Athletes from around the province are gearing up to represent Manitoba on the national stage. Team Manitoba’s 374 athletes are heading to Newfoundland and Labrador to compete in the 2025 Canada Summer Games in August. The provincial team has athletes participating in all 19 sports offered at the competition, which takes place every four years. “We’re maybe not up there in terms of medal count with some of the bigger provinces, but we certainly are competing in every single event,” Drew Todd, Team Manitoba’s chef de mission, told CTV News. Luke Enns, a 19-year-old canoe kayaker from Winnipeg, was introduced as Team Manitoba’s flag bearer for the opening ceremony during a news conference Tuesday. This will be Enns’ third time representing Manitoba in national competition. He won two bronze medals at the 2022 Summer Games and competed in the 2023 Canada Winter Games in biathlon. “I wasn’t expecting this, but it’s pretty cool to represent Team Manitoba in this way,” Enns said in a release. “It’s pretty amazing [at a Canada Games] to see what can happen when you put your mind to it. There’s always an opportunity to do really well, and if you don’t end up exactly where you want to be, you’re still at the Canada Games.” Todd said there are athletes from all parts of the province competing, including some displaced by wildfires. He said several members of the provincial softball team are from Cross Lake (Pimicikamak Cree Nation). The northern community was evacuated due to the wildfire threat in late May, though residents were allowed to return home a couple of weeks later. “They’re still doing everything they can to put a team in place and compete and practice ahead of time. So it’s a pretty inspiring story to see what they had to go through and the commitment that they still have to the team and getting on that plane in a couple weeks.” The 2025 Canada Summer Games run August 8-25 in St. John’s.
