The Okanagan will be well represented when Canada sends its best youth athletes to South Korea later this month.
Five athletes from the region will wear the red and white maple leaf at the 2024 Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon, set for Jan. 19 to Feb. 1.
Ella Garrod from Vernon (freestyle skiing), Penticton’s Mathis Preston (hockey), Osoyoos brothers Liam and Markus Ruck (hockey), and Kael Oberlander from Kelowna’s Big White (ski cross) are among the 79 Canadians heading to the world’s largest multi-sport event for youth athletes.
“This is a great opportunity for young athletes to continue their development, while gaining valuable experience at the multi-sport games,” said Eric Myles, the Canadian Olympic Committee’s chief sport officer. “We are confident in the benefits the Youth Olympic Games can bring, including seeing those that have even gone on to compete in the Olympic Games.”
Garrod, 17, was Freestyle Canada’s 2023 junior national slopestyle and big air champion. The Vernon product began skiing at the age of four.
Preston, a product of the Okanagan Hockey Academy, was selected third overall by the Spokane Chiefs in the 2023 WHL Draft.
The forward, 15, will be joined on Canada’s team in South Korea by two of his closest friends, the Ruck brothers from Osoyoos, who have also spent the last few years at OHA.
Oberlander, meanwhile, moved to Big White when she was in Grade 2 and began skiing with the local club shortly after. The games will mark the 16-year-old’s first international competition overseas.
The Youth Olympic Games features the world’s best athletes between the age of 14 to 18.
Canada has won 26 medals over the past three editions of the Winter Youth Olympic Games, first held in 2012.
A total of 20 Canadians who competed at the event have gone on to become Olympians.
The aforementioned Okanagan athletes represent five of the 15 British Columbians heading to South Korea.
“The future is bright for Canada’s next generation of athletes, and I hope they will all soak in the experience of competing at the Youth Olympic Games while taking pride in wearing the maple leaf,” said Lisa Weagle, a two-time Olympian and Canada’s Chef de Mission for the 2024 games.
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