Edmonton-area athletes competing at Tokyo Olympics
The Summer Games start on Friday and CTV News Edmonton has compiled a list of the Edmonton-area athletes competing in Tokyo.
Here are the local athletes Edmontonians should keep an eye on over the next two weeks.
BLAIR BANN
From: Edmonton
Sport: Indoor volleyball
Blair Bann has participated in numerous international volleyball tournaments, including the 2011 Pan Am Games and 2015 NORCECA Continental Championship. He was named Best Libero in the FIVB World League in 2017 and helped Canada achieve a bronze medal result that year.
HALLE PRATT
From: Edmonton
Sport: Artistic swimming
Halle Pratt has been a member of the Canadian national program since 2013. As a junior in 2015 she swept the Pan American Championships by winning a gold medal in the junior individual, duet, and team events. She missed much of the 2016 season due to a torn labrum. After years of physical therapy she rejoined the senior national team in 2017.
JAY BLANKENAU
From: Edmonton
Sport: Indoor volleyball
Jay Blankenau made his Olympics debut in 2016 and was instrumental to Team Canada achieving its best result in men’s volleyball since Los Angeles 1984. He has also been part of the team when it achieved three straight Top-10 finishes in the FIVB Nations League since it began in 2018.
JOSEPHINE WU
From: Edmonton
Sport: Badminton
Josephine Wu first represented Canada on the international stage at the 2008 Junior Pam American Championships. She won her first bronze medal in 2012 and made the senior national team in 2016 – two years after tearing her Achilles tendon. Wu has played badminton since she was seven years old and is a University of Alberta alumna.
KINDRED PAUL
From: Edmonton
Sport: Water polo
Kindred Paul started as a competitive swimmer and later transitioned to water polo after turning eight years old. She won silver in 2014 at the Youth World Championships and helped Canada achieve a fourth-place finish next year at the World Junior Championships. She has competed in the FINA World League Super Final in 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2021.
LUCAS VAN BERKEL
From: Edmonton
Sport: Indoor volleyball
Lucas Van Berkel made his debut with the senior national team in 2012 at the Pan Am Cup as the youngest member participating. In 2017, he helped Canada win a bronze medal at the FIVB World League – the first international podium at the event series for the Canadian men’s volleyball team. He has played pro-volleyball since 2014 in Sweden, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Turkey.
MARCO AROP
From: Edmonton
Sport: Track
He didn't start running track seriously until his last year of high school, but Marco Arop has won a number of medals, including gold at the 2017 Canadian U20 Championships and gold for Team Alberta at the Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg.
STEPHANIE LABBE
From: Stony Plain
Sport: Soccer
Stephanie Labbe has been a goalkeeper for Team Canada since 2002. She won a bronze medal in her Olympics debut in Rio five years ago, and has also participated in three World Cups. Away from the pitch, Labbe supports Special Olympics Canada.
KELSEY MITCHELL
From: Sherwood Park
Sport: Track cycling
Kelsey Mitchell graduated from the University of Alberta in 2016, and, with an Olympic dream in mind, she got into track cycling a year later. Within two years of her first ride, she won gold at the 2019 Pan American Games and broke a world record in the flying 200-metre sprint.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.