Manitoba documentary focuses lens on environmental defenders, beauty of prairies

Everything We Need Is Here is the latest sumptuously shot Manitoba film rooted in the Prairie landscape.

Though totally unrelated in subject matter, the documentary recalls the 2024 Daughters of the Sun with its saturated and slow-mo sweeps across boreal forests and limestone tinted lakes.

But while Daughters has much murmured narration and arthouse flair, Everything is a plucky film, a can-do sort of doc about the land and its grassroots defenders.

Their voices resonate strong and clear across storylines that weave together the joys of foraging and local environmental protests.

Table tennis nationals return to Winnipeg

You’ve played in your basement and watched it from afar during the Olympics but you may never have gotten the opportunity to see the pros do it.

That’s right, the 2026 Canadian Table Tennis Championships will be landing in our very own city for the first time in a decade. From July 17-23, the Manitoba Table Tennis Association (MTTA) will be hosting Canada’s best players at the Duckworth Centre.

And Carlos Cuadra, executive director of MTTA, is encouraging Winnipeggers to come and enjoy the event.

“We were hungry. We definitely wanted to do it,” Cuadra explained. “We want to show Canada that we are capable of doing such events. And who knows, maybe try international events, too.”

Stretching the limits of our flexibility

Most people think you’re either born bendy or you’re not. Some kids fold up like lawn chairs. The rest of us reach for our shins and call it a win.

Yes, like everything physical, there are genetic advantages, but your mobility is more in your control than you realize.

A recent Huberman Lab podcast episode on stretching laid it out. Flexibility isn’t only about your muscles. It’s about your nervous system.

Picture your body as an overprotective bouncer. When you hit the edge of a stretch, it’s not always your muscle saying, “this is as far as I go.” Sometimes it’s your nervous system saying, “I don’t trust you out here, pal.”

Play for all: story time inspires students to fight for accessible playgrounds

Concerned about injustice on their school jungle gym, St. Vital students spent months researching upgrades to make playgrounds more accessible for children in Manitoba.

Darwin School is dismissed for the summer, but one of its teachers plans to resume an advocacy project after the break.

“It’s not fair,” 12-year-old Selena Wei said about the fact one of her classmates — along with other children who use wheelchairs — can’t fully experience the pea-gravel playground at 175 Darwin St. and others like it.

“A playground is a really big part of a child’s life. It’s where they experience most of their outside time and where they’re the most social,” Selena said.

The scoop on cricket

Need the scoop on cricket, but you’re not sure who to ask? Free Press mascot Scoop has you covered. Let’s break down the rules, plays and wickets of the second largest sport in the world.

Brotherly bond boosts local Amazing Race competitors

Sacha has a feeling and Sébastien has a plan — together they’ll work it out.

The Bird River offers prime kayaking conditions in late spring

A two-hour drive northeast of Winnipeg, the lower Bird River is a popular draw for whitewater enthusiasts.

The water moves fast and the hazards — rapids, rocks and technical drops — are challenging.

This is not a beginner-friendly run. Paddlers need to keep their wits about them as they roll through Class 1 to 4 rapids.

The Bird River, flowing through the traditional territory of the Sagkeeng First Nation, stretches from the Ontario border, through Nopiming Provincial Park, before reaching the Winnipeg River, east of Lac du Bonnet.

Le pari water-polo de Jayden Del Campo

Le water-polo est arrivé naturellement dans la vie de Jayden Del Campo. Issu d’une famille de sportifs, son père et son grand-père pratiquaient aussi ce sport, une passion qui s’est transmise dans la lignée familiale.

“Mon grand-père a joué dans l’équipe nationale de Cuba et mon père jouait aussi. J’avais comme quatre ans quand mes parents m’ont poussé dans l’eau pour que je commence à jouer.”

Bien que les débuts aient été difficiles — il n’aimait pas être dans l’eau et nager avec un ballon était un vrai défi il a fini par tomber en amour avec ce sport. C’est un chemin qu’il a suivi jusqu’au bout, en devenant entraîneur au Club Vortex, et en acceptant une bourse d’admission à l’Université McKendree aux États-Unis, où il a rejoint l’équipe de water-polo.

Pourtant, malgré une certaine popularité au sud de la frontière et en Europe, la communauté de water-polo reste très petite au Canada. “C’est une communauté qui est vraiment petite au Manitoba. Un de mes buts, c’est de faire grandir ce sport. Pas seulement au Manitoba, mais partout au pays.”

Divers Tiaglei, Rumpit jumping their way through 50 states in 50 days

Two months ago, Winnipeg high-diver Alex Tiaglei received a call that he could’ve easily confused for a belated April Fool’s joke.

On the other end was his American-born friend Braden Rumpit, whom Tiaglei had dove against at several competitions around the world.

