Mario Lemieux Biography

1965-

Canadian hockey player

One of the most admired figures in professional sports, Mario Lemieux has enjoyed a lengthy career filled with dramatic moments. A member of two Stanley-Cup winning squads with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Lemieux was sidelined after a diagnosis of Hodgkin's Disease, a form of cancer, in 1993. After completing radiation therapy and missing the 1994-95 season, he returned to the Penguins the following year and scored sixty-nine goals on his way to winning the Hart Trophy as the National Hockey League's (NHL) Most Valuable Player. Citing the indifferent refereeing that plagued the NHL in the mid-1990s, Lemieux went into retirement in 1997. When the Penguins franchise encountered financial difficulties, Lemieux stepped in to negotiate a part-ownership of the team that helped it recover from bankruptcy. Even more surprising, Lemieux came out of retirement to rejoin the Penguins as an active player in 2000, an event that immediately revived the team's fortunes. Although he was criticized for taking time away from the team to prepare for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games as a member of the Canadian men's hockey team, Lemieux retained his popularity in his adopted hometown of Pittsburgh for his

Mario Lemieux

philanthropic work as well as his continued top-notch excellence on the ice.