Lausanne 2020: Meet Team Canada
Team Canada will be sending 78 rising young stars to compete at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Lausanne, Switzerland January 9-22, 2020.
Lausanne 2020 marks the third edition of the Winter Youth Olympics, which brings nearly 2000 athletes, aged 15-18, from over 80 nations together to compete on the international sporting stage. The first-ever Youth Winter Games took place in Innsbruck, Austria in 2012 after the success of the inaugural Summer Games at Singapore 2010.
Athletes will have the opportunity to take part in 16 disciplines across eight sports, including four that will be making their Olympic debut: mixed-nationality 3×3 ice hockey, a women’s doubles competition in luge, a women’s Nordic combined ski event and ski mountaineering.
Lausanne 2020 will also be a completely gender equal event with the same number of male and female athletes competing.
READ: FAQ about Lausanne 2020 Youth Winter Olympic Games
Get to know some of the athletes representing Team Canada:
Lauren Rajala will be Canada’s flag bearer for the Opening Ceremony.
The 16-year-old is coming off an incredible curling season, where she captured gold at both the Canada Winter Games for Team Ontario and Canadian Under-18 Championship for Team Northern Ontario.
Earlier in the year, as part of Team Croisier, she was inducted into the Greater Sudbury Sports Hall of Fame in the Chris Sheridan Family Team of the Year category.
Caitlin Nash and Natalie Corless, of Whistler, B.C., Canada are seen during the first run of doubles luge during the Viessmann Luge World Cup in Whistler, B.C., Saturday, Dec. 14, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
Last month, Caitlin Nash and Natalie Corless became the first all woman double luge team in World Cup history.
Team Canada’s Ema Chlepkova and Findlay Eyre will also make their mark, as they compete in ski mountaineering for the first time in Youth Olympic Games history.
Ski mountaineering is considered the most radical new sport at Lausanne 2020, where athletes race over snow-covered terrain using both uphill/downhill skiing skills and mountaineering techniques.
Sasha Masson, the son of Canadian Olympic cross-country skiers, Alain Masson and Lucy Steele-Masson, will be following in his parents footsteps to get his first taste of Olympic competition at the YOG in cross-country.
He’s coming off a strong finish at the 2019 Canadian Ski Championships, where he won a bronze medal in the team sprint, and had three top-10 finishes in distance races.
LEARN MORE ABOUT LAUSANNE 2020
16-year-old Matthew Savoie, who has drawn comparisons to the likes Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon, will be lacing up for the men’s ice hockey team. He’ll be playing alongside Mats Lindgren, whose father played 387 NHL games for the Edmonton Oilers, New York Islanders and Vancouver Canucks.
Matthew Savoie of the Northern Alberta Xtreme skates on Sunday January 21, 2018 at the John Reid Memorial Hockey Tournament in St. Albert, Alta. He’s only 14 but already Matthew Savoie is drawing comparisons to the likes of Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon. Trouble is, Savoie isn’t eligible for the WHL bantam draft until May 2019 and even then would be allowed to play just five games during the 2019-20 campaign. That has Savoie’s family considering whether to apply for exceptional status. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Kueber
Team Canada will also be competing in bobsleigh, skeleton, biathlon, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ski cross, ski jumping, alpine skiing, snowboarding and speed skating.
Aside from the competition, the Youth Olympic Games have an educational, cultural and festive mission. They encourage their athletes to become ambassadors of positive sports values such as respect, excellence and friendship, learn new talents and achieve self-accomplishment by becoming the leaders of tomorrow.
Watch Team Canada compete on CBC
As the official Lausanne 2020 broadcaster in Canada, CBC/Radio-Canada will provide daily coverage of the Games via the free CBC Gem streaming service as well as cbcsports.ca, radio-canada.ca/sports and the CBC Sports and Radio-Canada Sports apps. News stories, including previews, daily recaps and highlight packages, will also be available on CBC Kids News and MAJ.
Credit: Thomas Skrlj / Team Canada
Team Canada will be led by Chef de Mission and Beijing 2008 Olympian, Annamay Oldershaw. At the 2009 FINA World Championships, she set a 200m breaststroke world record that would stand for three years. Her time of 2:20.12 took a tenth of a second off the previous global mark. She went on to win the world championship silver medal.
