With the Holiday Season approaching and everyone looking forward to spending time with family, I would like to thank all of Alberta Sport Connection’s partners and stakeholders for the contributions you make to our sport system and for helping us to improve the quality of life of Albertans through sport. 2017 was another busy year for ASC and sport in Alberta with many outstanding events and conferences.
It began with the Freestyle Ski World Cup, January 28-30, at Olympic Park in Calgary, followed by the Long Track Speed Skating World Sprint Championships in February, the World Curling Championships in April in Edmonton, and the World Mixed Doubles and World Senior Curling Championships in Lethbridge. ASC hosted our Alberta Sports Leadership Conference in Banff, April 27-29, and the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame held their Induction Banquet in Red Deer on May 26.
Summer events included the ITU World Triathlon in Edmonton, July 28-29, and Team Alberta traveled to Winnipeg for the Canada Summer Games, July 28- August 13, ASC's Alberta's Future Leaders celebrated another successful summer program of delivering sport, art, leadership and cultural programs for youth in Indigenous communities on August 23.
The Tour of Alberta closed out summer, racing from Jasper to Edmonton, September 1-4. Sport Calgary hosted its Celebration of Sport Luncheon in October, and November brought national sport organizations from across the country to Calgary for the Coaching Association of Canada Sport Leadership Conference. The World Cup ski season began in November 25-26, with the Men’s Alpine World Cup in Lake Louise, followed closely by the Women’s event, December 1-3.
The Luge World Cup and Long Track Speed Skating were also held in the first week of December in Calgary, while ASC coordinated a cross country International Sport Exchange with Korea, the Para Nordic World Cup was held in Canmore December 8 – 17, and on December 12, ASC announced nearly $1 million in funding to support our Alberta-based nationally carded athletes pursuing athletic excellence at the highest levels of international competition.
In addition, I know there were hundreds of quality local and provincial sport competitions and events hosted by our sport partners throughout our province this past year.
On behalf of ASC and our Board of Directors, thank you for everything you do to support our sport system. I hope this holiday season is a joyous one for you and your family and you experience all the warmth and wonder of this special time of year. We look forward to working with you in 2018.
Wishing you all the best of the season and a Happy New Year.
Andrew Ference
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