Janet Lemieux

Janet Lemieux... speaks English... her mother Virginia was born in New York while her father Raymond was born in Lac La Biche, AB ... when she was born, her father served as the Professor of Chemistry at the University of Alberta... she was seven years old when her father Raymond was invested as an Officer in the Order of Canada on 12 November 1968 (he was later invested as a Companion on 3 May 1995)... grew up participating in soccer, athletics, tennis, basketball...

honoured by the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2021... honoured in 2010 as part of Alberta Soccer’s Centennial Recognition of the Top Female Players...

represented Canada at the World Invitational Women’s Tournament (Chinese Cup 1987)... was an original member of Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team in 1986... career six international A appearances from 1986 to 1987 with Canada Soccer's Women's National Team, in fact every Canada match until she suffered a leg injury…

club career in Canada... with Edmonton Angels SC, a four-time Canada Soccer National Championships winner (Jubilee Trophy in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986) and five-time Alberta Cup provincial championship winner (1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987)... suffered an irreparable left knee injury in 1987 and, after playing her final soccer matches in Taiwan in December 1987, had career-ending knee surgery on 7 April 1988...

she attended the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015 in Vancouver...

said coach Stuart Brown in 2021, “Janet Lemieux was not only very fit, technically she was a good ball carrier, she wasn’t afraid to carry the ball out of defence, she was confident, and she scored a few goals herself overlapping all the way into the attacking end. She was fit and able to get back and cover the centre of the pack and the defence”... also said Brown in 2021, “she was a good soccer player, but she was also a good tennis player. Just her agility, from playing tennis, she could jockey left and right and stay with the ball at the same time”...

said Lemieux in 2021, “wearing the Canadian shirt was the pinnacle of achievement for all of us players. We couldn’t play for fame, we couldn’t play for money, so we played for passion and the love of the game. So it was such an honour to put on the Canada shirt and strive to be the best that I could for myself and for the whole Canadian team”... said Lemieux in 2021, “the biggest highlights were winning the National Championships with the Angels, but also playing against the Americans for the first two North America Cup tournaments. Also traveling to Taiwan, that was such an amazing experience, it made playing for Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team really real”...

said Lemieux in 2021, “I grew up in the 1970s and there was no girls soccer, so I played boys soccer in the community league and later I went into track and field and I also played tennis. I had such inspirational people along that journey (and) having all those different sports come together, I think it brought me a certain level of maturity and depth. I could apply all those things from different sports, from all the coaches that I had throughout my career, and bring that to the field. I can’t be thankful enough for those coaches”...

said Lemieux in 2021 of joining the Angels, “Stuart Brown always remembered me from the days that I played with Ajax and he was dogged in tracking me down, so in 1983 I began playing with the Angels. It was such a wonderful team, the girls were all very passionate and dedicated to soccer. I just felt at home with that team, they were so lovely”... also said Lemieux in 2021, “we were a group of women who were really breaking the barriers. It wasn’t a popular thing to play women’s soccer back them, but we all had such passion for the game and we really didn’t care what other people thought, we were just going to go out and play the very best soccer that we can. I think once the Angels and all our teammates won the first National Championships, they weren’t going to give up easy”...

wrote Lemieux in 2022 of growing up, “I played on a boys team, the Belgravia Community boys team from about grade four to the fall of grade seven if memory serves me correctly. I played soccer with my best friend, captain of the boys team, almost every day. I don't think the other teams knew I was a girl. In the fall of grade 7, a team noticed I was a girl and threatened to punch me but my teammates came to my rescue. I stopped playing after that.”...