Team Sask concludes the 2017 Canada Summer Games with 35 podium performances and multiple historic finishes.
After two weeks of intense competition in 16 different sports, the 2017 Canada Summer Games have concluded, with Saskatchewan landing in seventh place in the medal standings.
Team Sask athletes earned 35 medals in total at the Games: 8 gold, 10 silver, and 17 bronze.
Six of those medals were earned by Saskatoon paraswimmer Shelby Newkirk, who won 4 gold and 2 silver medals in Winnipeg.
As a seven-time Canadian and two-time Americas record holder in various paraswimming events, Newkirk is one of Saskatchewan’s most promising Paralympic prospects. Other Team Sask alumni who have gone on to Olympic glory after competing at the Canada Games include Catriona LeMay Doan in speed skating and athletics, Brianne Theisen-Eaton in athletics, and Kaylyn Kyle in soccer.
During week two, six medals were earned in wrestling and an additional three were earned in swimming by Becky Dean, Emma Spence, and Michael McGillivary, who set a new provincial record in his 800m freestyle swim.
Other highlights throughout the course of the Games included Nick Patrick of St. Louis, SK pitching a perfect softball game against B.C.; Joe Gerlinsky of the Battlefords winning gold and the province’s first-ever gold medal in sailing; Kade Johnson of Yorkton shooting a 66 in golf on his birthday, 6 under par and the lowest score of the tournament; men’s softball notching its highest-ever performance at a Games with a silver medal; and additional podium performances in rowing, athletics, and diving.
In what was the highest-attended event of any Canada Games in its 50-year history, Team Sask capped off the first week of the Games with a gold medal baseball match against Team Manitoba. In front of a crowd of 6,800 in Winnipeg’s Shaw Park, Saskatchewan prevailed 3-1 and made history by bringing home the province’s first-ever gold medal in baseball at the Canada Games -- and one of its first-ever gold medal performances in a team sport.
Beyond its seventh-place standings in the final medal count, Team Sask landed sixth in the provincial and territorial rankings for Flag Points. Flag points are earned in each event and are used to calculate a province or territory’s aggregate improvement from the most recent Canada Summer Games. By that measure, Team Sask ended up in third place behind Manitoba and New Brunswick. At the 2013 Canada Summer Games held in Sherbrooke, Team Sask ended up in sixth place in both medal count and flag points.
The following sports were contested during the two-week duration of the Games:
athletics, baseball (male), basketball (male & female), canoe kayak, cycling (road), cycling (mountain bike), diving, golf, sailing, soccer (male & female), softball (male & female), swimming, rowing, tennis, triathlon, volleyball (male & female), beach volleyball (male & female), wrestling.
This year saw the Canada Games celebrate its 50th anniversary. The next edition of the biannual Games, which alternate between summer and winter, will be held in Red Deer, Alberta in 2019. The next Canada Summer Games will be held in the Niagara region of Ontario in 2021
