Special Olympics BC names Team BC figure skaters
When the 2019 Canada Winter Games hits Red Deer this winter, two Special Olympics BC figure skaters will take the ice to show the nation all that they can do.
Jeff Leung of SOBC – Vancouver and Kari Trott of SOBC – Port Alberni will make their Canada Games debuts in Alberta, supported by Head Coach Jessica Chapelski of SOBC – Vancouver.
Leung and Trott will be members of Team BC alongside our province’s top young athletes. Trott, Leung, and Chapelski will go right from the 2019 Special Olympics BC Winter Games in Greater Vernon to the Canada Games.
From Feb. 15 until March 3, the 2019 Canada Winter Games will involve up to 3,600 athletes, managers, and coaches in 19 sports, as well as more than 20,000 visitors. The Canada Games is the largest and most prestigious multi-sport competition for young Canadian athletes.
“At the Canada Games, Special Olympics athletes have the chance to show their abilities and dedication to sport right alongside the rest of our country’s top young athletes. It’s exciting and inspiring to see SOBC athletes shine on this big stage,” says Jean Tetarenko, SOBC competition and youth co-ordinator. “Kari and Jeff will do everyone proud, and we look forward to cheering them on.”
The Canada Games are staged every two years, alternating between winter and summer sports, and they offer valuable external competition opportunities for SOBC athletes and coaches. Special Olympics athletes from across the country compete in Special Olympics sport divisions and give their all as members of provincial and territorial teams alongside generic athletes, sharing great team spirit all together.
The 2019 Canada Games will be the largest event ever hosted in Red Deer and central Alberta and one of the largest events to be hosted in Alberta in over three decades, since the 1988 Calgary Olympics.
Figure skating is one of the original Canada Games sports, having been part of the inaugural 1967 Canada Winter Games in Quebec City. The Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre hosts figure skating in week two (Feb. 25 to March 3).
The Canada Games have been a stepping stone for some of our country’s top athletes on their path to greatness, including the likes of Sidney Crosby, Catriona Le May Doan, Steve Nash, and Hayley Wickenheiser. Trott and Leung will now join the list of Canada Games alumni, as they will have the chance to show their amazing abilities in Red Deer.
Contacts:
Megan Pollock, Communications Manager
megan@specialolympics.bc.ca
604-737-3077
Judy Joseph Black
Team BC Communications Manager
BC Games Society
E: judyjb@bcgames.org
W: 250-356-8765
C: 250-812-7189