The list, titled The 15 Most Ridiculous World Leader Of All Time, has Nenshi in the 13th spot, along with Canadian leaders such as Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In the top spot is Mayor Stubbs of Talkeetna, Alaska, who happens to be a cat.

The Winnipeg native is being inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame.

Hughes competed in winter and summer Olympics as a speedskater and cyclist, winning a total of six medals.

“As one of the greatest Canadian athletes of all time, and the only athlete in the world to win multiple medals in both a summer and winter Olympics, this was an easy decision,” hall president Don Pincock said in a release. “Clara has been contributing to our museum collection for a number of years and her induction was just a matter of time.”

Hockey Hall of Fame goalie Ed Belfour is also being inducted along with sailor Kelly Hand, speedskater Michael Ireland, football player Harry Langford and softball player Sandy (Newsham) Maskiw.

Longtime administrator Morris Glimcher will be enshrined in the builder’s category.

The induction ceremony is set for Nov. 3.

Michelle Stilwell pondered those questions in the aftermath of the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing. The wheelchair sprinter from Nanoose Bay, B.C., had won the 100 and 200 metres and set Games records in both.

She had to decide what would fuel her engine for London in 2012? Training “not to lose” didn’t seem fun.

Stilwell and her coach Peter Lawless decided she would chase a world record in the 400, which then meant shaving about eight seconds off her best time.

Stilwell achieved the 400 WR this year, with a time of one minute 5.41 seconds Feb. 18 in Sydney, Australia.

The pursuit of that mark floated her other boats — the 100 and 200. She lowered her own world record in the 100 in Windsor, Ont., in July, as well as bettering her world record in the 200 in Switzerland in May.

Stilwell won’t race the 400 in London. The event was on the 2008 menu in Beijing, but it’s not on London’s program in Stilwell’s T52 classification (quadriplegic).

Nevertheless, the effort required to chase down the world record in the 400 has prepared Stilwell well for the 100 and 200 in London.

“It is true, I needed something to chase after Paralympic records and double gold,” Stilwell says. “That is how I work. I need a challenge. At the time, it felt so very far from attainable.

“Even though I will not race the 400 metres in London, the training has absolutely helped. Really, how could it not? The records continue to break not just because of the training but from the preparation put into every little detail.”

Lawless says the 400 kept his athlete motivated and hungry.

“Status quo is not attractive,” he says. “That’s why we chose the goal of the 400-metre world record.

“It took us four years to get it. I’m really glad in retrospect that we did choose that. It was hard. She was well off way back then.”

Like a rower chasing that elusive perfect stroke, Stilwell aims for both power and precision in propelling her chair.

“Quadriplegic doesn’t actually mean four limbs paralyzed,” she explains. “It means four limbs affected. I have bicep and tricep muscles and it’s my hand and wrist function that are my limitations.

“It’s a misconception in wheelchair racing we push the wheels. We actually punch down on them and flick our hands back to keep the driving force. I use a lot of shoulder muscles, trap (trapezius) and back.”

Stilwell has given every indication she’s ready to defend her 200-metre title Saturday and her 100 on Sept. 5.

At July’s Boiling Point Wheelchair Classic in Windsor, she beat American rivals Cassie Mitchell and Kerry Morgan by over two seconds in both the 100 and 200. Stilwell’s's time of 18.67 seconds in the 100 was a world record.

“We went out to send a message and the message is ‘You’re racing for second,”’ Lawless declared. “Message received.”

Stilwell, 38, says she and husband Mark will postpone celebrating their 15th anniversary, which falls on Friday, the day before her first race in London. They met in 1996 while playing wheelchair basketball.

He’s able-bodied and was playing for Saskatchewan, while the Winnipeg-born Stilwell was a member of the Manitoba team. The couple have a son, 11-year-old Kai. He was born after Stilwell completed her psychology degree at the University of Calgary and the couple moved to Vancouver Island.

At age 17, Stilwell fell backwards onto basement stairs while riding piggy-back on a friend. Her neck struck the stairs, rendering her a quadriplegic.

She’s won Paralympic gold in two different summer sports as she was also a member of Canada’s victorious women’s wheelchair basketball team in Sydney in 2000.

“I was introduced to wheelchair basketball when I was still in the rehabilitation hospital,” Stilwell says. “I definitely owe a lot to wheelchair basketball because it made me stronger, more independent and I learned so much from the girls on my team about living life with a disability.”

