Province’s athletes ready for Canada Games
2019 Red Deer Winter Games start with opening ceremonies Friday; province sending 240-plus athletes, coaches and managers
The odds are stacked against the province, but Newfoundland and Labrador’s chef de mission for the Canada Games is nonetheless confident provincial teams are well prepared for competition starting this weekend.
The province has about 240 athletes, coaches and managers slated to compete in the 2019 Canada Winter Games that start with the opening ceremonies Friday in Red Deer, Alta.
Week 1 sports on the agenda are biathlon, boxing, gymnastics, men’s hockey, speed skating, artistic swimming, table tennis and wheelchair basketball, while Week 2 sports are alpine and para alpine skiing, badminton, cross-country skiing, para Nordic skiing, curling, figure skating, Special Olympics figure skating, trampoline, women’s hockey, judo and squash.
The province has 18 teams, competing in 16 sports (men’s and women’s curling and hockey).
Smaller provinces such as Newfoundland and Labrador are usually behind the eight ball — because of sheer population numbers — when it comes to Canada Games and medal totals, but Karen Sherriffs of St. John’s, the province’s chef for Red Deer, says the provincial teams are as prepared as they’re ever going to be heading into Alberta.
“Competing in a sport like hockey can be challenging,” she acknowledged. “You just hope they can go and improve on past Games, keep setting the bar higher and higher.
“I mean, if you look at the Ontario girls’ (hockey) team, the majority of the roster was on the national under-18 team that just won the recent world championship.” Shailynn Snow of Clarke’s Beach, who is on the Newfoundland and Labrador team, was part of that U18 world championship team.
Medals have not exactly been plentiful in past Canada Winter Games. In the last Winter Games four years ago in Prince George, B.C., this province won four. In the four Winter Games prior to that, Newfoundland and Labrador won five medals (2011, Halifax), three (2007, Whitehorse, Yukon) and four (2003, Bathurst/campbellton, N.B.). The 1999 Corner Brook Winter Games provided a bounty of medals on home soil (or ice and snow) — 19.
In the five previous Canada Summer Games, this province has produced one medal (2017, Winnipeg), two (2013, Sherbrooke), six (2009, Summerside, P.E.I.), seven (2005 Regina) and eight (2001, London, Ont.).
“It’s probably not reasonable to expect us to compete with Ontario,” Sherriffs said. “But this Canada Games team is prepared.
“With the availability of the High Performance Centre (in the Newfoundland and Labrador Sports Centre in St. John’s), the athletes have certainly been given many more opportunities to train.
“It’s about making sure your body is ready for these Games. The trainers that are up there (led by lead strength and conditioning specialist Jerome Brennan) are mindful and know when the athletes need to peak, from endurance, strength and performance perspectives.”
Sherriffs, along with assistant chef de missions Frank Humber of Corner Brook and Gary Martin of Mount Pearl, have been in Red Deer since Monday. The Week 1 provincial delegation is set to travel today.
Boxing, a sport which has provided many podium finishes, is back in the Canada Games after an eight-year absence. It was last staged in Halifax.
“They’re pretty pumped to be back in the Games,” Sherriffs said. “The boxing people want to see that sport back on the podium.”
In addition to boxing, wheelchair basketball is also back in the Games for the first time since 2007.
“For most of these athletes, this is the highest level of sport in which they’ll ever compete,” Sherriffs said of the provincial contingent. “What we’ve tried to drive home is this needs to be your focus, 100 per cent. You have to put everything you have into it.
“I think some don’t always realize the magnitude of the Canada Games. They’ve competed at provincials, some have competed at Atlantics and nationals but to compete in a multi-sport event like this, well, it is like no other.”
The Games finish up with the closing ceremonies March 2.