Kady Dandeneau of Pender Island and Ryan Bester are set to lead Team Canada into the Opening Ceremony of the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Dandeneau, a member of Canada’s women’s 3×3 wheelchair basketball team, will carry the Canadian flag, while lawn bowler Bester will wield the team baton. The ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, July 23.
Dandeneau expressed her honour in a release from Commonwealth Sport Canada, stating that representing Team Canada and the Canadian sport community in this capacity is incredibly special. She hopes to inspire young athletes, particularly those in adaptive sport, to believe in their potential. Dandeneau previously competed with Canada’s first 3×3 women’s wheelchair basketball team at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, where they earned a gold medal.
For Bester, this marks his seventh Commonwealth Games, a Canadian record. He has previously secured silver medals in men’s singles in 2014 and 2018, along with a bronze in 2006. Bester, who is the reigning world champion in lawn bowls, will also be in action on Day 1 of the Games, facing India.
Vancouver Island Athletes Represent Canada
Several athletes from Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands will be representing Team Canada at the Games. In addition to Dandeneau, these athletes include Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, who will compete in the men’s hammer throw.
Katzberg earned a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and a world championship title in Budapest the following year. He also secured a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games with an 84.12-metre throw. In Tokyo, he claimed his second world championship title, breaking his own record and the world championship record with an 84.70-metre throw.
Michael Barber of Victoria, B.C., will represent Team Canada in the men’s 1500m T20. Barber placed ninth in the men’s T20 1500m at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in Paris, setting a personal best and a Canadian record with a time of 3:58.64. His father, Gary Barber, also competed for Team Canada at the 1990 Commonwealth Games.
Mary Jibb, who trains with the Pacific Seawolves Swim Club, is representing Canada in the Para swimming event. Jibb earned Canada’s first gold medal of the week on day two of the 2025 Toyota World Para Swimming Championships in the women’s 200-metre individual medley SM9.
Games Overview and Canadian Team
The 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, will feature more than 3,000 athletes from 74 countries and territories. Team Canada comprises 148 athletes, including 35 Para athletes who will compete in 3×3 wheelchair basketball, Para swimming, Para athletics, and Para lawn bowls. There are six Para sports at the Games, all contributing to each country’s total medal count.
Commonwealth Sport Canada projects Canada to rank among the top three nations in total medals. The Canadian team, led by chef de mission Erica Wiebe, includes 91 officials. The Games will run from July 23 to August 2. The schedule has been reduced to 10 sports: artistic gymnastics, athletics, 3×3 basketball, boxing, judo, lawn bowls, netball, swimming, track cycling, and weightlifting, with para competition in athletics, 3×3 basketball, bowls, swimming, track cycling, and weightlifting.
Canada has participated in every Commonwealth Games since hosting the inaugural event in Hamilton in 1930 and is currently ranked third on the all-time Games medal table. In 2022, Canadian athletes secured 92 medals, placing third behind Australia and England. The 51-person track team for Glasgow includes 25 Olympians, among them sprinters Andre De Grasse, Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney, and Jerome Blake, decathlete Damian Warner, hammer throwers Camryn Rogers and Ethan Katzberg, and shot putter Sarah Mitton. Swimmers Kylie Masse and Josh Liendo, along with weightlifter Maude Charron, are also competing.
The lawn bowls competition will feature a new indoor format on an artificial surface, with shortened game times. Previously, singles games were won by the first to 21 points, lasting 90 minutes to two hours. The Glasgow games will consist of two seven-end sets with a one-end tiebreaker if needed, reducing game time to about an hour. Bester, who is seeded fifth, believes this format will create a good competition and open up opportunities for more countries to win gold. These format changes are part of an effort to include bowls in the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane. Canada has won 12 Commonwealth Games bowls medals but has not reached the podium since Bester’s silver in 2018.
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Source: cheknews.ca
