Didsbury’s Wesley Wilks has claimed a bronze medal for Team Alberta in the Men’s 50-metre Special Olympics Breaststroke at the 2025 Canada Summer Games.
“This bronze medal feels like gold to me! I have worked so hard over the last three years. It’s been really tough, I haven’t had much coaching and I’ve been training myself for three years on my own,” Wilks said in a Team Alberta release. “This feels like gold because it was really hard to get and I went into this Games thinking that winning a medal might be doable, but probably won’t do that well. So getting the bronze, feels like gold to me.”
Wilks also placed seventh in the 100-metre Men’s Special Olympics Freestyle. His bronze was one of three gold, two silver and three bronze captured by Alberta athletes Monday, bringing the team’s overall tally to 11 medals.
Alberta finished the 2022 Canada Summer Games with 111 medals: 35 gold, 33 silver, 43 bronze.
Calgary’s Amaia Ervin-Arambarri delivered Alberta’s first gold of the Games, winning the Women’s Individual Time Trial in road cycling with a time of 17 minutes 53.63 seconds.
“This is my first-year cycling, I switched Triathlon into cycling this year, so it was a big shift and it took a lot of dedication and determination to get here and it’s really cool to see all the hours and time really pay off. I’m so excited and in shock still,” Ervin-Arambarri said.
“Leah is super knowledgeable and she’s been here before so it’s really cool to hear all of her insights into the racing world,” she said of two-time Olympian and Canada Summer Games gold medallist Leah Kirchmann. “As someone who is less experienced in it, it’s really awesome having her and being able to hear her insights on when we were pre-riding the course and the morning of with the wind conditions. So I’m really thankful for all of her valuable input and all her experience that she brings to the table, everything counts and I’m so grateful to have her as a resource.”
Swimming
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100m Women’s Special Olympics Freestyle: Casey Kruse (Strathmore) gold (1:21.95), Aliya de Gruchy (Lethbridge) 4th (1:32.97).
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50m Women’s Special Olympics Breaststroke: Kruse (Strathmore) gold (47.06), de Gruchy (Lethbridge) 4th (52.38).
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Men’s 400m IM: Kingston Hitchcock (Red Deer) silver (4:36.10), Aiden Gyorfi (Edmonton) 6th (4:41.51).
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50m Women’s Breaststroke: Hayleigh Haines (Calgary) silver, Taylor Ginther (Lethbridge) 6th.
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50m Men’s Freestyle: Alan Piatek (Calgary) bronze (23.95), Henrico Jordaan (Grande Prairie) 4th (24.01).
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50m Men’s Special Olympics Breaststroke: Wilks (Didsbury) bronze (38.13).
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4x100m Medley Relay Mix: Alberta (Christine Zhou [Calgary], Haines [Calgary], Piatek [Calgary], Hitchcock [Red Deer]) bronze.
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50m Women’s Freestyle: Blakely McBride (Sherwood Park) 4th (26.65), Ginther (Lethbridge) 6th (27.16).
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200m Men’s Backstroke: Kinnon Sen (Calgary) 5th (2:08.11).
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200m Women’s Backstroke: Zhou (Calgary) 6th (2:22.53).
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100m Men’s Special Olympics Freestyle: Wilks (Didsbury) 7th (1:08.31).
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400m Women’s IM: Callie Cardir (Calgary) 4th (4:58.27), Meghan Sutherland (Calgary) 8th (5:06.99).
- 50m Men’s Breaststroke: Jaxon Kwan (Calgary) 8th (31.11).
“I’m very proud of myself for what I’ve done today, there was a lot of hard work and determination go into those strokes,” Kruse said. “These medals show how much work I’ve put into my training and seeing the accomplishments happen. I’m so proud to represent Alberta, the way it should be.”
Canoe Kayak
- C-1 1000m Women’s: Kai Allison Choe (Calgary) 4th (5:52.330).
- C-1 500m Men’s: Justin Boyko (Calgary) 5th (2:17.931).
- C-2 500m Women’s: Alberta (Choe [Calgary], Kiira Saarenoja [Langdon]) 4th (2:38.565).
- K-1 500m Women’s: Jonnie Newman (Calgary) 5th (2:24.717) after clocking 2:22.437 in the qualification round.
“There have been a lot of ups and downs and a lot of big decisions go into making the transition back to Canoe Kayak,” Newman said. “I’ve been to training camps in New Zealand and Florida and have just tried to get as many races in as possible leading up to these games.”
Men’s Baseball
Game 2: Alberta 4 – British Columbia 2.
“We got on the sticks early, got a lead and maintained that momentum through the whole game, we had great energy on the bench and we came out with the win,” said opening pitcher Joshua Mills (Leduc). “Everything went perfectly. I felt really good out there, I attacked the zone early and forced hitters to make bad decisions and I didn’t leave anything over the heart of the plate so I felt it was a really good outing.”
Men’s Rugby Sevens
Game 1: Alberta 29 – Saskatchewan 5.
Game 2: Alberta 36 – New Brunswick 5.
Game 3: Alberta 41 – Manitoba 0.
Women’s Rugby Sevens
Game 1: Alberta 41 – New Brunswick 0.
Game 3: Alberta 36 – Nova Scotia 0.
(Game 2 score not listed in the release.)
Sailing
Women’s Single Handed ILCA: Claire Wooldridge 4 (T1 after 2 races).
Women’s Double Handed 29’er: Alberta (Bernice Cao [Calgary], Jillian Glendinning [Chestermere]) 11 (T3 after 3 races).
Women’s Softball
Game 3: Alberta 16 – Prince Edward Island 2 (record 3-0).
Men’s Basketball
Game 2: Alberta 83 – British Columbia 62 (record 1-1).
Men’s Beach Volleyball
Game 2: Alberta 2 – Saskatchewan 0 (record 1-1).
Women’s Beach Volleyball
Game 1: Alberta 2 – Ontario 0.
“It just feels amazing, Ontario is definitely one of the tougher teams in this competition, it was just a great game and really amazing to get the first win,” said Ella Layzell (Calgary). “Sasha and I have been working a lot on building our connection and finding each other on the court and I think it shows in the way we play.”
Notables
Madi Hunter (Red Deer), who is playing on Team Alberta’s Women’s Softball team, is the daughter of Teri Hunter, who coached Team Alberta Women’s Softball team to a silver medal in 2017.
Women’s Softball and Men’s Rugby Sevens are currently undefeated at the 2025 Canada Summer Games.
The 2025 Canada Summer Games run until Aug. 25 in St. John’s, N.L., featuring more than 5,000 athletes, managers and coaches in 19 sports, including more than 500 from Alberta.
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