If you're looking for a program to identify the participants from the host province in the 2015 Canada Winter Games, the Team B.C. website (teambc.org) has it.
On Thursday the province's sport authority released its online media guide and list of the athletes, coaches, managers and mission staff for each hometown represented in the Games.
Prince George has 23 Team B.C. members, the fourth most of any city in the province. Vancouver, with 43, heads the list, while Victoria and Kelowna are tied for second, each with 30 Games participants. Among north central interior cities, Quesnel will have five Games participants, Fort St. James has three, Vanderhoof and Burns Lake each have two and Mackenzie has one.
The media guide includes brief biographies of the participants, highlighting their Games goals, past awards/achievements, role models and other personal information.
The following members of Team B.C. spotlighted in the guide are from Prince George except where noted:
Alpine skiing - Landon McGauley (Quesnel), para-alpine coach Alice Muirhead; Archery - Tony Procter, Mya Schouwenburg, Emerie Watson (Quesnel); Biathlon - Emily Dickson (Burns Lake), Bobby Kreitz, Claire Lapointe, Arthur Roots, coach Erica Erasmus (Vanderhoof); Figure skating - Justin Hampole, Mckenna Coldthorp (Fort St. James native who now lives in Kelowna); Hockey - Justin Almeida (Kitimat), Dorrin Sekikawa-Luding, Ethan O'Rourke (Penticton, picked by the Prince George Cougars in the third round of the 2014 WHL bantam draft), Carla Goodwin (Fort St. James), Michael Matthies (technical support staff for male team, now lives in Victoria); Judo - Lavanna Laass, Grace Northrop, Kristen Yawney, coach Bruce Kamstra; Ringette - Sydney Irving, Jessica MacDonald (Quesnel), Colleen Moorhouse (Quesnel), Hannah Young (Quesnel); Snowboarding - Meryeta O'Dine, Evan Bichon (Mackenzie native, now lives in Prince George), Elise Dube (Burns Lake); Speed skating - Carolina Hiller (long track), Nico Hiller (long track) Callie Swan (short track), Alison Desmarais (Vanderhoof, short track), coach Keith Gordon (Fort St. James), apprentice short track coach Lorelei St. Rose; Squash - Rebecca Vassilakakis (team manager, now lives in Penticton); Wheelchair basketball - Avril Harris, Joel Ewert; Mission staff - Peter Saar (performance manager), Andrew Todd.
Harris, who competed in the 2007 and 2011 Canada Winter Games, has been selected to read the Athletes' Oath at the opening ceremony at CN Centre on Friday, Feb. 13. Micah Hart of Saanichton, captain of the female hockey team, will be the flag bearer for Team B.C., while gymnast Aaron Mah of Vancouver was selected as the lantern bearer. Kelsey Serwa of Kelowna, a 2014 Olympic silver medalist ski crosser, is the honourary captain for Team B.C.
In total, Team B.C. consists of 249 athletes, 49 coaches, 29 managers and 23 mission staff. The 17-day Games, Feb. 13 to March 1, will involve 2,400 athletes competing in 19 sports, as well as about 1,000 coaches, team managers and officials.
The age of the athletes ranges from 12 to 23 in the able-bodied sports (alpine skiing, archery, badminton, biathlon, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, gymnastics, hockey, judo, ringette, snowboarding, speed skating, squash, synchronized swimming, table tennis and target shooting). The age range for athletes with physical disabilities in para sports (alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and wheelchair basketball) is 12 to 35.
Figure skating will also involve Special Olympics athletes.
In the most recent Canada Winter Games in 2011, held in Halifax and several other Nova Scotia sites, B.C. finished third in the overall points standings behind Quebec and Ontario. B.C. finished with its highest-ever medal total that year with 88, including 28 gold, 30 silver and 30 bronze.
For more information on the Games, go to the official Canada Games website, canadagames2015.ca.
