The York red and white will be well represented at the 2019 FISU Summer Universiade as former Lion Brittany Crew, current Lion Asia Hogan-Rochester and current Lion Kaitlyn Wiens were named members of the team by U SPORTS.
Brittany Crew (left) and Asia Hogan-Rochester (right)
The 2019 FISU Games will take place from July 3 to 14 in Naples, Italy. Canada will compete in 12 sports, including athletics, basketball (men and women), diving, fencing, gymnastics (artistic and rhythmic), soccer (women only), swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, rugby sevens (men and women), volleyball (men and women) and water polo (women only). All teams were selected in partnership with each respective national sports organization or are being managed by the U SPORTS national office. The full delegation totals more than 300, including student-athletes, coaches, staff and medical personnel.
Crew, one of the Lions' most decorated track and field athletes of all time, will compete in her third FISU Games after winning the bronze medal in shot put in 2015 and gold in 2017. The 2016 Olympian just completed her final season at York, where she won her third York female athlete of the year award thanks to an outstanding 2018-19 season. In four seasons with the Lions, Crew racked up six U SPORTS gold medals and one silver medal as well as seven Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championship gold medals in the shot put and weight throw events combined. She is ranked seventh in the world in the shot put and is currently on the road to qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Hogan-Rochester, a teammate of Crew's last season on the Lions track and field team, will suit up on the Canadian women's rugby sevens team, as the dual sport athlete will make her FISU Games debut. She was a rookie in 2018-19 on both the Lions track and field and rugby teams, starting all seven games for the rugby team and using her speed to score one try in the regular season and three in the Lions' 36-24 playoff win over the Trent Excalibur.
Wiens, a student at York's Glendon Campus, will represent Canada in taekwondo. The Lions will also be represented on the FISU Games mission staff, as Lions Sports Medicine & Sports Injury Clinic manager Andrea Prieur was named chief therapist for Canada's medical staff.
Canada finished in 16th at the 2017 FISU Summer Universiade in Taipei City, Chinese Taipei, with 13 medals (four gold, five silver, four bronze). This year's games will feature more than 9,300 athletes from 128 countries. The opening ceremony will be held on July 3 at 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT (9 p.m. local time).
See the full schedule for the 2019 FISU Summer Universiade.