Here is the full list of athletes competing for Canada at Lausanne 2020:
Alpine Skiing
Sarah Brown (Mont Tremblant, QC)
Louis Latulippe (Quebec, QC)
Alice Marchessault (Ste-Anne-des-Lacs, QC)
Mack Wood (Toronto, ON)
Biathlon
Ethan Algra (Abbotsford, BC)
Finn Berg (Calgary, AB)
Pascale Paradis (Calgary, AB)
Lucas Sadesky (Vernon, BC)
Jenna Sherrington (Calgary, AB)
Naomi Walch (Calgary, AB)
Bobsleigh
Colton Dagenais (Foster, QC)
Emma Johnsen (Calgary, AB)
Cross-Country Skiing
Jasmine Drolet (Rossland, BC)
Derek Deuling (Whitehorse, YK)
Liliane Gagnon (Shawinigan-Sud, QC)
Sasha Masson (Whitehorse, YK)
Curling
Emily Deschenes (Greely, ON)
Jaedon Neuert (Winnipeg, MB)
Lauren Rajala (Garson, ON)
Nathan Young (Torbay, NL)
Figure Skating
Catherine Carle (Georgetown, ON)
Natalie D’Alessandro (Toronto, ON)
Tyler Gunara (Burnaby, BC)
Miku Makita (Anore, BC)
Brooke McIntosh (Toronto, ON)
Aleksa Rakic (New Westminster, BC)
Brandon Toste (Mississauga, ON)
Bruce Waddell (Toronto, ON)
Freestyle Skiing
Skye Clarke (West Vancouver, BC)
Rylee Hackler (Calgary, AB)
Steven Kahnert (Vancouver, BC)
Andrew Longino (Calgary, AB)
Emma Morozumi (Calgary, AB)
Brayden Willmott (Collingwood, ON)
Ice Hockey
Justin Côté (Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, QC)
Nate Danielson (Red Deer, AB)
Kocha Delic (Mississauga, ON)
Dylan Ernst (Weyburn, SK)
Adamo Fantilli (Nobleton, ON)
Vincent Filion (Shawinigan, QC)
Pano Fimis (Richmond Hill, ON)
Cédrick Guindon (Rockland, ON)
Matt Jovanovic (Toronto, ON)
Mats Lindgren (North Vancouver, BC)
Paul Ludwinski (Pickering, ON)
Tristan Luneau (Victoriaville, QC)
Denton Mateychuk (Dominion City, MB)
Ty Nelson (Toronto, ON)
Matt Savoie (St. Albert, AB)
Antonin Verreault (Mirabel, ON)
Noah Warren (St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, QC)
Luge
Kailey Allan (Calgary, AB)
Natalie Corless (Vancouver, BC)
Caitlin Nash (Whistler, BC)
Ski Cross
Charlie Lang (Calgary, AB)
Marie-Pier Brunet (Montréal, QC)
Jack Morrow (Whistler, BC)
Sage Stefani (Rossland, QC)
Ski Jumping
Noah Rolseth (Calgary, AB)
Stéphane Tremblay (Calgary, AB)
Ski Mountaineering
Ema Chlepkova (Calgary, AB)
Findlay Eyre (Calgary, AB)
Skeleton
Hallie Clarke (Calgary, AB)
Ryan Kuehn (Calgary, AB)
Snowboarding
Tristan Bell (Aylmer, QC)
Liam Brearley (Gravenhurst, ON)
William Buffey (Toronto, ON)
Andie Gendron (Calgary, AB)
Liam Gill (Calgary, AB)
Kianah Hyatt (Calgary, AB)
Kamilla Kozuback (Calgary, AB)
Bridget MacLean (Halifax, NS)
Juliette Pelchat (Whistler, BC)
Seth Strobel (Calgary, AB)
Maxeen Thibeault (Montréal, QC)
Jacob Walper (Calgary, AB)
Speed Skating – Short Track
Florence Brunelle (Trois-Rivières, QC)
Félix Pigeon (Saint-Pie, QC)
