Alberta sweeps up basketball gold at Canada Summer Games

Alberta athletes came home minted with 81 medals, including 22 gold, across 19 sports from the Canada Summer Games.

Young Alberta came out tops on the hardwood in Canada’s largest amateur multi-sport competition.

Both the men’s and women’s basketball squads took gold at the 2025 Canada Summer Games, each claiming the title on Aug. 16 in St. John’s, N.L.

Each beat its Ontario counterparts, the men 72-69 and the women 62-54.

Deng Ngor of Calgary paced the men’s team with 22 points while Athain Madut of Brooks grabbed 13 rebounds, including nine defensively. Emerald Nnani of Edmonton was a double threat for the Alberta women’s side, scoring 12 points and grabbing 10 defensive rebounds out of 14 total, while Pippa Gibb of Raymond scored 13 points, 12 of them off three-pointers.

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In all, Alberta teams and individual athletes competing in 18 sports claimed 81 medals, including 22 gold, at the Games for young athletes that are held every four years. Alberta’s haul was the fourth-most medals among the provinces.

The provincial contingent of 495 people included 388 athletes, including 88 from the Edmonton area, who donned the provincial colours of blue and gold for the event held Aug. 8-25. Joining them were 62 coaches, 26 managers and team support staff, and 19 mission staff.

Alberta won 111 medals, 35 of them gold, in the previous rendition of the Games held in Ontario’s Niagara region in 2022.

Alberta highlights

• Totu Akuentok, Elijah Thomas, Clyde Mbachu and Nathan Yamnayamba played on the Alberta men’s basketball squad that claimed gold;
• Nnani, Ambrie Busenius and Alfreda Okolie of Edmonton, and Ella Auch of Spruce Grove were members of Alberta’s gold-winning women’s basketball team;
• The men’s volleyball squad won gold after beating Manitoba 3-0. The 12-member team included Rhen Andison (Edmonton), Ethan Berardocco (St. Albert), William Brandsma (Edmonton), Tyson DeZutter (Red Deer), Chris Layton (Whitecourt), Grayson McDonald (Edmonton), Kai Miles (Edmonton), Liam Ulrich (Edmonton) and Ben Weiss (Sherwood Park).
• Jenica Swartz of Lacombe won two medals: gold in the women’s 1,500-metre run and bronze in the women’s 800-metre; 800m
• Rachel Grenke of Edmonton won gold in the women’s pole vault;
• Maggie Slessor of Edmonton won gold in women’s 1,500-metre wheelchair;
• Jake McEachern and Sean Reimer, both of Lloydminster, took gold and silver, respectively, in the men’s hammer throw;
• Swimmers Aiden Gyorfi of Edmonton and Sasha Rogers of Sherwood Park won several individual and team medals, Gyorfi six (five silver and one bronze) and Rogers three bronze;
• Red Deer’s Kingston Hitchcock won six medals, two of them silver and four bronze;
• Britney Volkman of Leduc County medalled in two events: silver in the women’s 100-metre para and bronze in the women’s 1,500-metre wheelchair;
• The women’s baseball team claimed silver after dropping the final 8-5 to Ontario. Members of the team included Taylor Elines (Big Valley), Brooke Forslund (Sherwood Park), Claire Hingley (Edmonton), Tessa Klassen (Red Deer), Sydney Klebanosky (Spruce Grove), Avery Mullin (Leduc), Hadley Prehn (Stettler), Cora Rydel (Edmonton) and Oakley Tanner (Edmonton);
• Maddox Oliver of St. Albert was a member of the four-man 200m men’s free relay team with Gyorfi and Maddox that won silver;
• Wrestlers Jaren Alaimoana of Grande Prairie (100 kg) and Jessy Connolly of Edmonton (120 kg) each won silver in individual men’s wrestling;
• Alberta’s women’s volleyball squad took silver after losing to Ontario 3-1 in the gold-medal match. The team that finished 5-1 in the round-robin included Lola Doef (Lacombe), Madden Hansen (Edmonton), Chloe Penz (Red Deer), Jenna Snyder (Westlock), Izzy Taylor (Gunn) and Lydia Wigston (Sherwood Park);
• The women’s wrestling team, which included Edmonton’s Callie Christian and Devondra Thomas, Spruce Grove’s Victoria Stefanov and Cold Lake’s Riley Papalia, beat Saskatchewan to take bronze. Individual women’s wrestling medal winners included Stefanov with gold in the 43-to-47-kg bracket, Thomas with silver in the 90-kg bracket, and Christian with bronze in the 80-kg bracket;
• Edmonton’s Emerson Hanrahan and Sydney Tasic were members of Alberta’s women’s rugby sevens squad that won bronze;
• Brooke Cameron (Sylvan Lake), Maliya Pankiw (Edmonton), Mikka Spence (Sturgeon County), Karter Dougan (Lloydminster), Madi Hunter (Red Deer), Katherine Thiessen (Lloydminster) and Kamryn Lane (Red Deer) were members of the bronze-winning women’s softball squad;
• The Alberta men’s soccer team took silver after losing to Quebec 4-3 on penalty kicks. Members of the team included Edmontonians Xavier Chahal, Ethan Darpoh, Luka Dolanjski, Emmanuel Gebeyehu, Barry Ogbolu;
• Red Deer’s Paige Zinger took bronze in the women’s heptathlon;
• Edmonton’s Nico Clarmunt took bronze in men’s 400-metre on the track
• Edmonton’s Matthew Dykstra claimed bronze in the men’s 100-metre Para sprint;
• Mika Boldt Steen of Edmonton and Myla McIvor of Leduc were members of the artistic swimming team that took bronze in the team mix event;
• Edmonton’s Farsan Abdi, Nico Clarmunt and Malachi Muir were on the men’s 4x400-metre track relay team that took bronze;
• The men’s box lacrosse team claimed bronze after beating Nova Scotia 6-5. Members of the team included Charlie Graham (St. Albert), Ryder Harrison (Sherwood Park), Liam James (St. Albert), Carter Mitchell (Sherwood Park) and Kian Siemens (Red Deer).