Canadian biathlete raised in Edmonton relishing ‘incredible’ Winter Olympics experience

Two of the Canadian athletes competing in biathlon at Milano Cortina 2026 got their start in Edmonton, Jasper Fleming and Helen Jorgenson.

It was his dream from an early age while growing up in Edmonton: to compete at an Olympic Games.

And it’s come true for Jasper Fleming, who at 20 is the youngest member of the eight-person Canadian biathlon team competing at Milano Cortina 2026.

Fleming now lives in Squamish, B.C., having moved west with his family when he was 13 – there, he trains for biathlon, races competitively in several forms of cycling and works building mountain-bike trails – but Edmonton is where the dream and work to get to sports’ biggest stage started.

“The Olympics have been a dream of mine since I was seven years old,” Fleming told CTV News Edmonton from Italy, where he’s already competed in two races – the team mixed relay, in which Canada placed 17th, and the men’s 20-kilometre individual, in which he finished 86th – and is getting ready for at least one more (men’s 10-kilometre sprint).

“This has been a dream come true, and it’s hard to explain myself in a way, because we’re here to race and we’re here to perform, so I don’t want to lose track of that at all, but it’s been incredible. I don’t think there’s a much bigger honour as an athlete than to be at the Olympics.”

If he makes the 60-man cut from Friday’s sprint race at the Anterselva Biathlon Arena in Rasen-Antholz, Fleming will race twice more: Sunday’s men’s pursuit followed by next Tuesday’s men’s relay.

And though being on the biggest stage is exciting, once Fleming and his teammates acclimatize to the frenzy that comes with thousands of fans, they’ll find their focus, said Helene Jorgensen, one of Canada’s two biathlon coaches in Milano Cortina.

“When you get to the Olympics, it’s tempting to want to do more, because you want to do well, but in the end, it comes down to doing what you trained for, and that would be a really good performance,” Jorgensen, a University of Alberta graduate who coached Fleming at a young age, told CTV News Edmonton. “As we’re getting into the Olympics and getting almost more used to being around that huge crowd and all that, all that extra buzz and energy, I think we’ll be able to perform better.”

For now, Fleming is taking in the experience of being a part of the Winter Olympics, which on one hand, is just another race on the annual circuit he’s been a part of since last season.

On the other hand, “everything is at a much bigger scale,” he says.

“You can’t ask for anything bigger as an athlete. I mean, of course, having a medal front on your chest would probably be a little bit better than this, but I don’t think it gets any better than representing Canada, especially a country that I feel so much pride for.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s David Ewasuk