Rumpit gave it to him straight: he planned to do a cliff dive in all 50 United States in 50 days, and he wanted Tiaglei to do it with him.

“I mean, at first I thought he was kind of crazy,” said Tiaglei. “But then I started thinking about it, and the pieces were definitely falling together pretty well.”

Grade 7 students learn about environment in Seine River cleanup

On a rainy Wednesday morning, Grade 7 students from École Lacerte traded their classroom desks for rubber boots as they headed out along the Seine River to help plant native shrubs, test water quality, and clean up the riverbank.

JJ Swidersky, one of about 40 students taking part in the work, says protecting the environment is important to him and his classmates.

“Planting the trees, planting the shrubs,” Swidersky said when asked about his favourite part of the effort. “Just trying to keep the river clean, trying to keep it as clean as we possibly can.”

The planting Swidersky is referring to is part of the Niakwa Trail Rain Garden, which is located next to the St. Anne’s Superstore.

The world of extreme pogo is an eye-popping blend of artistry, courage and ‘mystical zest’

The greatest day of Michael Mena's life as a professional athlete ended with a pair of world championships that the 33-year-old had spent the better part of two decades chasing.

Close encounters of the amphibian kind

Frogs, snakes and horses, oh my!

Liam Peterson, an 11-year-old outdoor enthusiast, encountered all of those during summer camp last year at Circle Square Ranch.

“There were always frogs hopping around our cabin, and I let one in because I wanted it to have company because it was bored — it was just sitting there,” recalled Liam.

“And then my friend freaked out because it was on top of (his foot) in the morning. Everyone in the cabin woke up and he woke up with a red bump on his head after hitting his head on his bunk.”

Summer debut of Open Corydon

More patio space, live music and pizza slices to-go are slated for Corydon Avenue this summer — but cars aren’t invited.

Only on Sundays, starting July 5, Corydon will be closed to vehicles between Daly and Lilac streets from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Taking up the road and sidewalks, Winnipeg organizers hope, will be pedestrians and businesses showcasing their wares.

It’s a first-of-its-kind initiative for the Corydon Avenue Business Improvement Zone. Open Corydon, as it’s called, is set to run until Sept. 6.

Elementary students develop friendships with care home residents

Nine-year-olds and seniors in their ’90s regularly bond over bocce in Tuxedo.

École Tuxedo Park and Extendicare Tuxedo Villa are marking a decade of Senior Buddies, a partnership that began to build intergenerational friendship and understanding in their neighbourhood.

“It’s opening (students’) eyes to different parts of being a human and humanity and the community that they live in,” said Diana Stahl, a school counsellor at the kindergarten-to-Grade 4 building in Winnipeg.

Stahl and her students made the 350-metre trek to the long-term care home on Thursday for their final visit of the school year.

For nimble nonagenarian, there’s been no looking back since exercise epiphany six decades ago

It’s been 46 years since Ray Elliott completed his first Manitoba Marathon but the spry-looking 91-year-old father of three, grandfather of four and great-grandfather of two remembers the occasion like it was yesterday.

Back then, the annual Father’s Day race ended at Winnipeg Stadium near Polo Park. Elliott vividly recalls turning right as he entered the venue and hearing a thunderous roar erupt from the thousands of onlookers who had packed the stands to encourage participants to the finish line.

“It was quite the experience being cheered on by a crowd that large and after witnessing that I got really serious about running, maybe because I wanted to recreate the moment again,” Elliott says, seated in his third-floor Henderson Highway condo, which overlooks a meandering section of the Red River.

Elliott’s marathon days are long gone. Still, he reserves time for physical activity of some sort, every single day. The former Great-West Life manager typically gets up at 5:45 a.m. to go for a brisk walk through his neighbourhood. Then, after he has breakfast with his wife Lillian at her personal care home next door to where he lives, he heads to the YMCA-YWCA to jog around the track for an hour or so. He also bikes, swims and golfs — last week he shot one stroke better than his age at Kildonan Golf Course — and in April set a new provincial record for men ages 90 to 94, when he bench-pressed 42.5 kilograms at a powerlifting competition held at Glenlawn Collegiate.

Sea Bears’ hype guy Kosyuga is the man behind the light-up shades

He jumps through the crowd with light-up sunglasses, displaying the message “Go Sea Bears Go” while his suit reacts to the fans’ cheers and the team’s advances.

Anton Kosyuga — the man behind the shades — has been prancing around Winnipeg’s sports centres since 2022.

“Everything was a complete accident. [I] never expected to be in the sports industry in general,” Kosyuga said.

Growing up, Kosyuga was never an athlete himself, but always on the sidelines cheering on his friends, front and centre.

