Prince George, B.C. – The Federal Minister of State for Sport, Bal Gosal, has been busy  handing  out medals to  the highest achievers  in sport  this weekend  as he visits various venues of the Canada Winter Games,  and he is  expecting 2015  to  really  put Canadian Athletes on the sports map of the world.

( at right, Minsiter Gosal  awards a Gold Medal to a Synchronized swimmer from Quebec)

“Canada is  hosting something like 120 different  sporting events throughout 2015” says Minister Gosal “It started with the World Juniors Hockey, and it was an honour to present the gold medal to  our kids, an amazing feeling.”

And now it’s the Canada Winter Games, the only  event of its kind in the world, where athletes from  one nation  get to  compete at the highest level in the country in  Games that  consist of multiple disciplines, it is, says Gosal,  a stepping stone for athletes ” Young athletes learn how to compete, respect  each other, cheer on each other, get to know each other and that helps in their athletic  careers, whether  its Olympic or Paralympic  Games.”

Gosal says  athletes  gain a great deal of  confidence through events like the Canada Winter Games,  “Then they get prepared  for bigger events.”

“Canada is a leading sport nation” says Gosal, as the  country prepares to host the Pan American and  Para-Pan  Games,  an event that will see venues  spread  around Lake Ontario from Oshawa to  Welland .  There’s also the Women’s FIFA soccer tournament in June which will also  attract  international attention.   And when Canadian  athletes  do well,  they  inspire others to follow suit “Look at Egenie Bouchard, and Milos Raonic. Last summer, I was at UBC and the amount of  kids involved in the tennis  academy there was overflowing.  These are such inspirational role models for all Canadians ( who inspire) more and more  people to get involved in physical activity and that helps the country.”

“I think sports is something that creates healthy  communities” says Gosal.   With  childhood obesity and  diabetes on the rise in Canada,  he says  there are challenges, “I think what I would like to see is getting provinces to get mandatory physical education in junior kindergarten to grade 12”. He says  all levels of government have a role to play  “We all  work together, I just met with the Provincial Ministers, but I still  would like to see mandatory physical education  from junior kindergarten to grade 12 in each and every province and territory.”