Collegiate Sport Culture in Canada

By Luke Hyeon Kwan Shin, Guest Reporter

The University of Alberta (UOA) has Golden Bears, representing the male athletes, and Pandas, representing the female athletes. The sports teams vary from basketball, football, hockey, and soccer to curling, golf and wrestling. Hence, you could say that the school pays attention to many different types of sports. Because Canada’s national sport is hockey, the focus of the university sport teams is also on hockey. The Golden Bears are usually in the top 3 in the Western division, and the same goes for the Pandas. Personally, I have been to the sport events once so far and it definitely is capturing the attention of students but not as much as the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States.

UOA is a member of the Canada West Athletic Association, which means that UOA competes with schools in this association for every sport. Currently, there are 16 universities and they are post secondary institutions in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Most athletes receive majority to full funding for their degree from the university they attend and in return, they represent the school in this league.

When it comes to campus recreation, UOA offers a variety of activities to students. For registered students, the fees for the university fitness centre and the swimming pool are already paid for in their tuition. And the university offers martial arts and aerobics classes for an affordable price. I would say all the facilities are well-equipped and campus recreation is beneficial especially to students living on campus as most residences have their own fitness centre inside of the dormitories. And this is a significant thumbs-up because the weather in Edmonton can go down to -30 Celsius in winter.