As Lethbridge athletes return from the 2024 Alberta Winter Games, there is a sense of accomplishment.
Lethbridge was part of a team called “Sunny South,” also known as Zone 1 out of the eight zones Alberta was broken into, to compete in the games.
Out of the 17 total events, Lethbridge was represented in 13. Of the events participated in, Lethbridge shined in three, having had multiple members of the gold medal-winning women’s volleyball, judo as well as speed skating.
One of the shining stars for speed skating was Zosia Adelman. Of all the events to have a standout competition, she picked her moment brilliantly. The 13-year-old won gold in the 400-metre at a time of 42.117 seconds, beating out Edmonton’s Marika Anderson by 503 tenths of a second.
If you think that’s close, Zosia lost out on a second gold medal of the games in the 1,500 metres by .231 of a second to Edmonton’s Ida Padbury. Closer still was the gap to first for her in the 1000-metre Superfinal A Final, placing second by .157 of a second.
Adelman medaled in four out of five events, with three silvers and one gold, making her one of Lethbridge’s most decorated athletes of the games. Adelman wont rest, either, as she’s gearing up for her next competition.
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“My next competition is ‘Are you fast’ in Calgary, which is a qualifier for Canadian Youth Short Track,” she explained. “I’m hoping to get really good times there so I can place well.”
The women’s volleyball team did not have the start to the tournament they were hoping for, starting with a 2-1 loss to Edmonton, a 2-0 loss to Peace Country and a 2-1 loss to Calgary — and that’s just the first day of round robin. Day two was more to their liking, defeating Parkland in the quarter finals and getting some payback on Peace Country 2-1 in the semi finals later that afternoon.
Facing Calgary in the finals, after splitting the first two games, the Sunny South took the third and final game of three to win the gold. Volleyball is a team game, and all 14 members ought be proud with nine hailing from Lethbridge: Avrey Atkins, Jamie Brown, Anna Hodgkinson, Teya McTavish, Ali Norris, Libby Ortmann, Shayla Thomas, Maleeya Trydal and Marisol Valgardson.
Judo was another shining star for Lethbridge, with five gold medals, one silver and three bronze medals. Munkhu Batbayar, Connor Gallant, Drake Gregory, Brooklyn Seeman and Grayson Tamura each claimed gold for their respective categories. Zone 1 dominated on the mats with medalists in 10 of the 14 events they took part in, and four of them had multiple medalists on the podium from Zone 1.
Finally, but certainly not least, there was one other gold medalist deserving of mention for their efforts in representing Lethbridge, Sydney Shields. Sydney placed first in the female 80 kg category as well as third in the All Around Team category in wrestling. Zone 1 gathered four gold, one silver and six bronze medals in various weight categories as well as All Around Teams.
In all, Zone 1 amounted to 14 gold medals, 17 silver medals and 13 bronze medals. An incredible seven gold medals, eight silvers and eight bronze were won by Lethbridge athletes, for 23 out of a total of 44. While Zone 1 amounted to fifth in the total medal standings, the young athletes of Lethbridge should hold their heads high as they contributed over half of the medal count to their zone, which was made up of over 105 communities, from all over the south of the province.
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