Double Medal Win in Cross-country Skiing at Canada Games

Cross-country skiier Erica Noonan has won Team Newfoundland and Labrador’s (Team NL) fifth medal at the 2011 Canada Winter Games. Today, Ms. Noonan won a bronze in the para-Nordic women’s 1000-metre sprint race – a great follow-up to her bronze medal win in yesterday’s (Monday, February 21) para-Nordic women’s standing 2.5-kilometre freestyle race.

“I’m delighted to see yet another young athlete from this province to medal not once, but twice at the Canada Games,” said the Honourable Terry French, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation. “Athletes like Erica are inspirational to those of us cheering them on back home.”

Ms. Noonan, a native of Stephenville, has been a member of the Whaleback cross-country club in Stephenville for almost 11 years as a recreational skier. She began skiing competitively just over a year ago. At the 2011 Eastern Canadian Cross-Country Ski Championships held in Quebec earlier this month, she won a silver medal in the women’s para-Nordic standing 10-kilometre class mass start race and a bronze in women’s para-Nordic standing 1.4-kilometre sprint free race.

No stranger to the Canada Games, Ms. Noonan also won three silver medals as a swimmer with a disability (SWAD) at the 2009 Canada Summer Games in Prince Edward Island in the 100-metre breaststroke, 100-metre butterfly, and 200-metre individual medley. In addition, Ms. Noonan was Team NL’s flag bearer for the closing ceremonies at the 2009 Canada Summer Games, and was selected to represent Newfoundland and Labrador as an official torchbearer during the 2010 Paralympic Torch Relay in Ottawa.

To date, Team NL has won five medals – one silver and four bronze – at these games.

Team NL is made up of a contingent of more than 200 athletes, volunteer coaches, managers and mission staff which includes 15 individual teams, participating in 13 sports. The 2011 Canada Winter Games are being held in Halifax, Nova Scotia until February 27. For the latest information, updates and results for Team NL during the 2011 Canada Winter Games, visit: www.teamnl.ca/ 

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Media contact:
Diana Quinton
Director of Communications
Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation
709-729-0928, 631-8155
DianaQuinton@gov.nl.ca 

2011 02 22             4:05 p.m.