LOCAL ATHLETES ARE REPRESENTING CANADA AND WE NEED YOUR HELP!
PRESS RELEASE -FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 24, 2022
Contact: Kelsey Norris, Marketing Coordinator
705-746-4466 ext. 201 | knorris@stockeycentre.com
Parry Sound, ON – Parry Sound athletes are competing at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and Paralympics this February and March; Mark Ideson, Megan Oldham, and Graham Ritchie! To celebrate their incredible achievements, the staff of The Charles W. Stockey Centre and Bobby Orr Hall of Fame are organizing a video compilation for each athlete to send them congratulations from the community.
We are asking the community for words of encouragement, well-wishes, a cheer or a simple best of luck card to go into a video that we are putting together. It can be in written, photo, or video format. We will compile submissions into a video for each athlete and facilitate sending these well wishes.
Contact Kelsey Norris, Marketing Coordinator, at knorris@stockeycentre.com or 705-746-4466 extension 201 for more information or to submit your well-wishing videos, photos, or cards. Submissions should be made no later than February 2nd at 4:30pm.
Mark Ideson was born in Parry Sound in 1976. Ideson’s journey into wheelchair sports began in 2007 when a helicopter he was piloting crashed, leaving him with multiple fractures, resulting in a spinal cord injury and quadriplegia. In 2010, his friend prompted him to try wheelchair curling. This once again gave him a sense of community and belonging. He exceled at the sport and soon joined team Canada in 2011. After many years of hard work and training, Mark and his team won gold in the 2014 Sochi Paralympic Games. Four years later Ideson skipped Canada to the bronze medal in the 2018 PyeongChang Paralympic Games.
Megan Oldham is a 20-year-old freestyle skier on the Canadian National Team. She started freestyle skiing around the age of 15 and absolutely fell in love with it. She has been on the Canadian team for roughly three years and has competed at various events including the XGames, Dew Tour, World Cups and World Championships. In the winter she travels a lot for training but in the summer, she loves to come home to Parry Sound and spend time on the Bay.
Graham Ritchie was born and raised in Parry Sound and growing up was involved in a variety of sports including hockey, skiing, and golf. He began competitive skiing in Grade 11, but it wasn’t until Grade 12 that he began training with teammates under the guidance of Coach Peter Wiltmann. Four years ago, he was invited to join the National Team Development Centre Thunder Bay, a cross-country ski team based out of Thunder Bay and for the last three years he has been a member of the Canadian National Ski Team. Graham has competed at the World Junior Championships, U23 World Championships, World Championships, and a handful of World Cup events. The 2020/21 season was one of the most successful, he earned his best World Cup result yet, finishing 17th individually and 7th with teammate Antoine Cyr.