pidskalny-Hrychuk, swimming coach Vlastimil (Vlastik) Černý and the Jennifer Jones curling team.

During McMahon’s athletic career, he won a Canadian Junior Championship in the 3,000-metre steeplechase and represented Manitoba at the Canada Games. Switching over to coaching, he has mentored the younger generation — either as a phys-ed teacher, assistant coach for the University of Manitoba Bisons or the head coach of the Winnipeg Optimist Athletics.

He’s previously won the Sport Manitoba Coach of the Year award, Athletics Manitoba Coach of the Year award four times, and the Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee Medal.

“It wasn’t about the awards… I’ve had some great opportunities,” said McMahon, who remains a year-round fixture at track and field events in Manitoba.

Athletes

The curling world was shaken last week when it learned Manitoba legend Don Duguid had died. His legacy came not only from the pebble but also the television booth. His lifetime contributions to the game is among the reasons he’s being inducted, adding to a long list of honours that includes the provincial, national and world curling halls of fame. During his career, he won the Canadian Brier three times and the World Championships twice. When he wasn’t playing, he was a highly sought commentator and telecaster.

Mandy Marchak, a Grant Park high school alum, started her rugby career in Grade 12 and has propelled forward ever since. She spent three years with the Winnipeg Wanderers, then headed west to the North Vancouver Capilano Rugby Football Club, until flying overseas to play with London’s historic Saracens RFC. She played internationally for Canada 60 times — 17 times as a member of the 7s national squad and 43 times with the 15s. Already a member of the provincial and national halls of fame, Marchak can now add this induction to her long list of achievements.

Diane Pidskalny-Hrychuk is a multi-sport athlete, having competed in basketball, volleyball, table tennis, javelin, discus, shotput, track and curling. After being introduced to wheelchair-based sports in 1966, she accrued 134 medals at national and international levels until retiring in 2008. In 1986, she was Team Canada’s flagbearer during the Pan Am Games, and has also been inducted in the Wheelchair Basketball Hall of Fame.

Builder:

Vlastimil (Vlastik) Černý has made waves in the Manitoba swimming community for more than three decades. His model, “Stay and Succeed,” encouraged Manitobans to believe that their hard work could excel them to reach international levels, right from their hometown. Černý has been Canada’s national swim team coach at four Olympics, has guided three Manitobans to the Olympics and is the longest-serving swim coach at the University of Manitoba. His work has put Manitoba swimmers on the map.

Team:

The Jennifer Jones rink (2005-2010) — including team members Jones, Jill Officer, Dawn McEwen, Cathy Overton-Clapham, Cathy Gauthier, Jennifer Clark-Rouire, Georgina Wheatcroft and Trisha Eck, and coaches Janet Arnott and Larry Jones — will forever be remembered for their accomplishments. During the five-year span, the rink won the Canadian women’s curling championship four times, the world championship title in 2008, along with bronze at the Worlds in 2010. Jones’s famous “The Shot,” a final stone that stole gold from Ontario to capture the 2005 Scotties, is known throughout the curling community and beyond.

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