Manon Rheaume Biography

Hockey Player

Manon Rheaume was the first woman to play in a men's professional hockey game. She was signed by the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League in 1992 and played in an exhibition game against the St. Louis Blues on 23 December 1992. Though she never played in a regular-season NHL game, she did play in various other pro and amateur leagues, including the International Hockey League. (She also became the first woman to play professional roller hockey.) Rheaume tended goal for the Canadian women's national team, winning world championships in 1992 and 1994 and a silver medal at the 1998 Olympics.

Other groundbreaking female athletes include Shirley Muldowney, Althea Gibson and Babe Didrikson Zaharias.