Gold Standard

Clara Hughes overcame a challenging childhood to become one of Canada’s most decorated Olympians and a passionate advocate for mental health. This year, she’s one of Reader’s Digest’s most trusted influencers.

- Lisa Bryn Rundle

“USED TO SKATE IN CIRCLES and ride a bike pretty fast, now do all things slow.” That’s how Olympian Clara Hughes describes herself these days—at least that’s what she says in her Twitter bio. It’s an apt but incomplete description of a woman who makes every decision with enviable deliberation.

Since 1996, when she earned two bronze medals on her bike in the Atlanta Olympics, Canadians have cheered Hughes’s athletic skill. She’s brought home six Olympic medals in both cycling and speed skating, making her the only person ever to win multiple medals in both the Summer and Winter Games. But she’s all too aware that life’s a marathon, not a sprint. Since stepping off the podium for good in 2012, she has approached the next phase of her life with a determination to give back to the community and an unwavering commitment to honesty. She’s shared her ongoing struggle with depression; she’s talked openly about her difficult childhood, her own poor choices and the impact of a father who was verbally abusive and who struggled with alcoholism.

We make heroes of our athletes, casting them as role models whether or not they prove themselves worthy of admiration outside of their sport. Few have risen to this challenge quite like Hughes. And it’s perhaps this strength of character that has earned her the trust of Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

How does it feel to be one of the most trusted people in Canada? 

It makes me kind of nervous! I try to just be myself. That’s what I consider a trustworthy person, someone who is themself—their whole being—in every circumstance.