A Saanich skier is becoming a familiar face at the U23 world championships.
For the third year in a row, Amelia Wells has qualified to race for Canada at the FIS U23 World Ski Championships. She is the only Vancouver Islander to have ever qualified to compete for Canada on the FIS World Cup Ski Circuit.
The 22-year-old Reynolds Secondary grad will be joined by athletes from over 30 nations to compete in three Nordic skiing disciplines (cross-country skiing, Nordic combined and ski jumping) in the northern Italian alpine municipality of Bergamo-Schilpario from Feb. 3-9. She has also been selected to the Nordiq Canada World Cup Period 3 Team and will compete from Jan. 24 to Feb. 17 in World Cup races in Switzerland and Sweden.
Wells, from the Strathcona Nordic Ski Club, was happy with her results at the 2025 Nordiq Canada Selection Trials held in Thunder Bay, Ont. earlier this month.
“I’m really excited. Just to qualify on the first day is really a nice feeling. I had a good qualifier this morning and good heats. So, I’m super-excited to be going over to Italy to represent Canada,” said Wells who is studying at the University of Calgary and training with the Alberta World Cup Academy.
Wells will compete in the Engadin World Cup in Switzerland, Jan. 24-26, before travelling to Seefeld, Austria, to join the Junior/U23 Worlds pre-camp. Following the U23 World Ski Championships in Italy she will compete in the Falun World Cup in Sweden.
During the 2023-24 season, Wells competed in FIS World Cup events across Scandinavia and in the U.S.A. and at the 2024 FIS U23 World Ski Championships in Planica, Slovenia.
