SASKATOON - After 30 years of service, Mark Bracken will be stepping down as a member of Team Saskatchewan. He has spent the last three decades helping to prepare the province’s athletes for every Western Canada Summer Games and Canada Games.
Bracken started as mission staff in the 1990 Manitoba WCSG in Winnipeg and served as the province’s Chef de Mission four times, including the recently concluded 2023 PEI Canada Winter Games in Charlottetown. He will be retiring in 2024.
The next Canada Games will be held in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, in the summer of 2025, while the host for the 2027 winter edition is yet to be awarded by the Canada Games Council.
Team Sask finished with a total of 20 medals in the PEI Winter Games, including three gold, seven silver, and 10 bronze. Speedskating had eight medals, with Luca Veeman winning five to become the province’s most bemedaled athlete. Rylee Miller won a medal of each color.
Despite the slowdown in the second week of the games, Bracken said Team Sask had a good performance overall and surpassed the medal count from the previous Winter Games held in Red Deer, Alberta, four years ago.
Bracken attributed the success of Team Sask to the support of sports organizations in the province and the dedication of coaches in preparing diverse teams, including para and Special Olympic athletes, to compete in all 20 sports. Saskatchewan's 217 athletes represented more than 60 communities in the province, with the remaining 100 members of the delegation serving as coaches, team managers, administrative and technical support staff, and communications, medical, and sports science teams.
Saskatchewan’s all-time medal tally is 817 medals in both games, with 103-160-197 in the summer and 95-108-153 in the winter since the games started in 1967.
Bracken added that Saskatchewan’s sports organizations would begin to look for and train the next group of athletes representing the province for the upcoming 2027 Winter Games.
