All athletes and staff of Alpine Canada Alpin (ACA) have safely left Russia.
At least 12 athletes were set to compete in Sunny Valley, Russia, last weekend (Feb. 25-27), including multiple world cup gold medallist Kris Mahler of Canmore, but ACA scrambled to secure flights out of the region "as soon as possible" following the European country's bloody military invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
ACA confirmed all athletes and staff have exited Russia, but did not comment further.
In a social media post on Saturday (Feb. 26), Mahler said it was unsafe for the team to race in Russia with the escalation of the Ukraine conflict.
"I’m grateful [ACA] was able to help us get home," he said. "These times have been crazy from worldwide pandemic to full fledged War. It’s time we take a serious time out. It’s time we really think about what we as people want our future to look like. I’ve decided to take the next week off and fly home to Canada. My sport seems meaningless when there are people loosing their lives to the power and destruction of war. I’m still grappling with the reality of it all. I will continue to ski and with two more races this season I still have work to do. These events will change the dynamic of the world, how we react will be the real test."
The Sunny Valley roster of athletes included Mahler, Reece Howden, Kevin Drury, Brady Leman, Jared Schmidt, Christopher Delbosco, Zoe Chore, Tiana Garins, Hannah Schmidt, Courtney Hoffos, Marielle Thompson, and Brittany Phelan. ACA did not say how many more personnel were with the team.
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