Kitigan Zibi athletes honoured at national gala for contributions to sport

Mercedes Gogo Cody, taking the stage to accept the Tom Longboat Award, one of the most prestigious awards for Indigenous athletes in Canada, her latest accolade in her already storied sports career. It's very special and very significant, I think, like, for young, like, athletes coming up, like, being able to see, like, someone who was, like, born and raised in the community, like, can, like, do great things, like, I think that's very important to me. She's a 21-year-old from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabek in western Quebec, whose journey through sports started simple. When I was a young girl, I would run to school with my mom every day, even through the winter. She went on to play an array of sports, hockey being one of the most prominent. Cody played midget AAA girls hockey in Gatineau, where she says she was the team's first Indigenous captain. She's grateful she could make the 90-minute drive to compete, but knows not everyone from Kitigan-Zivi can. We have so many amazing athletes in my nation. We have so many amazing athletes, but their potential, there's so much potential if we had the right facilities, if we had the right trained coaches, that makes a huge difference. Cody has also won gold in track at the 2025 Masters Indigenous Games and, most recently, took home the 2026 Ontario Senior AA Women's Hockey Championship with the Akwesasne Wild. As for her sporting philosophy? Just never give up. Just keep going. Go. Go. Just like my name. Victoria Marchand is also someone always on the go. She, too, is from Kitigan Zibi and also Long Point First Nation and Timiskaming First Nation and was handed one of the National Indigenous Coaching Awards. Marchand laced up her first soccer cleats at the age of four, going on to play for UOttawa's women's team at the World Indigenous Games and then for a professional amateur team in B.C. Soon after, she found a love for coaching. If I can just influence one kid from my community to move beyond the boundary of like the mainstream sports that are normally chosen and to actually follow your heart and follow a passion of soccer like it's the world's game for a reason and I want the kids to be able to learn that from me. Now Marchand is working to create opportunities for Indigenous soccer players across the country as head coach of an academy based in British Columbia connecting young athletes with current university and college players they deserve to be seen at the highest levels. Right now like there's little to no pathways but we're getting there. A passion of hers as growing up she wished she had someone fighting for the same thing. If this is a legacy I leave in in my life like let it be this um for if not for my son for all the little kids in my community. Emma Weller, CBC News, Ottawa.