27 Medals, One Zone: Peace Country's Athletes Deliver at the 2026 Alberta Summer Games
For four days in Sherwood Park, a couple hundred kids from across the Peace Country pulled on the green of Zone 8 and went to work. When the 2026 Alberta Summer Games closed on July 19, they had 27 medals to show for it — 5 gold, 8 silver and 14 bronze — and a results sheet that runs 385 lines deep across 18 sports.
That is not a number to whisper. Zone 8 is the most remote team at these Games, and one of the smallest. Its athletes drive hours to reach a full-size track or a 50-metre pool that the big-city zones have around the corner. Every one of those 27 medals was earned uphill.
The same haul as the Winter Games — and a step up the table
Here is the line that ought to make Peace Country stand a little taller. At the 2024 Alberta Winter Games in Grande Prairie, Zone 8 won exactly 27 medals — five gold, seven silver, 15 bronze — and finished seventh. This summer, on the road, against a different slate of sports, they matched that medal count to the number, tilted the mix toward more silver, and finished sixth of 8 zones. A team that traded a home crowd for a five-hour bus ride did not just hold its ground — it climbed a place up the table!
For context, the Games are dominated by the population centres. Zone 3 — Central topped the table; the other big population zones followed. Zone 8 finished ahead of the Southwest and Southeast zones — zones closer to Alberta's big population belts than the Peace ever gets.
<aside class="si-live" data-live-note><span class="si-live-dot"></span><div><b class="si-live-h">Medal counts are still being tallied.</b> <span class="si-live-b">Zone 8's total stands at <b>27</b> (5 gold, 8 silver, 14 bronze) and may still rise as final results are confirmed. The figures on this page update themselves from the Games' own medal table, so what you are reading is current — check it against the <a href="https://albertagames.rampregistrations.com/results" target="_blank" rel="noopener">official Alberta Summer Games results portal</a> any time.</span></div></aside>
Where the medals came from
Track and field did the heavy lifting: the athletics team alone accounted for 15 of the 27 medals — and every one of its golds. It also finished third overall in the athletics team standings, third in both the boys' and girls' scores, well ahead of the zone's sixth-place finish across all 18 sports. Coach Christopher Nelissen's account of those three days on the track is [here](alberta-summer-games).
The 385 Zone 8 results span the full program — Athletics, Swimming, Baseball, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Canoe-Kayak, Mountain Biking, Golf, Lacrosse, Rugby, Soccer, Softball and Tennis. The track and the pool did the heaviest lifting, as they tend to, but the team-sport rosters — baseball, both basketballs, both lacrosse squads, both rugby sides, both soccer teams, softball — put dozens of Peace Country kids on the floor and the pitch against the province's best.
And this was genuinely a regional team, not a Grande Prairie one wearing a regional name. The roughly 200 athletes came from more than 20 communities. Grande Prairie and the County sent the most, as you'd expect, but the roster also carried Peace River, Wembley, Beaverlodge, Fairview, Grovedale, Sexsmith, La Crete, La Glace, Hythe, Manning, Valleyview, Spirit River, Bezanson, Wanham, Clairmont, Worsley, Gordondale, Donnelly, Cadotte Lake and more. When a kid from Worsley or La Crete throws in a green singlet, a whole town gets to claim a piece of it.
The ones who came up just short
A medal table never tells you about the fourth-place finishes — the ones decided by a stride, a tenth of a second, a single centimetre. Zone 8 had a pile of them, and they are the athletes to watch in two years. Kehlan Duncan of the County ran a 3:28 in the U16 1200m. Beaverlodge's Theoryn Goodbrand was fourth in both the 100m and the high jump. Grande Prairie's Romeo Jose was fourth in two throws on the same afternoon, discus and javelin. In the pool, Grande Prairie's Ellie Roberts touched fourth in two breaststroke events. Those are the finishes that turn into medals with one more winter of training.
Competing hurt
One of the harder stories on the Zone 8 sheet doesn't show up as a medal. Mandy Reum of Grande Prairie placed sixth in the U16 girls' high jump with a clearance of 1.35m — and hurt herself doing it. The knee trouble that came out of that jump caught up with her as the Games went on, and it ended her meet: she was entered in the 1200m, the 2000m and the 4x100m relay and competed in none of them. Those three blank lines on the official results are what one bad landing costs a day later.
Sixth place, on one good leg, in the event that hurt her. Peace Country has had athletes come home with more hardware and fewer people talking about them.
How to see it all
Every Zone 8 result is on our [Sports & Recreation hub](sports.html#alberta-games) — searchable by athlete, by sport, and by hometown, so you can find your kid, your street, or your whole town's day in one place. The official record lives with the Games at the [Alberta Summer Games results portal](https://albertagames.rampregistrations.com/results).
Coached a Peace Country athlete, or watched one stand on a podium? The official participant sheet doesn't flag which finishes earned medals — so if your athlete medalled and you want their name marked, [send us the result](portal/asg-submit.php) and we'll add it. No account needed, and you can send a write-up and photos too.
To 214 kids from 31 towns who drove farther than anyone to get there and came home with 27 medals: Peace Country's proud of you!
Read next
[Pride of the Peace: the story of Zone 8's 2026 ASG athletics team](alberta-summer-games) — head coach Christopher Nelissen on the medals, the relays and the best team finish the zone has recorded.
<aside class="si-gallery"><span class="si-gal-k">📸 Photo gallery</span><h3><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/204625471@N06/albums/72177720334459693" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Official photos from the 2026 Alberta Summer Games</a></h3><p>Hundreds of pictures from the four days in Strathcona County — track, field, relays and podiums. Worth a scroll if your athlete was there.</p><a class="si-gal-btn" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/204625471@N06/albums/72177720334459693" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Open the full album on Flickr →</a></aside>