April May June July August September October November December January
APRIL
PHILIP LOCK
Cross-Country Skiing
Barrie, Ontario
Phil has been very active in making sure he reports his training, activities, and nutrition. He also went for his first COVID-19 vaccine shot this month. Well done Phil! Keep up the great work and congratulations on being the first Athlete of The Month to be nominated!
FIONA HALL
Alpine Skiing
Port Moody, British Columbia
Fiona has been training extremely hard in the off-season and is great at getting her daily reports in and checking in with her training coach! Keep up the great work Fiona! We are so excited to watch you climb up that challenge leaderboard!
ALEC BALDWIN
Snowshoeing
Gimli, Manitoba
Alec has a great attitude - both towards his team and his training - and he maintains a balanced life outside sport. He accepted changes to his events with grace and adjusted his training to match. Alec creates videos and photo compilations and is a talented musician and singer. He likes to dream big, and is excited to head to Russia as part of Team Canada.
KATIE XU
Figure Skating
Kanata, Ontario
Katie has been diligent in filling out her reports on the dashboard and she is in the top ten in the Team Challenge List. Katie has a great positive attitude and works hard in all our weekly zoom Figure Skating team workout videos, she sometimes adds challenging elements to her workouts when necessary by adding bands or weights to up her fitness level. Katie bought a spinner to help in her off-ice skating training to work on spins and jumps. She is also keeping busy with doing cross training with walking, biking and dancing.
ZACK THIBEAULT
Speed Skating
Surrey, British Columbia
Zack has been very dedicated to his training; working out 6 times a week! Training partner twin brother Jesse is pushing him to his max.
MAY
KENNEDY ZAYTSOFF
Figure Skating
Strathmore, Alberta
Kennedy has been doing the SO Alberta PEAK Program, working out with the track team Spring Session as well as doing off-ice sessions 5-6 days a week. She has been diligent in entering her daily reports and is participating in all team activities with enthusiasm and positivity.
ROXANA GOLBECK
Alpine Skiing
Cranbrook, British Columbia
Roxana has been active every day this month. She has set a goal and has been working diligently towards it. Roxana is loving the Training Central resource and uses the tools all the time. She is also participating in the Special Olympics BC virtual Challenge Games and sends in her reports daily. Roxana is a great inspiration to her team members as well as very genuine in her praise for her fellow athletes.
JUNE
JENNY MURRAY
Snowshoeing
Edmonton, Alberta
Jenny embraced her role on the Training Squad immediately through her strong commitment to training as she prepares to compete in the 400m, 800m and 4 X 100 relay events at World Games. She has been tracking how she is feeling, her nutrition and her exercise on Training Central daily, and exercises 5 days a week. She has come up with weekly goals, submits weekly reports and personal accomplishments on Training Central – and works hard to achieve them. She has participated in all of the Team NTP Challenges with enthusiasm and determination to make the leaderboard, including contributing to push-ups - 41 in a day!
Jenny has worked hard to build her core strength, and as result is able to use the medicine ball with her abdominal work and has shown significant improvement in her push-ups. To help build her endurance, she is challenging herself to perform 10,000 steps/day and has started stair work. She recently achieved a new personal best of 28:28:00 mins for her 5K – way to go, Jenny!
Jenny has been very active in our small team ZOOM sessions by asking thoughtful questions and sharing her thoughts with courage. Her comments lead to valuable discussions that will help her and her teammates build their mental agility for Games. In one of our ZOOMs, Jenny wore her ‘Runderful’ T-shirt, a word that was inspiring for everyone. To foster teamwork, Jenny initiated reaching out to teammates and is building supportive relationships as she becomes more comfortable with others on her team, helping them do the same.
LISA BUTLER
Cross-Country Skiing
Peterborough, Ontario
Lisa has been training really hard and is top of the leader board. Her smile is in every picture she post!
JORDAN KOUGHAN
Speed Skating
Johnstons River, Prince Edward Island
Jordan is doing a great job with his training. He reports consistently on Training Central and is in the top 10 of the leaderboard. Jordan is working hard with his strength and conditioning coach especially on the ladder drills. Now that the weather is better, he is rollerblading with his training coach, Larry. Jordan loves his veggies and is looking forward to trying new foods in Kazan.
July
Jordan Stevenson
Speed Skating
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
This is Jordan’s first trip to Worlds but he is no stranger to speed skating. He skated for 11 years in the generic stream joining Special Olympics 3 years ago He not only completes in speed skating but also competes in Mountain bike, Road bike, and his favourite, Cycle-Cross racing. While training 6 days a week and working he still finds time to relax with family and friends playing board games.
Michael Budden
Cross-Country Skiing
Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador
Michael has been diligently posting his monthly training into Training Central. He has been roller skiing, training hard at home, and has been eating a healthy diet. Well done Michael! It is awesome to see your focus, communication, and enthusiasm!! Keep it up!!
William Hart
Alpine Skiing
Thompson, Manitoba
William has shown great initiative throughout this challenging time of COVID. He calls his coach regularly to set up their training time for cycling and strength and conditioning. William has also sent out challenges to the Manitoba SO Team Canada athletes in fitness activities. He enjoys walking his dog accompanied by his mom and sister. This keeps up his daily step count. He is determined to do his best and be successful in the World Games.