Complications from her spinal injury forced her to retire from the national basketball team, but Lawless spotted her in a pick-up game at B.C.’s Douglas College in 2004.

He observed that Stilwell had quick hands for a “quad”. A coach of other wheelchair racers, Lawless launched a relentless campaign to get Stilwell into a racing chair.

“Can you believe that? Nice name for a lawyer,” Stilwell laughs. “I always tease him because he emailed me so much it was harassment, but the charges never stuck because he’s such a good lawyer. He’s a good guy.”

Stilwell was initially reluctant to go back to the track because she’d run track before her accident. When she finally caved in the face of Lawless’s persistence, she was beaten by a 12-year-old boy in her first wheelchair race.

“I decided that was never going to happen again,” Stilwell recalls.

Attempting to be the best in the world in a sport when you’ve already been that in another sport takes courage and fortitude, Lawless says. And Stilwell went from the social sport of basketball to the solitary pursuit of wheelchair racing.

“You start all over. You knew what it was like to be a champion, but sure as heck weren’t one right away,” he points out. “To start at the bottom and put that work in to go for that goal you don’t know if you can achieve again, I think it’s the again part that’s remarkable about Michelle.

“It’s tough in winter training in your basement, in the cold or if it is raining, to go do a two-hour ride alone. It’s easy to race and that’s true of all sport. The racing and the competition is the fun stuff. It’s the slogging it out at oh-dark hundred is the hard stuff.”

When she isn’t training, travelling and racing, Stilwell plays board games and cards with her son. She recently bought a hand cycle so the family can all go for bike rides.

“(Kai) loves jumping on the trampoline and going for bike rides and swimming and running and a lot of things I obviously can’t do with him. He’s happy to have dad who does those things all the time,” Stilwell says. “Mark is an incredible husband, he’s very supportive of me and take on the role of daddy day-care.

“I’m definitely the mother hen. I keep things organized, keep the calendar and the calendar is God.”

“I try to make it easy on Mark. Kai is autistic. He’s home schooled and (we) have a lot of tutors who come in and support workers that come in,” she adds. “I do all the schedules, billing and invoicing. I don’t sleep a lot. I use every spare moment to do those things. If you want it bad enough, you’ll make it happen.”

Mark, Kai and a clan of about 23 Stilwell supporters will be in London to cheer Stilwell on. They were all contemplating wearing clown wigs at Olympic Stadium.

“So it will be easy to find each other and easy for me and fun,” Stilwell explains. “It’s supposed to be fun. It can’t all be serious.”

A competitive swimmer and gymnast, Mortimer raced in the 2008 Olympic swim trials and was hopeful of making the Canadian team for London.

Just a few months later, on Nov. 28, she bounced off a trampoline and missed the sponge pit. Mortimer landed on the corner of a cement pad and shattered virtually all the bones in her feet.

She was in a wheelchair for a year and a half, followed by another year and a half on crutches. After two surgeries on her left foot and one on her right, the prognosis wasn’t good.

“They didn’t think I would keep my feet,” she recalls. “They were considering amputating both of them. When they said I could keep them, they said I’d never walk again.”

“As soon as I was out of the wheelchair, I was teaching myself to walk again as well as swim.”

Mortimer will compete in London, but with Canada’s Paralympic swim team. She holds world records in the 50-metre freestyle, 50 backstroke, 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke.

She races in an S10 classification, which is defined as minimal physical impairment. Mortimer has six screws and a medal plate in her left foot, which is clubbed, and another two pins in her right foot.

The 19-year-old from Newmarket, Ont., had a unique vantage point at this year’s trials in Montreal, where both Olympic and Paralympic swimmers were racing for the right to go to London.

Having participated in the able-bodied side of the sport just four years ago, Mortimer is adjusting to life as a Paralympian.

“Looking at it and thinking ‘I could have been with them’ and now I’m on the Para side, it’s not bad, but it’s a very big change,” she says. “Going from being an able-bodied athlete to a Para-athlete, I know the amount of respect and credit is completely lacking in the Para side.

“I know truckloads of able-bodied athletes who constantly make fun of the Paralympics and say it’s a joke. It’s not a joke. I’ve learned first-hand.”

She’s optimistic for Paralympic sport though. Swim teammate and multiple medallist Benoit Huot has told her how much attitudes have changed since his first Paralympics in 2000.

