Special Olympics P.E.I. names athletes to 2017 World Winter Games

Special Olympics Prince Edward Island will be represented by two athletes at the 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games, which take place in Austria in March 2017.

Janet Charchuk, of Alberton, will represent Team Canada in snowshoeing and Alyssa Chapman, of Murray Harbour, in figure skating.

Charity Sheehan, the executive director of Special Olympics P.E.I., said the athletes will be at the top level of competition.

"The World Winter Games event is the Olympics for Special Olympics. So it's the highest form of competition that an athlete can go to within the Special Olympics movement," she said.

"And so our athletes, the two that have been named to the team ... have been training for a number of years."

'A pretty big deal'

Special Olympics Team Canada will consist of 110 athletes, 35 mission staff and coaches, two team managers and one Chef de Mission.

The athletes were selected based on their performance at the recent Special Olympics Canada 2016 Winter Games in Corner Brook, Nfld.

"It's a pretty big deal to be able to get selected and to be part of the training team and now go through this process over the next number of months until they get to Austria," Sheehan said.

Team Canada will start on the road to Austria next week with their first official training camp for the games.

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