One young Calgary ski jumper named to Team Canada for the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games

CALGARY (December 20, 2023) – Ski Jumping Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee have announced Canada’s ski jumping team selected to compete at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games.

Tarik VanWieren (Calgary, Alta.) will be the lone ski jumper representing Team Canada at Gangwon 2024.

After qualifying Canada the quota spot at the 2023 FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships on home snow in Whistler, B.C, VanWieren was then selected to represent Team Canada at Gangwon 2024 after having been ranked the top Canadian at the Notodden FIS Cup in Norway this past weekend.

“Representing Canada at the 2024 Youth Olympic Games is a very cool opportunity,” said VanWieren. “Especially being able to jump on the same hill that Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes jumped on at PyeongChang 2018 – it’s a huge honour!”

Earlier this year, VanWieren won a bronze medal at an FIS event in Lake Placid.

The sixteen-year-old began ski jumping at age seven in Calgary, and competed for the first time when he was eight. A member of the Altius Nordic Club, the same club at which Olympic medallists Abigail Strate, Alexandria Loutitt, Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes and Matthew Soukup began their ski jumping careers, VanWieren has had to travel internationally to train since the closure of the Calgary ski jumps. Making use of the facilities in Lake Placid, Park City and Steamboat Springs, USA, as well as Poland, VanWieren has also made trips to Planica, Slovenia to train with the Canadian national team athletes.

“Tarik is a very talented up-and-coming athlete,” says Mike Bodnarchuk, Co-Chair of Ski Jumping Canada. “You can’t help but admire his grit and determination to become a competitive ski jumper given the lack of facilities here in Canada. I’m thrilled that Tarik’s hard work enabled him to qualify for the Youth Olympic Games. This will be a tremendous opportunity for him to build on.”

Team Canada sent a ski jumping team to the Innsbruck 2012 and Lausanne 2020 editions of the Winter Youth Olympic Games. At Innsbruck 2012, Dusty Korek, Taylor Henrich and Nathaniel Mah won the bronze medal in the mixed team event. Two years later, Korek and Henrich became Olympians when they competed at Sochi 2014. Henrich also competed at PyeongChang 2018. The ski jumping mixed team event made its Olympic debut at Beijing 2022, where Team Canada won a historic bronze medal – the first-ever medal for Canada in ski jumping at an Olympic Winter Games.

Men’s individual ski jumping will take place January 20 (Day 1) at the Alpensia Ski Jumping Centre, the same hill that was used at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

“Congratulations to Tarik on being nominated to Team Canada for Gangwon 2024,” said Lisa Weagle, Team Canada’s Gangwon 2024 Chef de Mission. “While he may be the only Canadian ski jumping athlete competing at these Games, he has a nation behind him cheering him on. We are so excited to watch you soar, Tarik!”

Team Canada’s ski jumping alternate athlete and coach for the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games are:

Mitchell Penning (Pottageville, Ont.) – Alternate Athlete (Non-Travelling)
Uroš ‘Balki’ Vrhovec (Kranj, Slovenia) – Coach and Team Leader

The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) are the world’s largest multi-sport event for high-performance young athletes aged 15 – 18. Gangwon 2024 will begin on January 19 and will end on February 1, 2024 and will feature 1900 athletes. Gangwon 2024 will be the fourth edition of the Winter YOG and the first in Asia. It will have a fully gender-balanced sporting program, and will feature seven sports, 15 disciplines, and a total of 81 events. 

Prior to being named to Team Canada, all nominations are subject to approval by the Canadian Olympic Committee’s Team Selection Committee following its receipt of nominations by all National Sport Organisations.

The latest Team Canada Gangwon 2024 roster can be found here, and additional press resources can be found here.

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MEDIA CONTACTS:

Chris Dornan, Media Relations
Ski Jumping Canada
C: 403-620-8731
E: hpprchris@shaw.ca

Tara MacBournie, Team Canada Gangwon 2024 Communications Lead
Canadian Olympic Committee
C: 647-522-8328
E: tmacbournie@olympic.ca