Some Calgary athletes are getting ready for a big event that’s a first for the city, and they’re out to include all kinds of players as they wheel into action.
Members of the Calgary Bike Polo Club are hosting the Canadian Nationals Bike Polo Tournament this weekend.
“It’s a fringe sport, but we all love it so much,” player Alex Dakers said.
Bike polo is played on bicycles instead of the more traditional horseback version.
“We’ve got teams coming from Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver,” player Tenzin Blair said.
The tournament will also include some special international guests.
“The folks coming from Paris are playing with a Calgary team, people coming from Saskatoon are playing with a person from Seattle,” Blair said.
The winners get a shot at going to next year’s world championship in France.
“That’s kind of the dream,” Blair said.
And no matter how far it takes them, players always keep one thing in mind.
“The number one rule in bike polo is just to be a nice person,” Blair said.
One player attributes the feeling of becoming better at putting the ball into the net as a part of the attraction of the sport.
“I like that it can be competitive, but it can also be super fun. There are lots of chill tournaments that you can go to,” player Jess Arndt said. “The first tournament that I ever travelled to was a WTF tournament, which is women, trans and fem — a tournament for females or non-binary people. Super inclusive.”
The Calgary tournament runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27 and Sunday, Aug. 28 at the outdoor rink beside the Inglewood Community Association Hall in southeast Calgary