Team NT on the 2025 Canada Games opening ceremony

The NWT’s athletes joined hundreds from throughout the nation on the 2025 Canada Games opening ceremony in St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, on Saturday night.

Led by swimmer Tony Shi carrying the territory’s flag, just below 100 athletes, coaches and different staff members representing the NWT marched into the Mary Brown’s Centre because the Games started.

The the rest of the staff – round 180 athletes and training workers in all – will arrive in week two. The Games run till the tip of August 24.

Many occasions all through the 2 weeks are being live-streamed by organizers. You can see pictures and updates on Team NT’s Facebook and Instagram, with common experiences on cabinradio.ca alongside broadcasts on Cabin Radio from St John’s 10am-12pm every weekday.

Shi wasn’t the one NWT athlete within the highlight. Four-time cross-country snowboarding Olympian Sharon Firth helped escort the Canada Games flag into the sector, a day after being inducted into the Canada Games Hall of Honour alongside her late sister Shirley Firth Larsson. Sharon competed 3 times at this degree.

Beach volleyball participant Chris Mathison additionally had a job in Saturday’s opening ceremony, serving to the Canada Games torch relay in its remaining moments because the outside cauldron was lit.

More: Yellowknife hosts its first open seashore volleyball tourney
From Team NT: More opening ceremony photos

In complete, the 2025 Canada Games expects to welcome greater than 5,000 athletes throughout 19 sports activities.

Team NT is competing in basketball, seashore volleyball, indoor volleyball, soccer, swimming, tennis, monitor and discipline and wrestling.

All pictures on this web page: Ollie Williams/Team NT

Saturday’s ceremony leaned closely and gleefully into Newfoundland tropes, the hosts’ staff marching out to Great Big Sea’s Ordinary Day. On the media benches, a reporter could possibly be seen utilizing a web based thesaurus to search out alternate options to “folksy” – however that was the proper phrase.

Attendees have been handled to The Ryans and the Pittmans, a folks singalong alternative, in addition to a slice of Come From Away, the musical that relates how Gander residents cared for stranded travellers within the aftermath of the September 11 assaults.

The ceremony additionally included a number of throat-singing performances, a choir, and the nationwide anthem carried out by the Royal Newfoundland Regiment Band.

The NWT’s athletes have been third out of the tunnel into the sector behind Yukon and British Columbia, utilizing a system that swept throughout Canada from west to east.

Danny Breen, the mayor of St John’s, instructed the athletes: “We’re incredibly proud to host you here in one of the most vibrant and welcoming cities in the country.”

Newfoundland and Labrador is coping with wildfires because the Games start. Evacuations have been ordered in some communities simply to the west of St John’s, although organizers say there may be up to now no direct impression on the sports activities.

Premier John Hogan, addressing the Mary Brown’s Centre crowd, drew a connection between the efforts of these preventing wildfires and the dedication of the hundreds of volunteers who’re making the Games occur.

Thank you, he instructed these concerned, “for giving us something to smile about, something to cheer about.”

Among the opposite territories, Nunavut is sending its biggest-ever staff to the Canada Games, together with – for the first time – each female and male basketball groups.

The NWT’s staff is roughly twice the dimensions it was for the Niagara Games in 2022, additionally helped by the qualification of additional locations in staff sports activities this time round.

Shi stated he’ll attempt his hardest to achieve the rostrum because the sporting motion begins on Sunday.

“I want to do some amazing personal bests. We’re going to try our best to get a medal for our team,” Shi stated, figuring out the 200m particular person medley and a few of the relays as targets.

“It will be very hard, but that’s our goal,” he stated. “We’ll be trying our best for it.”

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