Foothills Olympians are on full display at the Okotoks Museum and Archives.
A new exhibit highlights not only the Foothills area athletes competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics (Finlay Knox, Keyara Wardley, and Zak Madell,) but a few other familiar faces.
Having put a similar display together in 2021, Kathy Coutts with the museum says it seemed like a no-brainer to get another one going this year.
“I had done it for the Tokyo Olympics, at which time we had four athletes from the area compete. So with the Paris Olympics rolling around in 2024, I thought I would do it again. It not only includes the locals competing in 2024, it also highlights all of the former Olympians from the Foothills in the past.”
Nine other athletes are featured in the exhibit, each of them having represented the Foothills in different sports including water polo, bobsled, biathlon, and sprinting.
Coutts says people are often surprised at just how many Olympians the region has produced.
“We have had visitors already who have expressed how amazed they are that a small community like Okotoks or smaller communities in the Foothills can produce Olympians. It goes to show that you don’t have to be from a big city to be an Olympic athlete. It just takes that drive, encouragement, perseverance, some early mornings, and they can achieve their dreams.”
The exhibit also features a flag from the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, when Okotoks hosted the Soviet Union’s figure skaters.
The display will remain in place until the conclusion of the Paralympic games in September.