Of the 45 athletes from Alberta who are representing Canada at this month’s Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, Italy, 11 of them hail from the Edmonton area and central Alberta. They include four athletes in curling, three in bobsleigh, three in ice hockey and one in cross-country skiing. On Team Canada are: Melissa Lotholz, bobsleigh This will be the third Olympics for the Barrhead native, who is piloting a two-woman bobsleigh with brakewoman Kelsey Mitchell for Canada in Italy. The 33-year-old previously piloted a two-woman sled in 2022 at Beijing with Sara Villani (12th-place finish) and served as brakewoman for pilot Christine De Bruin in 2018 at PyeongChang (seventh-place finish). The University of Alberta graduate made her debut competing internationally in 2014 with Olympic champion pilot Kaillie Humphries. Kelsey Mitchell, bobsleigh The 32-year-old who hails from Sherwood Park will become a two-sport Olympic athlete when she serves as brakewoman for pilot Melissa Lotholz. Mitchell won gold in track cycling at the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo and made the quarterfinals two years ago in Paris. She started competing internationally in two-woman bobsleigh in November. Dawn Richardson Wilson, bobsleigh The 26-year-old from Edmonton is making her second Olympic appearance in two-woman bobsleigh for Canada, having debuted at the 2022 Games in Beijing, when the brakewoman placed eighth with pilot Cynthia Appiah. Alison Mackie, cross-country skiing Milano-Cortina will be the Olympic debut for the 20-year-old from Edmonton. Mackie has been competing internationally since 2024 and won two bronze medals at last year’s FIS Junior World Championships, the first time a Canadian woman had reached the podium in them since 1989. Rachelle Brown, curling Brown, 39, is the fifth/alternate on Rachel Homan’s women’s curling squad, serving in the role as they won back-to-back world titles the last two years. In the past, the Edmonton resident and former University of Alberta varsity curler has played with Val Sweeting’s and Kelsey Rocque’s provincial squads. Rachel Homan, curling The Beaumont resident and Ottawa native is skip of the reigning world championship squad and makes her third appearance at a Winter Olympics. The 36-year-old previously placed fifth in 2022 in mixed doubles with John Morris and sixth in women’s curling in 2018. Homan is a three-time world and five-time national champion and has won 20 Grand Slam of Curling titles, the most by any skip female or male. Marc Kennedy, curling Milano-Cortina will mark the fourth time St. Albert’s Kennedy has represented Canada in Olympic men’s curling after making it to the games in 2010 on Kevin Martin’s gold-winning team, in 2018 on Kevin Koe’s fourth-place group and in 2022 on Brad Jacobs’s bronze-winning squad. The 44-year-old will again serve as third with Jacobs in Italy, Kennedy has also been on two world and four Canadian (Brier) championship teams. Jocelyn Peterman, curling The Red Deer native and husband Brett Gallant make up Canada’s curling mixed-doubles team for Milano Cortina. The couple has competed together for more than a decade. Peterman, 32, has represented Canada at an Olympics once before, in 2022 with skip Jennifer Jones, when they placed fifth in Beijing. Peterman currently curls out of Winnipeg on Kaitlyn Lawes’s team. She has previously curled competitively with skips Chelsea Carey and Heather Nedohin. Brandon Hagel, ice hockey The 27-year-old forward who hails from Morinville plays professionally for the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning. Like most of the Canadian men’s team, the Games in Italy mark his Olympic debut. He was on the Canadian team that won last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off and has twice represented the country at the world hockey championships, winning gold in 2021. Colton Parayko, ice hockey The 32-year-old defenceman from St. Albert plays in the NHL for the St. Louis Blues, with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 2018. He, like Hagel, was on Canada’s 4 Nations squad last year and has played on three national world hockey championships teams, winning silver in 2017. Emerance Maschmeyer, ice hockey The Bruderheim native was a member of Canada’s gold-medal-winning squad at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. The 31-year-old has an extensive international hockey resume, having played in several world championships and Rivalry Series clashes with the U.S., and in four 4 Nations Cup tournaments. The Harvard graduate plays for the Vancouver Goldeneyes of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
