Team Manitoba won its first gold medal at the 2023 Canada Winter Games on Wednesday. In the female 500 metre speed skating event in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Sofia Bieber of Winnipeg placed first for her third medal at the Canada Winter Games to date. She also won the silver medal in the female 1500 metre speed skating event on Tuesday and another silver medal in the female speed skating team pursuit on Wednesday.
Bieber had a winning time of 42.25 seconds. Maya Leuders of Calgary, Alberta won the silver medal with a time of 42.76 seconds. Camille Tremblay of Rimouski, Quebec won the bronze medal with a time of 43.49 seconds. Bieber reached the podium by 1.44 seconds over Cloe Jelonek of Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly, Quebec, who had a fourth place time of 43.69 seconds. Maya Leuders is the daughter of Canadian Olympic gold medalist Pierre Leuders, who placed first in the two-man event in men’s bobsled with Dave McEachern at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano.
In all, Manitoba is seventh in the medal standings with four medals, with Bieber contributing to three medals. Manitoba’s other medal, a silver, came in female doubles table tennis. Quebec and British Columbia are currently tied in the overall medal standings with 25 medals each.
