Lucky Loonie | 17

In 2002, Trent Evans was overcome with excitement when he learned he would be invited to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah to volunteer as an icemaker.

Originally from Edmonton, Alta., Evans had been working as a supervisor for the maintenance team that cared for the ice during Oilers games, team practices and other activities.

Evans was one of 16 people invited to make and maintain the ice that would be on the international stage at the Olympics.

When Evans arrived in Salt Lake City in February 2002, he started working on creating the ice that would be eventually used in the Olympic hockey tournaments for both the women’s and men’s teams.

To mark centre ice, he placed a loonie — a piece of luck for the Canadian teams.

Canada’s men’s hockey team hadn’t won a gold medal since 1952.

Wayne Gretzky was the team’s executive director, Pat Quinn was the head coach and with players like Mario Lemieux, Joe Sakic, Eric Lindros and Jerome Iginla, Eric Zweig, a sports historian and author, said people were hopeful Canada could win the 2002 tournament.

On this episode of Global News’ What happened to…? Erica Vella finds out if the loonie was really lucky and speaks with Trent Evans to see what happened once it was revealed that it was hidden in the ice. She also finds out where the loonie is now and if its legacy has continued on.

Contact:

Twitter: @ericavella

Email: erica.vella@globalnews.ca

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