Gangwon 2024: Team Canada at the end of Day 11
GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA (January 30, 2024) – Day 11 of the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games saw 11 athletes, in addition to the hockey team, in action in four sports.
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
Canadian cross-country skiers had another successful day at the Alpensia Biathlon Centre. Aramintha ‘Minty’ Bradford (Whitehorse, Yuk.), racing with bib #1, finished in 16th place out of 78 skiers, while Leanne Gartner (Canmore, Alta.) finished closely behind, ranking 22nd. Cedric Martel (Thunder Bay, Ont.) and Eamon Wilson (Burnaby, B.C) finished 19th and 22nd, out of a field of 78 skiers as well.
“It was good, it was hard, the course was steeper than it felt in warm up but it was a good time. Skiing here at the Youth Olympic Games is pretty wild, I won’t lie! There were so many people, everyone was cheering in different languages – pretty crazy! It was good to see everyone out here supporting us.”
– Leanne Gartner
“I’d say I’m pretty happy with the top-25 result, I definitely worked really hard today to get a bit of redemption, but it all comes down to a big team of people helping us all out, so a huge thank you to Nordiq Canada and the wax team and everyone who’s helped us along the way.”
– Eamon Wilson
CURLING
Canada’s mixed doubles team, Cailey Locke (Conception Bay South, N.L.) and Simon Perry (Portugal Cove, N.L.), dropped a close back-and-forth game against second-ranked Czechia 6-4. The Canadians are now in a three-way tie for first in Group A with Czechia and Great Britain, and will play their final round robin match tomorrow against Great Britain. The top two teams in each of the four groups will qualify for the quarterfinals, while the remaining teams will be eliminated.
FIGURE SKATING
Ice dancers Audra Gans (Prévost, Que.) and Michael Boutsan (Thornhill, Ont.), and Caroline Kravets (Kitchener, Ont.) and Jacob Stark (Waterloo, Ont.) competed their free dances, both finishing in the top 10. Kravets and Stark, who finished ninth overall, are excited to continue developing in their skating careers, using this Youth Olympic Games journey as valuable experience for the future.
“Throughout this experience, we learned that we just have to reach for the stars. We weren’t expecting to be here at the beginning of the season, we wanted to, but we sort of felt like a long shot. We were able to make it happen, so it tells us that we can achieve anything we want as long as we work hard and train for it.”
– Jacob Stark
Gans and Boutsan, who achieved an international personal best score in the rhythm dance by ten points, scored another personal best in the free dance today by more than eleven points. Their free dance music includes the song “Storm”, composed by three-time Olympic medallist Eric Radford.
“I think it’s just really cool that we get to represent our Canadian pride through our music selection, and Eric is a fantastic skater so I think it’s really fun to be able to showcase his music like that. He’s come out to our training and he’s helped us a lot with spins, so thank you Eric!”
– Audra Gans
Fourteen-year-old Boutsan and fifteen-year-old Gans were very happy with their performance today, which earned them fourth in the free dance and fifth overall.
“I felt the elements were clean, I felt it was a good skate. I felt I was able to perform, hopefully the crowd and the judges saw that. And like Audra said, to use our music to show our Canadian pride – it’s just an amazing feeling.”
– Michael Boutsan
“It felt amazing, I felt really good on the ice and everything was going really smoothly, I feel like I really trusted my training. When you get to the end of the program and you’re just in the rotational lift and you just feel yourself spinning around really fast and you hear the crowd cheering – it was really fun, a really good feeling to have.”
– Audra Gans
Kaiya Ruiter (Calgary, Alta.), skating in the final group for a packed arena, did not have the performance she was hoping for after taking a fall on her triple flip, and getting penalized for some under-rotations. She’ll get another chance in Thursday’s figure skating team event.
“There were certainly some highlights that I’m really proud of, but not what I was hoping for overall. Skating in the final group – oh my goodness, that was such a win for me. Just getting to be a part of that group of some of the most incredible girls in this skating world was just incredible. It was an experience that I don’t think I’ll forget.”
– Kaiya Ruiter
HOCKEY
Team Canada played Team USA in the semifinals. Although the Canadians had 42 shots on goal versus the Americans’ 17, Team Canada ultimately lost 6-5 in shoot-outs, after a hard-fought back-and-forth battle that never saw the Canadians give up. Alessandro Di Iorio (Vaughan, Ont./Vaughan, GTHL-U16) scored Canada’s first goal of the game, while Zach Nyman (Toronto, Ont./Vaughan, GTHL-U16) and Mathis Preston (Penticton, B.C./Okanagan Hockey Academy, CSSHL-U18) both scored two goals each. Team Canada will face Team Finland tomorrow afternoon, playing for the bronze medal.
“You come all this way, you want to win, you want to be the best. Canada’s got a reputation for winning championships – we want to keep that reputation up. But we’ve still got a chance tomorrow to get a medal. As tough as it’s going to be tonight, tomorrow should be a different day, a whole new challenge, looking forward to it.”
– Zach Nyman
For full Team Canada results from Day 11, click here.
SCHEDULE FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS – JANUARY 31 (Day 12) / FEBRUARY 1 (Day 13)
*The “Potential / Comp. possible” column represents a potential phase of competition should a competitor advance. Rows in red are medal events.
TEAM CANADA MEDAL COUNT:
Gold – 3 | Silver – 2 | Bronze – 0
HOW TO WATCH:
As the official Gangwon 2024 broadcaster in Canada, CBC/Radio-Canada will provide coverage of the Games on cbcsports.ca, radio-canada.ca/sports and the CBC Sports app.
The Olympic Channel also has coverage of Gangwon 2024, live-streamed on their free app.
RESOURCES:
PHOTOS: Submit a request to Tara (tmacbournie@olympic.ca) for editorial photos from images.olympic.ca. Additional photos for editorial use only are available to media at oisphotos.com
VISIT: Olympic.ca/press-resources/ for athlete bios and other Gangwon 2024 information.
FOLLOW: @teamcanadapr on Twitter (X)
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Tara MacBournie, Team Canada’s Gangwon 2024 Communications Lead
Canadian Olympic Committee
WhatsApp: 647-522-8328
E: tmacbournie@olympic.ca