U Sports cancels winter national championships

Stingers action looking less and less likely next semester

SportsWilliam Cockerell — Published October 16, 2020

The difficult decision was made as COVID-19 remains an issue across the country, with some provinces seeing recent spikes in the number of cases.  

With the announcement coming from U Sports this past Thursday, there will officially be no winter national championships held in men’s and women’s hockey, basketball, swimming, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling.

The decision came after representatives from the four university sports conferences and U Sports spoke this past week. According to interim CEO of U Sports Dick White, they concluded that it was not possible to hold the 2021 winter national championships.

“Following consultations with the four conferences, we agreed student athlete safety remains our top priority,” said White in a press release. “It is not logistically possible for teams to be travelling across the country at this time. Therefore, U Sports is in the unfortunate position where we are unable to offer the 2021 winter championships.”

Previously, U Sports made the decision to cancel the national championships being held during the fall season due to COVID-19.

The Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec made a separate announcement the same day that all university sports activities in Quebec are suspended until further notice. The suspension of activity will be upheld until at least Jan. 15, 2021.