"The bus ride home was loud, not because of the chatter but the clank of the medals bouncing around!" was the summation of the weekend from coach Angela Loeppky for the Altona Panthers who brought 10 athletes to the Special Olympics 2025 Provincial Summer Games. Those 10 athletes managed to bring home a whopping 23 medals for their efforts. The games took place in Winnipeg June 20th to 22nd.
Sportsmanship
Altona Panthers Coach Jason Hildebrand touched on the sportsmanship of his athletes over the weekend, "it was amazing when you see them all cheering each other on winning or losing, it didn't really matter, you know, being up at 6:30 in the morning, getting ready for the day, taking the buses to the track, they had a very full day. And when they got to the track, they were focused and had a lot of fun. Since Candy's sitting beside me, her run her 100m run will stand out as one of the big things. She was flying down the track, right? Such an amazing run. We had such good throw throwing events.
I think you guys peaked at the at the right time, so it was amazing to see."
Winning Gold
Altona Panthers athlete Candy Neustaeter ended up with three gold medals at the games for her efforts in the 100m run, the standing long jump and the mini javelin. She touched on her favorite part of competing at the 2025 Provincial Summer Games "Everything! just hanging out with people going out there, trying my best, even if I wouldn't have won, that wouldn't have been a big deal because the coaches would been behind us right from the get-go and right to the end. And they always are. I think we have the greatest coaches and couldn't ask for better. It's like every year is a good year."
Catch the full conversation between CFAM Morning Show co-host Zack Driedger, Altona Panthers coach Jason Hildebrand and athlete Candy Neustaeter below:
"The Altona Panthers knocked the weekend out of the park. We came home - clanging it up in the bus - with 20+ medals. Every one of our athletes won at least one medal. Their sportsmanship, ability, kindness, helpfulness always wins them the gold."
Check out the photo gallery from the weekend below:
