The 2020 Summer Olympic Games are right around the corner. They run from July 23 to August 8, 2021.
This year, five athletes from Oakville will be representing Canada at this year’s summer games.They are Benjamin Preisner, Alanna Bray-Lougheed, Simon McTavish, William Jones, and Tessa Cieplucha.
Benjamin Preisner
The first athlete from Oakville is marathon runner Benjamin Preisner. Benjamin ran his first marathon in December of 2020 at the Marathon Project in Chandler, Arizona. Benjamin finished in eighth place with a time of 2:10:17, which was under the Olympic qualifying time of 2:11:30.
The University of Tulsa recruited Benjamin, and once he was there, he switched to the 10,000m races. In 2019 he represented Canada at the World University Games, where he finished ninth.
Alanna Bray-Lougheed
The next athlete we have is Canoe-Kayak sprinter Alanna Bray-Lougheed.
Alanna first got the taste of competitive competition when she won the War Canoe race at 15 years old at the Burloak Canoe Club back in 2009.
In 2012 Alanna won the senior C-4 200m national title and then repeated as champion the next year in 2013. She would also end up racing for team Ontario in 2013 at the Canada Summer Games, where she took home four medals.
Alanna would continue her successful career all the way to 2019, where she captured two Gold Medals at the Pan American Games. She now looks forward to her first-ever Olympic games.
Simon McTavish
The next athlete is Canoe-Kayak Sprinter Simon McTavish.
After living in Oakville for 11 years, Simon’s family moved to Australia, where he began his paddling journey.
Simon began to paddle at age 15 because his older brother also paddled. Simon played many sports but stuck with paddling because of his love of the water.
Simon represented Australia from 2012-2018, and his first competition was in 2012 when he competed in the Olympic Hopes regatta in Hungary.
Simon then went then competed in the 2014 World Junior Championships and also competed in the U23 championships. He then went on to win two gold medals in 2018 and even add a silver medal in the same year.
Then in 2019, he decided to play for Team Canada and compete with a maple leaf on his chest. His first competition as a member of Team Canada was at the first World Cup event of the year in Poznan, Poland. Mctavish and his crew finished fourth and made it to the B finals.
Later on in the year, his crew competed at the 2019 World Championships, qualifying for the 2020 Olympics.
William Jones
The next athlete is Sailler William Jones. Jones is the Skipper on the two-man team that consists of him and his crewmate Evan DePaul.
Jones teamed up with DePaul back in 2015 and then moved into their team boat “The 49er” the next year. In 2017, the duo won gold at the Junior World Championships in Kingston.
Jones and DePaul were given a spot on Canada’s 2020 Olympic roster after being the top Canadian boat at the 2020 World Championships.
Tessa Cieplucha
The final athlete is swimmer Tessa Cieplucha. Tessa first competed in 2014 at the FINA World Junior Open Water Championships, and then she competed in the 2015 FINA World Junior Championships.
Tessa also helped the University of Tennessee capture their ever SEC swimming championship in her senior year in 2019-20.
Tessa was also the only Canadian to win a gold medal in swimming in the 2019 Pan American Games. She finished in first place in the 400m individual medley, which required front crawl, back crawl, breaststroke, and butterfly.
The Town of Oakville will be represented by five incredible athletes who have worked very hard to achieve this milestone, and we wish them all the best of luck.