Saskatchewan chef de mission pleased with showing at Canada Winter Games

While Saskatchewan had a good showing at the Canada Winter Games, the medal count isn’t the most important aspect of the competition.

“Medals aren’t everything. A lot of these athletes have personal goals and there were athletes who had personal bests or had goals coming in to finish at a certain position and those were accomplished,” said Team Saskatchewan chef de mission Mark Bracken.

“They didn’t result in medals, but the Canada Games is a developmental pathway for athletes on their way to national team, junior national team or potentially Olympics. It’s not all about medals, but it is about that opportunity to better yourself and move through the sport development pathway onto bigger and better things.”

That’s not to say Saskatchewan wasn’t happy with the medal haul it brought in during the event. Team Saskatchewan earned 20 medals (three gold, seven silver and 10 bronze), which was good enough to finish sixth in the table. It was also an improvement over the 17 the province’s athletes earned at the 2019 Games in Red Deer.

“Our goals going in was to be right in there and close to the top five big provinces in the country and we were right in there with Manitoba and Nova Scotia,” Bracken said. “We’re happy with that.

“Our kids played hard and worked hard and represented the province just perfectly. We are proud of them and their efforts and we’re just grateful to have this opportunity to showcase our young athletes on the national stage.”

Team Saskatchewan got off to a good start to the Games, winning 17 medals over the course of the first week.

“A lot of that is really dependent on what sports are in what half of the Games. We had several of our Saskatchewan sports in Week 1 that (we have) traditionally medalled on the national stage or at Canada Games,” Bracken said. “Picking up 17 medals in Week 1 was great, which jumped us out to a good medal count and really good flag points.”

While it wasn’t for a lack of effort, the medals didn’t come as easily in the second week.

“I would say maybe (we had) a little bit more tough luck in Week 2. We had some sports that were so close to playing for medals,” Bracken said. “We had really good performances but not just quite there to capture medals. Medals are tough at the Canada Games. There are a lot of talented athletes there.

“We are there just competing and putting the best on the line and we are competitive in these sports, but grabbing that medal is not easy and our kids put it all out there to try and accomplish that.”

There was some history made for Saskatchewan at the event, with the province capturing its first-ever gold medals in the pommel horse and floor gymnastics events.

“I talked to some of those athletes after and congratulated them and talked to them about their expectations. They weren’t really expecting to achieve gold in those events. They performed on demand there and when the time came, they put it all together and earned those medals. That’s so special,” Bracken said.

“Going in, if you talked to their coaches and such, they probably knew they would be competitive, but to say they were shooting for gold in those two gymnastics events, probably maybe not. But that was great.”

Another highlight for Bracken was the gold-medal hockey game between Saskatchewan and Ontario.

“That was probably the most exciting hockey game at any level that I’ve ever watched,” Bracken said of the overtime affair. “Playing three-on-three for almost 23 minutes is almost unheard of.”

Ontario ultimately won 3-2 in the extra frame.

It all wrapped up on Sunday with the closing ceremonies for the athletes.

Bracken said team officials decided Krystle Shewchuck would be their flagbearer because of her success and dedication at the event. She has appeared in four Games — two winter and two summer — and earned medals at three of them, including a bronze in the para sit ski five-kilometre interval start.

“When we sat down to decide who we wanted to lead our contingent in, Krystle’s name rose to the top. We felt she was well deserving based on her commitment to two different sports and fourth time at a Canada Games,” Bracken said.

— With files from 650 CKOM’s Steve Seto