Six student-athletes from the Concordia Stingers hockey programs have been selected to represent Canada at the 30th FISU Winter Universiade being held Dec. 11-21 in Lucerne, Switzerland.
The Winter Universiade, also known as the World University Games, is held every two years in a different city. It is a celebration of international university sports and culture. It is one of the world’s largest winter sports competitions.
Forward Phélix Martineau, the captain of the Stingers men’s hockey team, will be a member of the Canadian entry. The men’s competition will feature 10 countries: Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, South Korea, Russian, Slovakia, Switzerland and the United States.
The bronze and gold medal games will take place on Dec. 21.
Five members of the women’s program have been named to the Canadian roster. Stinger captain Audrey Belzile, a forward and Concordia’s leading scorer, heads the list. Joining her are veteran defender Brigitte Laganière and forwards Rosalie Bégin-Cyr, Stéphanie Lalancette and Chloé Gendreau.
The women’s tournament features six teams: Canada, Japan, Kazakhstan, Russian, Switzerland and the U.S. The medal games take place Dec. 20.
Overall, nine Canadian teams from seven sports will travel to Switzerland to take part in the event, originally scheduled for January 2021. Canada will compete in men’s and women’s hockey, men’s and women’s curling, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, biathlon, snowboarding and short track speed skating. This is the first FISU Universiade since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2019, Canada won five medals in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, including one gold, two silver and two bronze.