“He says from 2000 to 2012, it’s a huge difference,” Mortimer explains. “Especially with this generation, everyone is more accepting. You look at sexual orientation, you look at religions, you look at culture, everything is about being individual and having equality and freedom.

“I think the Paralympics are going to skyrocket, especially for 2016. I think that’s where you’ll see it especially. London is certainly a big deal, but I think in another four years, that’s where you’ll start to see more people getting involved.”

The London Paralympics start Wednesday and run through Sept. 9.

Mortimer’s 100 world backstroke record is one minute 6.47 seconds. The Canadian record on the able-bodied side is Sinead Russell’s 59.68.

Mortimer says she considered racing against Russell at trials, but knew her best chance of going to London was in Paralympic swimming.

She’s a threat to win multiple medals in London if her feet co-operate. The plates and screws cause her bones to suddenly lock up. That and accompanying tendinitis in her legs wreak havoc on her training, she says.

“My coach will say ‘OK we’re doing sprints training’ and my feet will give out after 20 minutes of practice,” Mortimer explains. “Once they lock up, I’m stuck in that position for awhile. Who’s to say if it’s an hour or the rest of the day?

“Everything is up in the air with training. I always deal with pain. It’s just when it’s the least and how much I can handle.

“It’s degenerative so it will get worse with time. They didn’t think I’d walk or keep my feet so I’ll probably prove them wrong for as long as I can.”

It’s a wonder Mortimer walks across the pool deck with halfway normal gait. She refuses to hobble, even when people think she should.

“After the first competition I had, the world championships, I came back and (had) all these anonymous e-mails,” Mortimer recalls. “The first one I got was ‘How do you feel about walking in and taking medals from people when you forget to fake your limp 50 per cent of the time?’

“I don’t think I look disabled. I hide it really well. Because I don’t show pain, I get a lot of criticism. I’m sorry. I’m stubborn as a mule. I’ve been through too much to show any sign of weakness.”

Mortimer likes to paint murals when she’s not in the pool. She illustrated a children’s book written by her twin sister Julia titled “The Night I Met The Boogie Man.”

Meanwhile, she’s gearing up for her first major Games.

“Just trying to picture being overwhelmed by it is how I prepare for it,” Mortimer says. “I don’t think you can avoid it. I think it’s being ready to be overwhelmed and embracing it.”

Huot wants to get back to where he once was in Paralympic swimming, which is on top of the podium.

Paralympic competition overall has suddenly become much stiffer with more countries entering the race.

The field increased by 24 countries from the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney to the 2008 Games in Beijing.

After finishing tied for third in the gold medal count in 2000 and third in 2004 in Athens, Canada slipped to seventh in 2008.

The country’s 2012 objective in London is to finish in the top eight in gold medals won. They won 19 gold four years ago.

“It is absolutely harder,” Canadian Paralympic Committee president Henry Storgaard says. “We’re feeling and seeing that international competitiveness across the board.”

Huot has felt the heat in the pool. Winner of a combined eight Paralympic gold medals, including five in 2004, Huot took four bronze in Beijing.

Standing above him on the podium in every race was Andre Brasil of Brazil. But because of Brasil, Huot enters the London Games with a renewed hunger.

“When the Brazilian Andre came along, I was on top of the world and suddenly was I not winning five gold, but not even one,” Huot says. “It really pushed me.

“In 2010 at the last world championships, I had the chance to beat Andre for the first time. He’s definitely the guy who pushed me to a better athlete. I really want to thank him. Without him, I would maybe still be in the pool, but I wouldn’t be a better swimmer.”

And it’s interesting to be hunter instead of the prey, Huot adds.

“When you’re number one, it’s not easy on a daily basis to push yourself as hard because there’s no one else to beat,” he explains. “Sometimes it’s fun to be second or third and trying to get to that number one.”

The 28-year-old from Longueuil, Que., enters his fourth Paralympic Games as one of Canada’s most decorated swimmers.

Huot expects to add to his collection of 16 career medals when he swims five events in London.

He’s a world record-holder in the 200 individual medley, set at the Paralympic trials in Montreal in April. Huot’s time of two minutes 10.26 seconds is just over 10 seconds slower than the Canadian record of 1:59.19.

He was born with club feet and competes in the S10 classification, which is defined as minimal physical impairment.

