Listen to the story of our Olympians on CBC's Early Edition.
Watch the story, including an interview with Coach Ben Josephson, on CBC News.
Trinity Western University is sending five star athletes to the Olympic Games in Rio next month. With a student body of only 4,000, proportionately this result puts the Langley university miles ahead of the record-breaking UBC.
“I could not be more proud of these athletes and their coaches,” said TWU President Bob Kuhn. “Given the size of our student body, I think having six athletes chosen to be part of the Canadian Olympic team is astounding. This marks the first time TWU will see its grads at the Olympic games, but given the quality of the Spartans’ Complete Champion program, I know we’ll see more TWU grads competing for Canada in the future.”
Three of the athletes, Rudy Verhoeff, Dan Jansen Van Doorn, and Steve Marshall,will play on Team Canada’s men’s volleyball team—meaning a full 25 per cent of the team will hail from TWU. The roster was unveiled this morning by Volleyball Canada.
TWU’s Chaim Schalk will compete as part of Team Canada’s men’s beach volleyball team.Schalk spent three years with the TWU men’s volleyball team (2006–2009). In his final year (2008–09), he played alongside fellow Olympians Verhoeff, Jansen Van Doorn, and Marshall. All four men play in professional leagues today.
In addition, Adam Froese will be on Team Canada’s men’s field hockey roster. Froese has also spent time playing professionally abroad, competing in both Australia and Europe. A sixth TWU alum, Alison Jackson, qualified for Team Canada’s women’s cycling team as the non-traveling alternate.
Check out the Trinity Western community send-off to our Olympians: