Here are five things to know about the 2024 Saskatchewan Summer Games, which run from July 21-27 in Lloydminster …
While the world will be watching the Olympic Summer Games from Paris over the next few weeks, Lloydminster will host the next generation of potential Olympians from Saskatchewan over the next few days.
Here are five things to know about the 2024 Saskatchewan Summer Games, which run from July 21-27:
1 — Thousands of competitors, volunteers
More than 1,800 athletes (mostly between the ages of 11 and 18), coaches and officials from nine districts will take part. The Games, which require more than 1,000 volunteers, feature competitors in 14 sports: archery, athletics, baseball, basketball, beach volleyball, canoe kayak, golf, soccer, softball, Special Olympics bocce, swimming, tennis, triathlon, volleyball and wheelchair basketball.
“The Saskatchewan Games will connect thousands of people through sport — the camaraderie and connection that hosting the Games brings to a community is truly something to experience,” event co-chair Wendy Plandowski said.
2 — Return of the Games
These are the first Saskatchewan Summer Games since 2016.
The most recent edition was scheduled for the summer of 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The rescheduled event was set for the summer of 2021 but due to ongoing health and safety concerns amidst the pandemic, the Games were cancelled. Lloydminster was given right of first refusal to host the 2024 Games.
The Saskatchewan Winter Games were also affected by the pandemic. The January 2022 event was postponed due to an outbreak caused by a COVID-19 variant, delaying the competition for 13 months until February 2023.
Saskatchewan Games Council executive director Greg Perreaux offered “sincere gratitude to the many partners, volunteers, and community champions who have put so much energy into the planning of these Games. It takes a village to deliver the Saskatchewan Games, and we can’t wait to work together to deliver this once-in-a-lifetime experience to our province’s young athletes.”
3 — Meet the districts
The nine districts making up the competition are Saskatoon; Regina; Lakeland (Prince Albert, Nipawin, Melfort); North (La Ronge, Cumberland House, Pelican Narrows, La Loche, Stony Rapids); Parkland Valley (Yorkton, Melville, Esterhazy); Prairie Central (Warman, Humboldt, Kelvington, Fort Qu’Appelle, Outlook); Rivers West (North Battleford, Lloydminster, Rosetown, Biggar, Kindersley, Meadow Lake); South East (Weyburn, Estevan, Broadview, Balgonie, Whitewood); and South West (Moose Jaw, Assiniboia, Swift Current, Maple Creek).
4 — Long-lasting legacy
Community venues and facilities have experienced major facelifts in advance of the 2020, and now the 2024, Summer Games.
Among the improvements are upgrades to the VLA soccer fields, purchase of a sport court to improve the wheelchair basketball event, expansion of the beach volleyball facilities, surfacing and resurfacing of track and field venues, upgrades to the community ball diamonds, and a variety of new equipment purchases. In all, more than $1 million has been invested into community legacies.
The Games are expected to generate around $5 million in economic activity for the city and surrounding areas.
“We’re proud of our world-class sports and recreation facilities, and the opportunity to enhance and upgrade our city’s amenities,” Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers said.
5 — Games date back five decades
The Saskatchewan Games originated in 1972 when Roy Romanow, then in charge of the Saskatchewan Youth Agency, introduced the inaugural Saskatchewan Games that summer in Moose Jaw. The province was divided into eight competitor zones, with Saskatoon and Regina each considered individual zones.
To encourage smaller cities to host the events, and because they often bid for or host national and international events, Saskatoon and Regina are considered ineligible to bid for the Saskatchewan Games. The lone exception: 2023 in Regina, when organizers noted the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic still being felt more in smaller communities than the province’s two biggest cities.
Since 1972, the Saskatchewan Games have typically been held every two years: in the summer, then two years later in the winter.
Moose Jaw has held four Saskatchewan Games, the most of any community in the province: 1972 and 1996 (summer) and also 1978 and 2010 (winter).
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