Team Canada 

A letter from Mike Waddington 

Over the last 12 months Team Canada has won the senior and junior trophies at the NorAm Champs, had our best sprint World Champs relay result and earlier this summer placed 11th in the men’s relay at the World Champs. Add to this a few NorAm junior and senior titles last summer, an excellent 16th place by Vegard Jarvis Westergård in the World Champs long distance this summer, and it has been a great year for Team Canada. 

 But Team Canada has bigger goals and to reach that goal we need a bigger and better team. We are actively recruiting top Canadian orienteers to join our Team Canada Program for 2026. Team Canada hopes to send full teams to the World Sprint Champs, multiple World Cups, the Junior World Champs, the World University Champs, and more! New for 2026 is a selection process for the European Youth Champs.

 We are specifically recruiting athletes who are striving for their utmost potential in orienteering, are interested in competing internationally, demonstrate the Team Canada values, and want to work with a team of like-minded athletes and coaches. If you know of any athletes that fit that description, please let them know that Team Canada Program application information can be found in the 2026 Team Canada Program Handbook (link below). We have streamlined the application process to make it easier for athletes to apply. The application period is from October 15 to November 15, 2025.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10WjYyoApc6YUNQBbekea3-SWjD1Wto8YX-VdkSspGXA/edit?tab=t.0

 The Team Canada Program is also recruiting volunteers interested in being involved in coaching, map making, fundraising, hosting training camps, and more. I am especially keen to develop a “TCP Geek Squad” of map nerds like me that can make maps, set courses, analyze race and training GPS data, etc. to assist our TCP athletes in their prep. 

 -Mike Waddington