The 2026 Manitoba Winter Games will mark the biggest competition yet for many Manitoba athletes heading to Thompson in March.
This year marks the long-awaited return of the Winter Games, last held in 2018 after the 2022 edition was cancelled due to COVID-19.
Some athletes have had the Games marked on their calendars for months, others for just days, due to stretched-out qualification processes across various sports.
In gymnastics, Selkirk Selects Gymnastics Club athletes Jaycee Berezowski (Selkirk), Kayci Robertson (Clandeboye), Natalie Garner (West St. Paul) and Hailey Olfert (East Selkirk) saw their Manitoba Games dream realized just a few weeks ago when they qualified on Jan. 31.
By qualifying, all four will join Team East Region in their quest to bring hardware back to the Interlake.
“Manitoba Games is a big accomplishment. This is definitely going to be the biggest competition they’ve ever gotten to go to so far,” said Nicole Mulder, head coach and program director of Selkirk Selects.
Robertson and Garner will compete in Level 4, while Berezowski and Olfert will compete in Level 3 in Thompson, with gymnastics running from March 1-4.
They will also be accompanied by Selects coach Harrison Douglas, who will also be making his first appearance at the Games.
Formerly a gymnast with the Selects, Douglas has used his expertise to coach the current generation over the past five years and is now excited to see four of his athletes get their Manitoba Games opportunity.
“We’ve been training extra hard, and the girls have been putting in extra work as well because they really want to do well at this meet. To qualify, they were really excited to have the opportunity,” said Douglas.
The athletes train between eight and 10 hours a week at the club and have attended multiple invitational tournaments over the course of the season.
For the Selects, 2025-26 has seen continual growth in new gymnasts and their accomplishments.
They now have athletes up to Level 6 who are training for provincial competitions.
Coaches such as Mulder, Douglas and Riley Adams have played large roles in the athletes moving up levels.
Selects has also increased its coaching investment, with coaches continuously advancing their certification levels.
To Mulder, having five total members from the club attending the Games is an example of hard work paying off.
“I think it just shows how much development there has been in a smaller program,” said Mulder. “To have four athletes going, we have as many athletes going as some of the bigger city clubs on the East team. I think that shows the commitment from our coaches, and we also have a really great parent board. We’re expanding so quickly we’ll probably need a new space soon.”
