Premier Gordon Campbell and Minister of Healthy Living and Sport Mary Polak congratulated the B.C. athletes named this week to represent Canada in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
“On behalf of all British Columbians, I would like to congratulate our B.C. athletes on their strong showing on the Canadian Olympic team. The fact that more than a third of the Canadian team heading to Beijing are from British Columbia is a source of pride for our province, and shows the strength of our athletic community,” said Campbell. “The thousands of hours of hard work, the dedication to their goals and the commitment to make it to this pinnacle of competition represents the determined spirit of all Team BC members. They have the support and best wishes of the entire province and we will all be cheering them on.”
B.C. athletes represent 34 per cent of the Canadian Olympic team. B.C. athletes are considered those who are born or reside in British Columbia.
“It is an honour to have this elite group of athletes represent British Columbia and Canada on the world stage at the 2008 Beijing Olympics,” said Polak. “Congratulations to all the members of Team BC; they truly are an inspiration to us all.”
About 10,500 athletes from more than 200 nations will compete in 35 disciplines at the 2008 Olympic Games, which run from August 8 to 24.
B.C. invests over $40 million annually to encourage British Columbians to be physically active and to support B.C.’s ‘performance pathway’ for athletes, coaches and the practitioners supporting them. This includes an annual $2 million contribution to the BC Games. More than 40 athletes going to the Beijing Olympics have competed at a BC Games event.
A further $1 million is provided to prepare athletes and coaches for the Canada Games and Western Canada Summer Games. Over 30 athletes going to Beijing this year were members of Team BC achieving podium performances at these games.
The five Indo-Canadians from B.C. are weight lifter Jasvir Singh of Burnaby and field hockey players Ranjeev Deol, Bindi Kullar and Sukhwinder Singh, all of Surrey, and Ravi Kahlon of Victoria.
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