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Lethbridge well-represented at Summer Olympics in Japan

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Four athletes and one coach with Lethbridge connections are taking part for Canada at the pandemic-delayed summer games.

The two week spectacle of sport is officially underway following the opening ceremony in Tokyo on Friday.

Larry Steinke is attending his 5th Olympics as a coach. He’s been part of the University of Lethbridge Pronghorn Athletics Program for some time now.

As for athletes, Liz Gleadle and Kayla Moleschi are back at the summer games for their third and second times respectively. Local newcomers are Jillian Weir and Keyara Wardley. Both are rookie Olympians.

On a side note, local athlete Ross Bekkering is representing the Netherlands.

Susan Eyemann with the Lethbridge Sport Council says it should be very inspiring to young athletes in the city to have five exceptional people with ties to Lethbridge representing Canada on the Olympic stage.

It really is an Olympic games like no other we’ve ever seen. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, no fans were allowed to be in the stadium to watch the opening ceremony or any of the events for that matter over the next few weeks.

Lethbridge resident Jon Koopmans is also in Tokyo as a technical engineer for an international broadcaster. Koopmans, who’s the engineer for 94.1 CJOC and 98.1 2DayFM, says it’s eerily quiet in Tokyo where hundreds of active COVID infections have forced a fourth round of health restrictions and a state of emergency.

“There’s nobody in the streets. All of the venues have fences around them with gates that are closed. The festival squares that are normally full of events and interaction have all been barricaded off and no one is allowed to congregate,” says Koopmans.

Koopmans is an Olympic tech veteran. He has worked on the technical side for several Olympics over the past number years.

The Tokyo Games will wrap up on August 8th.

Patrick Siedlecki
Patrick Siedlecki
Pat has been a mainstay in the CJOC News department from the time the station launched in 2007. He's been in the position of News Director since then and has been anchoring daily news casts as well as reporting and working behind the scenes. Community is important to him and keeping CJOC listeners and readers informed about what's happening across southern Alberta and beyond. Pat has been in radio broadcasting for the past 24 years, starting in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island in 1997 and then moving up island to Nanaimo for another few years before heading to Lethbridge in 2007. Pat grew up in the small Saskatchewan farming town of Foam Lake. After high school, he went to Western Academy Broadcasting College (WABC) in Saskatoon prior to moving to the island. Pat also spent several years broadcasting hockey in the BCHL as well as seven years as the radio voice of the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the WHL. Pat has been working at Cornerstone Funeral Home in Lethbridge as a Certified Life Celebrant and Funeral Assistant since 2016. News and sports have always been Pat's passion from the time he was a teenager and he's always been grateful to have had the opportunity to make that part of what's been a fun and long radio career!
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