Swimming was never Huot’s first choice. Frozen water appealed more to him.

“My hero is Patrick Roy, the former goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens,” he explains. “I said to my mom and dad ‘I want to become the next NHL star and play for the Montreal Canadiens.’

“Mom said ‘That’s a great idea, but maybe you’ll have a hard time with skates and your feet.’ It took me two minutes to realize my mom was right. It was really hard to skate and even today, 20 years later, it’s not easy for me.”

He acted on a friend’s suggestion to try swimming and competed against able-bodied athletes.

Huot’s eureka moment setting him on the path to Paralympic glory was at age 13, when he saw Philippe Gagnon on television after cleaning up in Paralympic swimming at the 1997 Canada Games.

“Philippe was doing an interview with a journalist on RDS. (He said) ‘I was born with a club foot,’” Huot recalls. “This was how I found out I could become a Paralympic athlete and suddenly Philippe became my new Patrick Roy, my new hero.”

The communications student at the University of Quebec-Montreal serves on the athletes councils of Swimming Canada, the Canadian Paralympic Committee and Commonwealth Games Canada.

A television analyst during the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver, Huot has detected a shift in attention and interest from Canadians in Paralympic sports since those Games.

“In Quebec, not as much, but in the west, the Vancouver Paralympics really helped,” Huot observes. “Even though the Winter Paralympics are quite small compared to the Summer ones, it really helped Canadian know a little bit more about the Paralympics.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done obviously, but we’re in the right direction.”

But a thief in Rome has left her with little more than memories from her role with the first Canadian women’s basketball team at the Games since 2000.

On Monday, the Kitchener-raised athlete had all of her Olympic gear stolen out of the trunk of her rental car while sightseeing near the Vatican City.

They took everything she had — the Team Canada jacket the 28-year-old wore at the closing ceremonies, the basketball gear she competed in, her Olympic athlete’s pass, sneakers, clothes and jewelry, including a special gold London Olympics charm.

“All they have left is literally what they have on their backs,” said Shelley Aubry, Chelsea’s mother.

“All of the Olympic stuff she had with her was there. She can replace a lot of that stuff, but she can’t replace the Olympic stuff. I’m just sick about it.”

Aubry and her Australian boyfriend reported the theft to police in Rome, her mother said, but aren’t holding out much hope for a happy ending. They replaced their rental car with its smashed window and left the city soon after.

“I’m not sure she’ll ever see any of it again,” her mother said. “The police basically laughed at them.”

The pair still have another two weeks to spend in Europe before flying to Australia, where Aubry has played professionally since 2009.

The 10-year veteran of the Canadian senior women’s basketball team had planned to use the vacation to consider her next move — including possibly retiring from the national team, and whether she’d play another season with Australia’s Bendigo Spirit.

After hearing about the theft, Basketball Canada said they would replace the team gear that was stolen. The Canadian Olympic Committee said it would help however it could to replace the Canada jacket and other items given to Olympians.

Following the heart-wrenching disqualification of Canada’s 4×100 relay team at the Olympics and hearing how the team was denied a bronze medal, 10-year-old Elijah Porter decided to write a letter to his new, crestfallen heroes.

The Newfoundland lad sensed the team of Justyn Warner, Gavin Smellie, Oluseyi Smith and Jared Connaughton needed to know that he had their Canadian backs. And then some.

“When I heard what happened on Aug. 11, I knew it was wrong. The rules were not right. But at last I realized how good you were. We’re Canadians. We persevere,” wrote Porter in a letter posted by Warner on his Twitter account.

“We create better lives for each other. The cold didn’t stop us from living in the North. We didn’t lose the War of 1812. We adapt and survive.”

He doesn’t stop there. Porter also promises that if he becomes a biologist and gets rich, he’ll donate money to Canada’s Olympians.

And, perhaps to make up for the bronze medal lost when the team was disqualified, Porter included his Timbits soccer medal, with the final line:

“I hope you like the medal!”

“10yr old Elijah Porter (Nfld) knows the 4×100 team are heros, do you?” asked Warner on his Twitter account with a link to an image of the letter and the medal.

Canada’s relay team raced to third place, behind Jamaica and the U.S., but was automatically disqualified when it was ruled that Connaughton, running the third leg, had stepped on the lane line going around the turn of track.

