Aldergrove athlete Megan Champoux is one of the 354 athletes, 52 coaches, 27 managers and 22 mission staff to represent British Columbia and compete against the best athletes in the country at the 2017 Canada Summer Games.
Team BC is ready to take on the best athletes in the country at the 2017 Canada Summer Games, which open in Winnipeg on July 28. Competition will take place in 16 sports against teams from Canada’s 13 provinces and territories.
The 2017 Canada Summer Games marks the 50th anniversary of the Canada Games and coincides with Canada’s 150th birthday. Special celebrations in Winnipeg will mark the importance of the Games to our country.
Team BC finished third behind Ontario and Quebec at the 2013 Canada Summer Games with 122 medals and Team BC is expected to be a top performer once again at these Games. Fifty-seven per cent of the Team BC athletes and coaches have previously competed at the BC Winter or BC Summer Games, bringing with them valuable multi-sport games experience.
Aldergrove’s Megan Champoux, 17, is a perfect example of the skill levels BC. athletes are bringing to the games.
She not only won the gold medal at the 2016 Royal Canadian Legion track and field championships in Quebec, but she also set a meet record in the youth girls’ 400m hurdles race. Champoux also helped Team BC win bronze in the 4x400 relay.
Champoux was also part of the Fraser Valley (Zone 3) team that hurdled and hauled in multiple gold medals at the 2014 BC Summer Games in Nanaimo.
In the girls 80 metre hurdles, Champoux won gold after she clocked a time of 11.88 seconds. She edged out Vancouver-Squamish’s (Zone 6) Emma Rastad by 0.12 seconds.
Champoux also ran in the 400m hurdles for Canada at the 2015 World Youth Games in Cali, Colombia.
Hurdling comes naturally for Champoux. Growing up, riding horses has been a daily habit for the teenager, who recently completed grade 12.
She has been riding since she was three or four years old, but her mom Sarah wanted her daughter — then nine years old — to give another sport a try, to go alongside her equestrian passion.
And while Champoux was a bit hesitant to try track and field, the sport came naturally, she told Black Press reporter Gary Ahuja two years ago.
“When I was little, I used to go outside and I used to jump and pretend I was a horse,” Champoux explained.
“But then the hurdles just came naturally; I had been jumping my whole life. It just stuck.”
She is a member of the Langley Mustangs Track and Field Club.
“Megan is one of the most dedicated athletes and has a real passion for competition,” said Jarid Vaughn, her coach with the Mustangs. He said that she rarely has to be told something twice and has a fantastic work ethic.
She is also an accomplished equestrian athlete. Champoux is hoping to compete at the Grand Prix level and is currently showing in the 1.25m and junior hunter divisions.
