TORONTO, ONT – Nine Canadian snowboarders are bound for the Lake Placid 2023 FISU Winter Games. 

On Thursday, U SPORTS, in association with Canada Snowboard, named snowboard cross athletes Alexandre Cadieux (Ottawa, ON), Anthony Gervais-Marcoux (Saint-Apollinaire, QC), Clara Chapman (Sutton, QC) and Bridget MacLean (Glen Haven, NS).

Meanwhile, the alpine snowboard team will be made of twins Adam and Jacob Farber (Toronto, ON), as well as, Gabriel Wood (North York, ON) and Andrew Behan (Toronto, ON), with Justin Carpentier (Montreal, QC) joining as an alternate. 

The Farber twins, 20, of Laurier University, will draw the attention of global opponents after Adam finished 4th in the 2022 World Junior Championship slalom in Italy. 

Jonah Cantelon of Midhurst, Ontario, will be Canada’s only freestyle representative heading to the Adirondack region. 

While most of the group is new to the FISU Games, Cadieux raced at the Kransoyark 2019 event, the last Games and the last time ski and snowboard cross were included in the Games program. 

No snowboard cross athletes were named to the Lucerne 2021 Canadian delegation, as the sport was left off the program. 

Danielle Courchesne will lead the alpine team as head coach, while Elisabeth Schwable-Côté will head the snowboard cross tea. 

“I can’t wait to represent Canada once again in snowboard cross,” said Cadieux, a member of the 2022-2023 Ontario provincial team, in a release. “I am also looking forward to meeting new people and competing on a new track with challenging features.”

The Canadian team will head to Gore Mountain in New York from Jan. 12-22, looking to continue the nation’s success on the world university stage. 

Continuing success for the FISU team

Canadian university student-athletes have won five medals in snowboard events through the history of the FISU University Winter Games, with Brendan Davis, now 41, claiming halfpipe medals, including gold at Innsbruck 2005 and Torino 2007. 

After his FISU experience, Davis went on to 12 Team Canada World Cup appearances, winning bronze at a Stoneham, QC event in 2007. 

Mitch Baker won the first Canadian snowboarding medal at the FISU Games in the giant slalom in the inaugural FISU Winter Games of 1999. 

Canadian athletes, however, had never had more success than they did at the Krasnoyarsk 2019 Games when  Will Malisch raced to the gold medal, and Beijing 2022 Olympian Audrey McManiman came away with bronze.