Winners: Debbie Van Kiekebelt, Athletics
Debbie Van Kiekebelt sprinting past a group of soldiers at the Pan American Games in Cali, Columbia.
Date: 1971
Collection: Canada's Sports Hall of Fame
1971 - Feature Story
Two outstanding track and field athletes named Debbie each won the 1971 Bobbie Rosenfeld Award. Debbie Van Kiekebelt was a pentathlete, a multi-events competitor with high jump her strongest discipline. Debbie Brill was a high jump specialist and innovator.
At age 16 Mississauga’s Van Kiekebelt had finished a credible fifth in the high jump at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games, but a year later she was ranked the top Canadian and North American women’s pentathlete and earned a trip to the 1971 Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia. There, the 17-year-old won the two-day pentathlon with a score of 4,290 points – finishing first in the high jump and long jump, second in the shot put, a tie for second in the 200m and a tie for fifth in the 100m hurdles.
Career Highlights
- 1977 Inducted into the Mississauga Sports Hall of Fame
- 1972 Ranked seventh in the world heading into the Olympic Games in Munich
- 1971 Bobbie Rosenfeld Award (Canada’s female athlete of the year)
- 1971 Gold medal in pentathlon at the Pan American Games in Cali, Columbia
- 1971 Won an international pentathlon track meet in Munich, West Germany
Debbie Van Kiekebelt competing in the shot put event of the pentathlon at the Pan American Games in Cali, Columbia.
Date: 1971
Collection: Canada's Sports Hall of Fame
