This weekend’s 10-year anniversary celebration of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and Paralympics at the Richmond Olympic Oval will include a three-game series between Canada and the US para women’s hockey teams.
The series will open on Friday at 11 a.m. Game two goes Saturday at 3 p.m. and the finale is set for Sunday at 11 a.m.
Team Canada assistant coach Derek Whitson, who took part in his very first Paralympic Games in 2010 as a member of the Canadian national men’s para hockey team. He still remembers the impact that Vancouver had on his career.
“It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. I had some amazing veterans who took me under their wing and helped to prepare me for the games,” says Whitson. “To be able to come back to British Columbia 10 years later, now helping our women work towards achieving their dreams feels full circle.”
One group of athletes that Whitson is really looking forward to working with in Richmond is the teenagers of the team.
Camille Lalonde (19), Rebecca Sharp (19), Mackenzie Spong (19), Raphaëlle Tousignant (17), and Alyssa White (14) will all be lining up against the Americans.
Although a young cohort of players, all but one player, has had international experience playing against Team USA last season in Minnesota during a three-game series.
Lalonde and Tousignant came out as some of the top point getters of that weekend helping Canada take the series 2-1 over its southern rivals.