Inaugural trail summit looks to forge new paths across Canada

In Manitoba, thousands of kilometres of trails wind through a range of landscapes, including prairie, forest, sand dunes and provincial parks, passing through communities and campgrounds.

And behind every stretch is significant work to keep them maintained and accessible.

Across the country, trails are under growing pressure from climate change, aging infrastructure, increased use and uncertain funding — pressures that inspired trail leaders, advocates, researchers and policymakers from 10 provinces and two territories to gather in Winnipeg this week for the first Canadian Trail Summit.

Hosted by Trans Canada Trail, the national charity that stewards Canada’s 28,000‑kilometre trail system, the four‑day summit features keynote talks, technical workshops, field trips and sessions on conservation, accessibility, tourism and innovation.

‘Dominoes’ we don’t mean to topple yield results

A keystone habit is a single change that, once in place, quietly drags a whole pile of other positive changes along behind it.

Bike-to-school day initiative features fun pit stops across city, encourages families to ride

Bike Week Winnipeg is piloting new student-friendly pit stops Tuesday as part of its signature event.

This year, for the first time, bike-to-work day is also being branded as bike-to-school day.

“When students ride, their families ride,” said Andraea Sartison, event producer for the volunteer-run organization promoting cycling with activities scheduled through Sunday.

“(This initiative) is a really good way for us to reach more people, I think. School communities are much larger than the student population, so this is a really nice way to get into neighbourhoods.”

‘Exciting and meaningful’: St. James Collegiate track replacement nears starting line

St. James Collegiate students circled the edge of the school’s 400-metre track on Thursday morning as Couns. Shawn Dobson and Brian Mayes stood nearby, announcing a plan to rebuild the surface beneath their feet.

Brazilian players from a Rio de Janeiro favela find hope and opportunities thanks to soccer

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — When Brazilian João Victor Gonçalves began playing soccer in one of Rio de Janeiro ’s poorest and most violent favelas, little did he know the game would one day allow him to travel abroad and play in an international competition.

Last month, along with nine other young boys, he flew to Mexico to represent Brazil in the Street Child World Cup, a tournament with teams from 30 countries composed of boys from impoverished backgrounds, organized ahead of this year’s FIFA World Cup.

“I never could have imagined that one day this would happen, that I would represent my country, doing what I most love — playing soccer — in another country,” said Gonçalves, who is 18. The Brazil team went undefeated and won the tournament, enhancing the thrill of the experience.

Like many Brazilians, Gonçalves and his teammates grew up kicking a ball around and closely following members of the Seleção, Brazil’s national soccer team. They dream of one day becoming professional soccer players like their heroes.

You should be dancing, yeah. Moving to music offers all kinds of benefits as you age

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Carol Ross can’t stop smiling at dance practice as she shouts out the steps of a routine to members of her tap and jazz troupe for women age 50 and older.

“I’ve been dancing my whole life, it’s the best,” said Ross, who founded the Rodeo City Wreckettes group 23 years ago at an age when many people are getting ready for retirement.

Now 87, Ross and her husband and lifelong dance partner John, also 87, have long known what more older adults are now discovering: Moving to music is one of the best ways to stay healthy. Medical professionals say it doesn’t matter if it’s Western line dancing, ballroom steps, salsa, tap, Zumba at the gym, or with a group like the Wreckettes.

“Dancing is one of the most powerful activities for older people,” said Julio Loya, a nurse and geriatric program coordinator at the Tucson Medical Center.

Indigenous hoopster’s son on mission to get dad inducted into Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame

Terry Garrow already received his flowers. Now he’s on a mission to make sure his late father gets his.

By his estimation, his father has been overlooked for far too long when it comes to recognizing the most influential players, fearless leaders and forward-thinking builders who have helped shape Canadian basketball.

He understands that his pleas come from a point of bias, but that doesn’t change the facts in his mind: Alex Garrow deserves to be in the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame.

Not for the success he experienced during a short career in the early 1960s, but for his resilience as a trailblazer during a time in which Indigenous athletes were largely an afterthought. And how fitting it would be for Alex to be the first Indigenous player immortalized.

Sandhu siblings two of four Manitobans heading to Pan Am Youth Championships

It’s become evident that Khushreet and Laganjot Sandhu hit the bullseye when choosing which sport they would dedicate themselves to for the foreseeable future.

The Winnipeg siblings haven’t been in Archery very long — Khushreet started three years ago, Laganjot two — but there’s a consensus that they are both on a rocket ship trajectory up the local, national, and possibly global ranks.

“I just kind of got into the rhythm, and I really fell in love with it,” said 12-year-old Laganjot, who was drawn to a bow and arrow shortly after watching his sister. “But also on the competitive side, I really wanted to get better than my sister at it.”

It doesn’t matter if it’s their studies or in sports, the siblings are as competitive as it gets, and it’s fostered some tremendous individual success.