Chilliwack is a city of about 100,000 people and 261 km2 (100 sq mi) in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is located about 100 km (62 mi) east of the City of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley. The enumerated population is 93,203 in the city and 113,767 in the greater metropolitan area.
The UBC Thunderbirds are the athletic teams that represent the University of British Columbia. In Canadian intercollegiate competition, the Thunderbirds are the most successful athletic program both regionally in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association, and nationally in U Sports, winning 116 national titles. UBC has won an additional 20 national titles competing in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics against collegiate competition from the United States and 40 national titles in sports that compete in independent competitions.
Baraladei Daniel Igali is a Nigerian-Canadian wrestler. He won Canada's first ever Olympic gold medal in wrestling at the 2000 Summer Olympics and remains Canada's only male Olympic gold medalist in wrestling.
The University of the Fraser Valley (UFV), formerly known as University College of the Fraser Valley and Fraser Valley College, is a public university with campuses in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Mission and Hope, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1974 as Fraser Valley College, it was a response to the need for expanded vocational training in the communities of the Fraser Valley. In 1991, it became a university college, with degree-granting status. As the University College of the Fraser Valley, it grew rapidly, becoming one of the largest university colleges in Canada.
Fraser Valley Mariners is a Canadian soccer team based in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 2003, the team plays in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference.
Dame Valerie Kasanita Adams is a retired New Zealand shot putter. She is a four-time World champion, four-time World Indoor champion, two-time Olympic, three-time Commonwealth Games champion and twice IAAF Continental Cup winner. She has a personal best throw of 21.24 metres (69.7 ft) outdoors and 20.98 metres (68.8 ft) indoors. These marks are Oceanian, Commonwealth and New Zealand national records. She also holds the Oceanian junior record (18.93 m) and the Oceanian youth record (17.54 m), as well as the World Championships record, World Indoor Championships record and Commonwealth Games record.
The men's hammer throw was one of six throwing events on the Athletics at the 1908 Summer Olympics programme in London. The competition was held on July 14, 1908. 19 throwers from eight nations competed. NOCs could enter up to 12 athletes. The event was won by American John Flanagan, his third consecutive victory in the event. He was the first man to win three medals in the hammer throw and, as of the 2016 Games, the only one to win three gold medals in the event. The silver medal went to fellow American Matt McGrath. Con Walsh of Canada took bronze and became the first athlete not from the United States to win a medal in the event, as the Americans had swept the podium in both 1900 and 1904. The three medalists were all part of the Irish Whales.
Anatoliy Pavlovych Bondarchuk is a retired Ukrainian hammer thrower who competed for the Soviet Union. An Olympic gold medallist, he is also regarded as one of the most accomplished hammer throw coaches of all time. He is the author of a two-volume book Transfer of Training, which was translated from Russian to English by Michael Yessis.
Nicola Vizzoni is a male hammer thrower from Italy. He won the silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics and ten years later at the 2010 European Athletics Championships. His personal best throw is 80.50 metres, achieved in July 2001 in Formia.
Dylan Armstrong is a Canadian athletics coach and retired competitive shot putter. He is the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist, a two-time World Athletics Championships medalist, a two-time Pan American Games champion, and the 2010 Commonwealth Games champion in that discipline. He was awarded his Olympic bronze medal in 2015, seven years after the event, following the doping disqualification of competitor Andrei Mikhnevich.
The Valley Royals Track & Field Club is an athletics club based out of Abbotsford, British Columbia. Their uniforms are royal blue, red, and white, and their head coach is Trevor Wight and club advisor is the legendary Gerry Swan. The club is based out of Jane & Gerry Swan Track at Rotary Stadium, although they also have training groups in the Burnaby/Coquitlam area.
Anita Włodarczyk is a Polish hammer thrower. She is the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympic champion, and the first woman in history to throw the hammer over 80 m; she currently holds the women's world record of 82.98 m. She is considered the greatest hammer thrower of all time.
Greg Edgelow is a retired freestyle wrestler from Canada and is a nationally certified Wrestling Coach and Indigenous Coach with Cree Ancestral Heritage and European mix. In 2018, Greg was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame, Indigenous Gallery and 2024 inducted into the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame. He represented Canada at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain and won a bronze medal at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle, two bronze medals at the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana, Cuba and a gold medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria. He is an eight-time Canadian senior champion. Edgelow is the only Canadian to win a medal in wrestling (bronze) at the Goodwill Games ever. He is also the only Canadian wrestler to win four separate consecutive senior weight classes in Freestyle. His last national title was in 1998, the same year that he represented Canada at the World Championships in Tehran, Iran.
John Maxwell Carr was a New Zealand field athlete and coach, athletics official, and air force officer. He represented his country at the 1950 and 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, and served as a wing commander in the Royal New Zealand Air Force. In later years, he won three World Masters hammer throw titles.
Eden Donatelli is a Canadian short track speed skating coach and former athlete. Donatelli is an Olympic medalist and ten-time championship medalist in the sport.
The UFV Cascades are the athletic teams that represent the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia and currently compete in the Canada West conference of U Sports. The Cascades varsity teams include basketball, golf, soccer, and volleyball; and clubs for baseball, rowing, and rugby sevens.
Subedar Major Neeraj Chopra is an Indian track and field athlete, who is the reigning Olympic champion and World champion in Men's javelin throw. He is the first Asian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in javelin and the first Asian to win gold in his event at the World Championship. A Junior commissioned officer in the Indian Army, Chopra is the first track and field athlete to win a gold medal for India at the Olympics. He is also the first track and field athlete from India to win at the World Under-20 Championships, where in 2016 he achieved a world U20 record throw of 86.48 m, becoming the first Indian athlete to set a world record.
Lara Mussell Savage is a world champion in Ultimate, earning a gold medal in both 2000 and 2004, as well as bronze medals in 1998 and 2008. Leading up to 2010, Lara was a part of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) as Project Manager for Aboriginal Sport and Youth. Previous to this, she was the Operations Manager for the Air Canada PGA Tour Championship. Adding to her resume, in 2015 Mussell Savage became an ambassador for viaSport’s Gender Equity #LevelTheField campaign promoting gender equity in sport and became a Trustee for the British Columbia (BC) Sports Hall of Fame & Museum.
The Vancouver Bandits are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Langley, British Columbia, that compete in the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL). The Bandits play home games at Langley Events Centre, located in the Fraser Valley. They were formerly known as the Fraser Valley Bandits but after a sale of the team, the name was changed to the Vancouver Bandits.
Camryn Rogers is a Canadian athlete specializing in the hammer throw. She is the reigning Olympic and World champion in that discipline, in both cases the first Canadian woman to win that title, and only the second Canadian woman to win gold at the World Athletics Championships in any discipline. Her Olympic gold medal was the first for a Canadian woman in track and field in 96 years.