Despite the crushing loss, Connaughton spoke with the media immediately after the ruling and earnestly accepted the blame, winning thousands of fans in the process.

“Yeah, it was my fault,” Connaughton said. “It was a great race. When I looked up on the screen, I saw the replay and I could see that I stepped on the line. It’s pretty unforgivable. I am sad and sorry for my teammates. And it is sad to have happened like this.”

More than 100 fans erupted in cheers as Christine Sinclair, Canada’s flag-bearer, appeared alongside three of her teammates, Karina LeBlanc, Sophie Schmidt and Emily Zurrer, at Vancouver International Airport.

‘Golden Rosie’ a.k.a Rosie MacLennan was met by a throng of media and supporters at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.

Janine Hanson, two-time Olympian and rowing silver medalist, was greeted by home-town supporters in London, Ont., telling media the women’s eight rowing team would be in for some big changes come 2016.

The crowd erupted the moment boxer Custio Clayton stepped exited the Halifax Stanfield International Airport and shocked at the generous welcome he received.

Men’s rowing team members James Andrew Brynes and Doug Csima made sure to show off their well-deserved silver medals during a stop at the Calgary airport.

Kayaker Mark de Jonge touched down at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport to swarms of fans chanting “Mark! Mark! Mark!” before they broke into a heart-felt rendition of O’Canada.

Desiree Scott, her women’s soccer bronze medal around her neck, teared up at the sight of about 500 supporters cheering as she arrived in Winnipeg.

The Ottawa police pipe and drum band waited, along with dozens of supporters, at Ottawa International Airport to welcome home local athletes, including Men’s 4×100 relay runners Oluwasegun (Segun) Makinde and Gavin Smellie.

Diver Eric Sehn arrived in Edmonton with bags full of team Canada gear, and memories. He was greeted by a small but enthusiastic crowd, and reunited with his coach.

An average of 7.5 million people tuned in to Sunday’s broadcast of the Summer Games finale.

That was more than the 6.4 million Canadians who watched the opening ceremony.

Usain Bolt’s run to gold in the 100 metres was Canada’s most-watched sports event with an average of 6.2 million tuning in to both the English and French broadcasts of the Aug. 5 race.

The controversial women’s soccer semifinal between Canada and the U.S. was second with an average of 3.1 million tuning in.

Canada’s Olympic broadcast consortium said 31.9 million viewers tuned in to TV coverage between July 27 and Aug. 12.

That’s up from the 24 million who watched the 2008 Beijing Olympics on CBC.

While the Canadian ratings for London outpaced the Beijing Games four years ago, it’s difficult to compare the two because a new ratings measurement system was introduced in 2009 that has seen sports TV ratings skyrocket.

The broadcast consortium said 3.4 million hours of content was viewed at CTVOlympics.ca and RDSolympiques.ca, while more than 1.1 million mobile apps were downloaded.

The broadcast consortium comprised CTV, RDS, TSN, Sportsnet, OMNI.1, OMNI.2, OLN, V, ATN, CTVOlympics.ca and RDSolympiques.ca.

“If you liked Damien Hirst’s Union Jack stage design, admire his artwork close up,” VisitBritain said in a press release issued the day after the Sunday night ceremonies in the Olympic stadium.

“Tate Modern’s exhibition of the artist’s work is on until Sept. 9, or you can dine at Tramshed in London, the restaurant with its own specially commissioned Hirst installation featuring a cow and a cockerel.”

The U.K.’s official tourism promoter hopes the post-Olympics payoff will be increased visitor numbers, even though tourists actually spent less money during the Games than local businesses had hoped.

VisitBritain pointed out other ways potential visitors can follow up on the ceremonies, which featured music by top British talent:

— The musical “Viva Forever,” with songs by the Spice Girls, opens in London’s West End in November.

— “We Will Rock You,” based on the songs of Queen, is on at London’s Dominion Theatre.

— British dance troupe Stomp is currently touring the U.K. For tour dates, go to http://www.stomp.co.uk/location/uk.

— DJ Norman Cook from Fatboy Slim is from “party city” Brighton, a great clubbing destination. For clubs in London, check out Fabric, Dalston Superstore or Plastic People.

And for fashionistas, VisitBritain noted that Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Stella Tennant and other models in the show wore outfits by British designers including Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Christopher Kane and Paul Smith, all of whom have boutiques in central London.