Warren Shelton watched his daughter, Ella, win a gold medal with the Canadian women’s hockey team
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Everything is a little more golden at the Shelton farm near Ingersoll, Ont.
It’s likely because there’s an Olympic gold medal around.
Warren Shelton, a cash crop and hog producer, picked up his daughter, Ella, from Pearson Airport on the weekend after she and the rest of the Canadian women’s hockey team defeated the U.S. 3-2 in the gold medal game.
“We couldn’t go in the airport, so we had to wait for her to come out,” he told Farms.com. “She let me put the medal on, which brings a little more life to it. It was great to see her and we’re all incredibly proud of her and the rest of the Canadian athletes.”
Wearing number 17 in her first Olympics, Shelton appeared in every game and chipped in with three assists.
Warren, a hockey-lover himself a beer league player, put his daughter, and his three sons, Jesse, Jack and Maxx, in skates at young ages. The boys didn’t take to hockey like Ella did.
The now 24-year-old played with the London Devilettes from pee wee to junior. From there she attended Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y. to pursue a biology major and further her hockey career.
In 2019-20, her final year at the school, she captained the women’s hockey team to a 25-6-6- record.
Despite her being an adult and having success at the collegiate and Olympic level, Warren still sees his little girl on the ice.
“It hasn’t changed since day one,” he said. “My wife (Cathy), the boys and I stayed up to watch the game and at times I felt like I was frozen watching her.”
Before hockey, Shelton grew up on the family farm.
“She loved riding with me in the tractor,” Warren said. “She’s always been an animal lover and even as the kids got older, all four of them are great about helping out around the farm.”
In fact, her LinkedIn profile states she started working at Shelwood Farms in June 2006 and has been there for the last 15 years and nine months.
Hockey and farming have multiple similarities.
Both take sacrifice and teamwork, Warren said.
“Being part of a hockey team is like being part of a farm family,” he said. “You’ve got to work together, even when you might not feel like doing the work. But then at the end of the day, as a farm family we can enjoy the fruits of our labour. And for a hockey team, the fruits of that labour can be a trophy, or in some cases, a gold medal.”
Ella will stay with her family for a few weeks before meeting up with her Team Canada teammates to play against their stateside rivals again.
And later in the year she’ll be competing for a spot on the roster for the Women’s World Hockey Championships in Denmark in August.
But in between those events, she may lace up her skates and join her dad on the ice.
“I’ve got a game tonight and one of the guys said Ella can come out if she wants,” Warren said. “I’m sure she won’t stick out at all.”
Ella Shelton receives her gold medal around the 2:57:00 mark of the video.