Rising Burnaby winter athletes, both indoors and outdoors, are heading north later this month for the 2024 BC Winter Games.
A total of 46 teens will be representing the city at the biannual event, taking place in Lhtako Quesnel from Feb. 22 to 25.
All of the qualifiers will look to medal with the Fraser River region in their respective sport.
Burnaby was originally sending 51 athletes to the north central region. However, "unfavourable snow conditions in the host community" forced three provincial sport organizations to withdraw from the games.
This includes alpine skiing and snowboarding, of which the following local athletes had qualified:
Alpine Skiing
- Max Campbell
- Danica Cikes
- Matea Hadzimusic
- Bryan Liu
- Scott Nann
Snowboarding
- Finley Dobson
In a news release on Friday, Feb. 9, the BC Games Society said "a lack of snowpack" at Troll Ski Resort "and the absence of heavy snowfall in the forecast" led to the decision, which was also made after "extensive consultation" with coaches.
The organization added the snow events won't be able to take place on another Quesnel-area mountain.
"It takes over 18 months for host societies to plan the BC Winter Games, and agreements with local ski resorts are signed early in the process to reserve space, ensure that technical requirements are met, and secure the appropriate volunteer workforce to support events."
The Games Society said affected athletes will still be eligible for certificates and credits, as well as submission entry for the BC Games Leadership Bursary.
Meanwhile, gymnasium mats will be the playing surface that Burnaby will have the most representation this year with 20 athletes competing in karate and judo.
At the last Winter Games in 2022, Burnaby athletes racked up 52 medals in the Greater Vernon area, including 21 gold, 20 silver and 11 bronze.
That was more than 50 per cent of the 101 medals the Fraser River Zone 4 cohort had collected.
For more information on the 2024 BC Winter Games, you can visit the event's website.
The local athletes for 2024 are as follows (in alphabetical order by sport):
Archery
- Conrad Horychun
Artistic Gymnastics
- Ainsley Campbell
- Mila Dos Santos
- Raphael Yuen
Badminton
- Iris Xiang
- YiFan Yang
Cross Country Skiing
- Oliver Senichenko
- Lauren Wilson
Curling (male)
- Joshua Anderson
- Zach Deines
- Elliot Hogeterp
- John Li
Figure Skating
- Kevin Liu
Judo
- Jordan Bedard
- Jonah Ghanason
- Anika Kong
- Maxine Aozora Maruyama Prasad
- Nathan Matt
- Harper Park
- Kingston Park
- Max Thom
- Grace Xu
Karate
- Logan Cheng
- George Chouinard
- Evelyn Chua
- Calista Chua
- Kamea Kan
- Caden Mah
- Matilda O'Donoghue
- Andrew Rugge
- Naomi Sasaki
- Luka Vidovic
- Indra Wilson
Rhythmic Gymnastics
- Audrey Liu
Ringette
- Jolena Chan
- Rylan Cheng
- Adaya Cho
- Gillian Choi
- Joshua Hung
- Cassidy Lim
- Benjamin York
Speed Skating
- Sidney Campbell
- Adam Gyori
- Arya Jahns
- Eliana Leon
