Athletes With IMPACT

Ask Jerry Kappel how he is faring, and his response is invariably the same: “Good, always good!” The octogenarian kayaker is not just being polite. At 81, Kappel’s joie de vivre knows no bounds....

When the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, Erica Van Vlack quit her job as a personal trainer at a gym in Whitehorse, Yukon. She was newly pregnant, and as someone who, in...

When Nicole German joins the crowd of runners at the Toronto Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon, she notices a few others wearing purple T-shirts. On their backs, she sees “Shine Bright,” a carbon copy of the...

Becoming a world-record holder was on runner Liam Stanley’s to-do list before the Tokyo Paralympic Games, due to take place in July.Last December, the 23-year-old from Victoria, B.C., did just that, running the 5000...

Spellbound by Mother Nature’s splendor, Adam Campbell also knows the humbling power intertwined with such beauty. In 2017, IMPACT profiled his long recovery and odds-defying survival after falling from the side of a rockface.His...

A few years ago, Joan MacDonald was pushing 200 lbs, weighed down by a sedentary lifestyle and the associated health issues. The way the 75-year-old sees it now, she was merely existing. A heart-to-heart...

The diagnosis in June of 2018 was a devastating one for Chris Snow. He had ALS and was given six to 18 months to live.The deadly disease had already claimed his father, two of...

There’s a wall in Yana Hempler’s Victoria home decorated with extraordinarily expensive wallpaper. A patchwork quilt of race bibs adorn the space guarded by a fringe of medals. There’s her local Vancouver Island Race...

Toronto’s Dr. Matthew Galati ran 30 kilometres in August and you’ll be gobsmacked to learn the journey he’s travelled to complete this distance.While driving in the early morning of January 28, 2013 to his...

The tears of joy and emotion were for all to see at the finish line of the 40th Annual GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon in October 2019. He had done it. Keith Ashton at 80...