BC will be well represented at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics as the Games kickoff inside Beijing’s National Stadium with the Opening Ceremony on Friday, February 4.
Canada’s delegation of 215 athletes, the third largest at a Winter Olympics, will include 30 who hail from BC or train primarily within the province. Of those 30, 20 were introduced to a multi-sport games experience through the BC Winter and BC Summer Games or at the Canada Games as members of Team BC.
The impact on BC athletes’ development through these experiences is evident in the number of athletes from the province who have represented Canada, and contributed to the team’s medal count, in Olympic Games of recent years. Making up close to 10% of Canada’s athlete contingent in Beijing, these Games follow a Summer Olympiad in Tokyo and Winter Olympiad in PyeongChang where 45 (12%) and 19 (8%) BC Games and/or Team BC alumni cracked Team Canada’s roster, respectively.
Joining the Society’s 20 alumni vying for the podium in Beijing are other members of Canada’s delegation with ties to the provincial and national games. Namely, three athletes named as alternates and five coaches.
Three additional athletes with ties to the BC Games and Team BC will compete on either China's men's or women's ice hockey teams.
The province will also be represented amongst the pool of competition officials, as Prince George’s Stuart Gibbs, an alumnus of the 2006 and 2008 BC Winter Games in Greater Trail and Kimberley-Cranbrook, will serve as a video assistant referee during women’s short track speed skating action. Other notable stories include the following:
- Micah Zandee-Hart (Saanichton) will be on the blue-line as Canada’s women’s hockey team seeks to reclaim gold. Zandee-Hart is the first athlete from BC ever selected to Canada’s Olympic women’s hockey team. She took part in the Greater Vernon 2012 BC Winter Games and served as Team BC’s Closing Ceremony flag bearer at the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
- Sarah Beaudry (Prince George) and Emily Dickson (Burns Lake) collected 3 and 4 medals, respectively, in biathlon at the 2011 and 2015 Canada Winter Games, adding to a collection that already included 3 medals from the BC Winter Games. They will compete in biathlon again in Beijing.
- Justin Kripps (Summerland) will make his fourth Olympic appearance in Beijing. He is the reigning Olympic champion in two-man bobsleigh and will look for similar success as he pilots one of Canada’s four-man sleighs. Before discovering the bobsleigh track, Kripps competed in athletics at the Nanaimo 2002 BC Summer Games and for Team BC at the 2005 Canada Summer Games.
- Rémi Drolet (Rossland) is one of four men competing in cross-country skiing. The 21-year-old took home 2 gold medals at the Mission 2014 BC Winter Games before one-upping himself with 3 golds at the 2019 Canada Winter Games. Drolet’s younger sister, Jasmine, also an alum of the 2019 Canada Winter Games as well as 2016 BC Winter Games, will be an alternate on the women’s cross-country skiing team.
- Teal Harle (Whistler) is part of Canada’s freestyle skiing team, competing in the slopestyle and big air competitions. Harle competed at the Terrace 2010 and Greater Vernon 2012 BC Winter Games in moguls, before capturing gold for Team BC in both slopestyle and big air at the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
- Meryeta O’Dine (Prince George) competed in canoe kayak at the Surrey 2012 BC Summer Games before transitioning to snowboarding in time to capture gold in front of her hometown at the 2015 Canada Winter Games. O’Dine will represent Canada in snowboard cross at the Beijing Games.
- Sead Causevic (Vancouver) used his experience as an alpine skiing coach at the 2002 and 2004 BC Winter Games as a stepping stone on his way to his current role as part of Canada’s ski-cross coaching staff in Beijing.
- Elaine Dagg-Jackson (Vancouver), Nick Cooper (Kimberley), Conrad Pridy (Whistler), and Jamie McCartney (Smithers) are all part of Canada’s coaching staff in Beijing. Dagg-Jackson served as team manager for Team BC’s curling squad at the 1995, 1999, and 2003 Canada Winter Games, while Cooper, Pridy, and McCartney competed as athletes in alpine skiing and athletics (track & field) at previous Games.
- Kimberly Newell (Zhou Jiaying, Vancouver), Hannah Miller ( Le Mi, North Vancouver), and Zach Yuen (Vancouver) will represent China in ice hockey. The three Canadian born athletes are considered eligible through their residence status, having played on the KHL's Chinese-based Kunlun Red Stars and KRS Vanke Rays for several years.
Quick Facts:
- 20, or 9.8%, of Team Canada’s 215 athletes are BC Games and/or Team BC alumni;
- Those 20 athletes are joined in Beijing by 3 athletes competing for Team China, as well as 3 Canadian alternates, 5 coaches, and 1 official with ties to the BC Games and/or Team BC, for a total of 32 alumni;
- Of those 32, 27 are BC Games alumni, having previously competed, coached, or officiated at the BC Winter or BC Summer Games;
- 18 have been part of Team BC at the Canada Games; and
- 13 are alumni of both the BC Games and Team BC.
See the FULL LIST of BC Games alumni here and Team BC alumni here.
See Team Canada’s full Beijing 2022 roster here.