NIPAWIN — Three Nipawin siblings brought home medals after competing in the 2023 Saskatchewan Winter Games
Ty, Lane and Aubrie Annand, all skiers, were in Regina from Feb. 19 to 25. Ty also was in Prince Edward Island to compete in the Canada Winter Games on Feb. 18 to March 5.
The Annands all started skiing at a very young age. Ty, 15, started when he was five years old; Lane, 13 started when he was three; and Aubrie, 11, started when she was just two years old.
Their father Wade Annand grew up in Melfort and moved to Nipawin after he graduated from University. He enjoyed skiing as a kid and remembers going to Wapiti Ski Hill, where he would sometimes see the team training and thought that it looked like fun. He was a hockey player and didn’t have much time for skiing.
Kara Annand, their mother, had only skied twice before her kids started to ski.
Ty, Lane and Aubrie are all really enjoying competing in the Saskatchewan Winter Games and will be bringing home some golden hardware to share with her friends and family.
Aubrie won gold in under 13 ski cross, two silver medals in alpine skiing under 13 slalom. Her older brother Lane won two silver medals in under 15 slalom skiing and Ty, the oldest Annand, came home with the bronze in the under 17 slalom and a fourth place finish as well. Wade, who is also their coach, said they were all great races
Ty continued on to PEI to compete in the Canada Games that are currently running now. Wade travelled with him and Ty will have his mother and grandparents there to support him.
The Canada Winter Games is a commitment of training and competing for their spots on the team for the last three months and most of them have more than 40 days on snow at this point Wade said. There has also been a lot of time spent in meetings, preparing for the games. The kids have all been expected to do a lot of off-snow prep including mental health, off snow cross training, nutritional education drug awareness and respect in sport training.
Ty’s results in the Canada Games are as follows: Mens Super G – DNF, Mens slalom – Run 1 was 59.07 and run 2 1.01 and finished 24th overall. Giant Slalom – Run 1 – 1.02 and run 2 1.03 and finished 34th overall. Ski Cross he finished fourth in his heat and was 58th overall.
Ty said he was fairly happy with my results in the Canada Games.
”I didn’t finish my super-g run but was showing some of my best racing during it and was definitely going for it. In giant slalom, I got 33rd which I’ll take as it was my first giant slalom finish all year. In slalom I had some fairly good runs. My goal was to be in the top 30 for slalom and a personal best at 25th.
Ty said he thought the closing ceremonies were pretty cool and enjoyed his experience at the Canada Games. He has the Saskatchewan Cup finals in March and Alberta finals in early April.
