Gangwon 2024: Team Canada at the end of Day 4
GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA (January 23, 2024) – Sixteen Team Canada athletes were in action in five sports on Day 4 of the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games.
ALPINE SKIING
Elsa Feliciello (Piedmont, Que.) and Aida Draghia (Chateauguay, Que.) got their first taste of Youth Olympic Games racing at the Jeongseon High 1 Ski Resort where they competed in today’s women’s giant slalom. Feliciello put down a solid first run which had her in 19th. She improved significantly in the second run and finished 11th, ranking her 16th overall. Draghia was sitting in ninth place after her excellent first run, but lost a pole at the start of her second run and had to ski the entire run with only one pole. She finished the day in 11th place in a field of 79 athletes.
“If you told me last year that I would be participating in the Youth Olympic Games I would’ve laughed at you. Is that even real, am I dreaming? But this morning at the start it hit me all of a sudden, I am here, this is real! On my second run I wanted to go all in because I had nothing to lose. I was ready to just ‘send it’ but when I pushed, my pole got stuck in the starting gate. Anyways it was a catastrophic start but I told myself ‘if you go down at least go down fighting!’ “
– Aida Draghia
BOBSLEIGH
Isaak Ulmer (Calgary, Alta.) was the final Canadian athlete to compete at the Alpensia Sliding Centre at Gangwon 2024. The 17-year old placed 16th, and looks to use the invaluable experience gained on his Youth Olympic journey to further his bobsleigh career. Four-time Olympian Christopher Spring had been coaching Ulmer throughout his journey – giving back to the sport and passing on his bobsleigh wisdom to the next generation. Last year, Ulmer and Spring were recipients of the Petro-Canada Fuelling Athlete and Coaching Excellence (FACE) program, which provides financial support to developing athletes and coaches as they pursue their Olympic dreams.
“Chris has been the biggest impact on my sporting career so far. He’s really supportive, really fun to be around, really knowledgeable! He knows everything about every track – his skill is unexplainable, it’s amazing! And for this Youth Olympic experience – I think being able to walk around wearing the maple leaf has just been my biggest goal and I’ve reached it, and it’s not going to be the end of that – I’m going to do that again hopefully sometime. But it’s also making all these friends that I’ve been making from every single country. These are friends for a lifetime. It’s been an amazing time.”
– Isaak Ulmer
BIATHLON
After a rest day for the biathlon athletes, Day 4 saw the men’s and women’s sprint events. Conditions were cold and clear which made for a different experience for the athletes than the first two days, who for many are participating in their first international competition here at the Youth Olympic Games. In the women’s sprint, Cheyenne Tirschmann (Whitehorse, Yuk.) placed 24th in a field of 95, and was one of only three athletes to make no errors in the standing shooting segment. Justin Konoff (Calgary, Alta.) was the highest placing Canadian biathlete today, cracking the top-20. Konoff remembers watching the PyeongChang 2018 biathlon events on television as a 10-year-old, and loves being able to race on the same course here at the Youth Olympic Games.
“I think it’s huge to be able to compete here. Knowing the 2018 Olympians and having watched them, I have huge respect for all of them. Getting to try to see how I can race their courses feels really cool. And the whole event has been awesome! I’m really enjoying getting to see how we shape up against the Europeans. My teammate Luke had a great day the first day, which was a huge inspiration for the rest of our team and our teammates back home, so it’s been really great!”
– Justin Konoff
CURLING
Today, Canada’s mixed curling team, Nathan Gray (Dartmouth, N.S.), Chloe Fediuk (Edmonton, Alta.), Owain Fisher (North River, N.S.) and Allie Iskiw (Edmonton, Alta.) played their fifth and sixth round robin games.
The morning session against Team Germany saw the Canadians lead the entire game, finishing with a score of 5-2. The win bumped them up in the standings to tie for second-place in Pool B before their evening match-up against hosts South Korea.
“The morning game felt really good. We made a lot of great team shots and had really good communication. We are all feeling excited for this upcoming evening game, knowing that this game will be streamed and family and friends from back home can tune in and cheer. Because this is the evening draw there will be lots of fans. It will be loud but we are ready for this high intensity game!”
– Chloe Fediuk
The evening session proved to be a hard fought battle, coming down to the last stone in the eighth end. Team Canada led until the fifth end, when the South Koreans scored three to lead by a point. Team Korea scored two more in the sixth end, before Gray scored three to tie the game 7-7 after seven ends. With Team Korea having the hammer, they scored two more and ultimately won the game over Team Canada 9-7. Team Canada now sits tied for fourth, needing a top-3 finish to move into the playoff round. They will play their final round robin game tomorrow against second-ranked Denmark.
SKI CROSS
The ski cross event got underway at the Welli Hilli Park ski resort with William ‘Kael’ Johnston (Calgary, Alta.), Anne-Marie Joncas (Whistler, B.C.), Cole Merrett (Calgary, Alta.) and Kael Oberlander (Big White, B.C.) in action. Oberlander placed third in the small final, ranking seventh overall, while Johnston, Joncas and Merrett finished their days in the heats. All four athletes will be back in action tomorrow in the mixed team ski cross events. Merrett and Oberlander will compete as Canada 1, while Johnston and Joncas will compete as Canada 2.
For full Team Canada results from Day 4, click here.
SCHEDULE FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS – JANUARY 24 (Day 5) / JANUARY 25 (Day 6)
*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 – 0 | Silver – 1 | 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)
– 30 –
MEDIA CONTACT:
Tara MacBournie, Team Canada’s Gangwon 2024 Communications Lead
Canadian Olympic Committee
WhatsApp: 647-522-8328
E: tmacbournie@olympic.ca