Here are the Guelph area athletes competing for Canada at the Beijing Winter Olympics – Guelph | The Canadian News

The Beijing Winter Olympics kick off this week and the Canadian delegation consists of more than 200 athletes from across the country.

Among them are a handful of ties with Guelph and Wellington County, including two skiers.

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Guelph’s Max Moffatt and Erin’s Rachael Karker are both on the Canadian freestyle team in their first Olympics.

Moffatt, 23, won gold in the slopestyle event at the 2019 World Cup in Italy 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 and won silver a slopestyle.

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Karker (24) won silver in the half-pipe event at the 2021 FIS World Championships and she is also a three-time medal winner at the Winter X Games, which has earned two bronze and silver medals since her debut in 2019.

While staying on the slopes, Erin’s Zoe Bergermann is taking part in her second consecutive Olympics. The 27-year-old was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the snowboard cross-country event at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.


Click to play video: '' This is it ': Canadian teenagers get ready for their Olympic debut in Beijing' '



‘This is it’: Canadian teenagers make their Olympic debut in Beijing


‘This is it’: Canadian teenagers make their Olympic debut in Beijing

Meanwhile, the University of Guelph has three graduates heading to this Winter Games, including 35-year-old Cody Sorensen, who is part of Canada’s bobsled team.

The former Gryphons hurdles runner made his Olympic debut at the 2014 Sochi Games, but suffered a mild concussion after the sled overturned on one of the curves.

After the games, Sorensen put bobsled behind him, but returned to the sport after an eight-year hiatus for the 2021-’22 season.

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Another U-grade U is Mirela Rahneva who is on Canada’s skeleton team for her second consecutive Olympics.

From the Gryphons’ rugby team to the skeletal court, the 33-year-old reached six podium finishes at the World Cup. Rahneva wants to improve on her 12th place finish in her 2018 Olympic debut in Pyeongchang.

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Dustin McCrank is also on his way to Beijing, but not as an athlete. This former hockey player now wears black and white stripes and will handle the men’s hockey tournament as a linebacker.

He started observing at the Ontario Hockey Association in 2006 and is one of three Canadian officials working on the hockey tournament in Beijing.

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