Tony Wilkinson
Snowshoeing
Kelowna, British Columbia
Tony Wilkinson is the Snowshoe athlete of the month for July because of two things. Firstly, he did all the required parts of his training by entering his daily reports every single day for the month of June, completing his training workouts, watching what he was eating and keeping up his hydration. However, the second and most impressive action he took during June was to go all out for the push-up challenge. He showed his leadership, team spirit and competitiveness for this challenge - trying to put the Snowshoe team at the top by completing 10,734 push-ups !!!! Tony went Beast Mode for this challenge, and on his top day he completed 725 push-ups!!! Yes, in a single day he did 725 push-ups. Tony has really shone during June. Well done Tony.
August
Colby Oickle
Snowshoeing
Liverpool, Nova Scotia
Colby Oickle is this month’s snowshoe athlete of the month, as he parallels his positive attitude to his comprehensive commitment to his training. He meets with his coach 4 times weekly for boot camps, sprint workouts and snowshoeing on the beach to name a few. He takes great pride in reporting his push ups, sit ups, squats and mileage, unlocking his many earned badges. He sets his goals weekly reporting daily on his workouts, hydration and nutrition. He enjoys the camaraderie of working with his teammates, helping them where he can and displaying sportsmanship regularly. He has competed in athletics, floor hockey, bowling and, of course, snowshoeing. He has a fulltime job at Penny Lane Enterprises where he does maintenence and land scaping. He has done lots of fundraising events for work and for Special Olympics Lunenburg Queens, his region and for Nova Scotia. In his down time, he loves online gaming and engaging with his friends. He loves his parents', his brother Kellan, his grandmothers and two dogs Gunner and Max. He respects his coach Betty Ann and appreciates her invested time beyond measure
Matthew Fields
Alpine Skiing
Toronto, Ontario
A huge congratulations to Matt!! He applied to the Athlete Leadership program and was successful! Matt is our Athlete Leader – Alpine! Well done Matt!!
Every day since Matt started training in April, he has recorded his progress in Training Central. His notes show that he is getting stronger, eating healthily and staying hydrated. Awesome Matt! His preparation for the Games demonstrates amazing dedication to being ready for the Games both physically & mentally. He is aiming to be his best and try his best.
September
Julien Carignan
Cross Country Skiing
Boucherviller, Quebec
Julien has a beautiful smile that light up a room, even a zoom room!
He is an athlete who trains diligently, reports on training central and inspires others.
His training and enthusiasm has earned him a valuable place on the team and the journey ahead, even though extended.
I look forward to getting to know Julien in person when the team can all get together. His positive attitude is infectious and he is an asset to the cross country ski team.
October
Sebastian Gylander
Cross Country Skiing
Golden, British Columbia
Sebastian has worked hard to be athlete of the month.
He has been training diligently with his coach Jeff in Golden, climbing to the top of mountains, learning new skills on his roller skis and competing in swimming competitions close to home.
He has many sport interests which include golf, swimming, Nordic skiing, mountain biking, hiking, kayaking, badminton, running and of coarse cross country skiing.
It is hard to keep this young man still for very long!
Keep up the great work Sebastian a valued member on our awesome team.
Tracey Melesko
Cross Country Skiing
Kelowna, British Columbia
Tracey is a veteran world games athlete and she takes pride in sharing her experience with the other athletes. She takes her training very seriously and is an athlete for others to look up to.
November
Paige Norton
Speed Skating
Paige Norton is from Abbotsford BC and is a multi-sport athlete taking part in 8 Special Olympic Programs. As one of the veterans on the speed skating team having attended 2 previous World games, she knows what is expected to compete on the world stage.
Dedicated to training at least 5 days a week you can find her at the rink skating laps, in the gym lifting ( an impressive 145 lb dead lift for a girl who weighs just over 100 lbs), out on the trails for a run or at her weekly Zumba class rocking to music. Like she says, "I like to change things up abit"! She is passionate about racing and says that is the best part of the sport!
Paige is the Athlete Representative for Speed Skating and looks forward to working with all the other Athlete reps on Team Canada and connecting with athletes across the country. In her down time, she's out hiking the BC trails with her family, listening to music, or just sitting at home watching anything Disney.
Darby McIntyre
Cross Country Skiing
Whitehorse, Yukon
Whitehorse’s Darby McIntyre is one of a select few Yukoners to ever compete in both summer and winter Special Olympics World Games. He is best known in the Yukon for his love and speed as a runner. He began competing on snow shoes in international circumpolar competitions where he earned many medals for the Yukon in the Arctic Winter Games. He later transitioned to a middle distance track athlete. Darby currently trains as much as six times a week with his Athletics Yukon running coach Don White on the local track and on Whitehorse’s endless network of trails and with his personal trainer Ian Wier at the Northern Strength Academy. In the winter, he can be found cross country skiing on the Mt McIntyre ski trails, which incidentally were not named after him although many people still ask.
Well done Darby for being Athlete of the month!
December
David Kaplan
Speed Skating
Montreal, Quebec
This is David’s first world games and he is really looking forward to racing. David is quite involved in training 6 days a week, and he enjoys going for a run. Recently David qualified to attend the Short track Canada Cup in Calgary at the Olympic Oval on November 5th. He skated extremely well, placing 1st in his 1500m Final, 3rd in both his 500m and 1000 m finals.
Keep up the great work David, and congrats on being athlete of the month
January
