06/22/2026
Today, we are excited to share the news and honour and remember a true trailblazer!
Congratulations to the family of Lynn Stewart on her induction into the PEI Sports Hall of Fame.
Lynn's impact on sport in Prince Edward Island extends far beyond her achievements as an athlete. As PEI's first Paralympic medalist and a national champion, she helped prove that Islanders with physical disabilities belonged in sport at every level.
Perhaps her greatest legacy was her leadership and vision. In 1974, Lynn became the founding President of the PEI Recreation and Sports Association for the Disabled — the organization that would eventually become ParaSport and Recreation PEI. More than fifty years later, her work continues to create opportunities for Islanders across the province.
Lynn challenged barriers, changed perceptions, and advocated for inclusion long before it became widely understood.
She believed that people should be recognized for their abilities, not defined by their disabilities, and she worked tirelessly to create pathways for others to participate and succeed.
Every athlete, volunteer, coach, and participant who has been part of ParaSport and Recreation PEI has benefited from the foundation Lynn helped build.
We are proud to celebrate her life, her leadership, and her enduring legacy. Her contributions to sport and inclusion in Prince Edward Island will never be forgotten 💚🩵
Groundbreaking athlete and advocate of disabled sport to be inducted into PEI Sports Hall of Fame
Lynn Stewart - who represented Canada in disabled sporting events, and was an advocate and builder of sport for those with physical disabilities, is to be inducted posthumously into the PEI Sports of Fame, at an induction ceremony to be held later this year.
Stewart, from Murray Harbour and who attended Montague Regional High School, was left paraplegic after a car accident in 1969 at the age of 14 years old. An outstanding scholar who attended four universities and who later became an expert in forensic psychology, Stewart enjoyed an outstanding career in sport.
In June 1973 Stewart, along with two other wheelchair athletes, represented PEI at the National Wheelchair Games in Vancouver, the first team from the Province to attend the national event. In doing so she became the first islander to win a medal, a gold in table tennis.
In 1974 the team had grown to eight participants for the Games in Winnipeg, and Stewart this time returned home with a four-medal haul, two silver and two bronze, in field sports.
In 1976 she enjoyed the honour of representing Canada at the 1976 Paralympics in Toronto, winning a bronze medal in pairs table tennis. Lynn also participated in discus and javelin at the Games, showing her all-round versatility as a multi-sport athlete.
Her advocacy for sport for the disabled was well-recognized both provincially and nationally, and one of her greatest achievements was being the catalyst and founder of the PEI Recreation and Sports Association for the Disabled, established in 1974, with Lynn as its first President - the forerunner of today's Parasport and Recreation PEI. She advocated early on to remove limiting and demeaning terminology like "wheelchair athlete," arguing that the wheelchair itself was just an aid, not representative of the person or athlete. Today, only sports that specifically use the wheelchair as part of their discipline - wheelchair basketball or wheelchair rugby - still use the term.
In all sports, there is always someone who is first - the first across the line, the first to lift the cup, the first to get the ball rolling. The late Lynn Stewart was the first to really establish the credibility of sport for those with physical difficulties, and for that alone, she is a worthy inductee into the PEI Sports Hall of Fame.
For more information on the PEI Sports Hall of Fame contact Nick Murray at [email protected].
-30-
