The Winter Olympics in Beijing are kicking off this week and the Canadian delegation is made up of more than 200 athletes from all around the country.
Among them are a handful with ties to Guelph and Wellington County, including two skiers.
Guelph’s Max Moffatt and Erin’s Rachael Karker are both on the Canadian freestyle skiing team in their first Olympic Games.
Moffatt, 23, won gold in the slopestyle event at the World Cup in Italy in 2019 and then a silver medal in the same event in November 2021. Earlier this year, he won his first career medal at the X Games in Aspen, taking silver in slopestyle.
Karker, 24, won silver in the halfpipe event at the 2021 FIS World Championships and she is also a three-time medallist at the Winter X Games, earning two bronze and silver since her debut in 2019.
Staying on the slopes, Erin’s Zoe Bergermann is competing in her second straight Olympic Games. The 27-year-old was eliminated in the quarterfinal heats of the snowboard cross event at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
Meanwhile, the University of Guelph has three graduates heading to these Winter Games, including 35-year-old Cody Sorensen, who is part of Canada’s bobsled team.
The former Gryphons hurdler made his Olympic debut at the 2014 Sochi Games but suffered a mild concussion after the sled flipped on one of the curves.
Following the games, Sorensen put bobsledding behind him but returned to the sport after an eight-year hiatus for the 2021-22 season.
Another U of G grad is Mirela Rahneva who is on Canada’s skeleton team for her second straight Olympic Games.
From the Gryphons’ rugby team to the skeleton track, the 33-year-old has achieved six podium finishes at the World Cup. Rahneva is looking to improve on her 12th place finish in her Olympic debut in Pyeongchang in 2018.
Dustin McCrank is also headed to Beijing, but not as an athlete. The former hockey player is now wearing black and white stripes and will officiate the men’s hockey tournament as a linesman.
He began officiating in 2006 with the Ontario Hockey Association and is one of three Canadian officials working the hockey tournament in Beijing.
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