P.E.I. welcomes athletes arriving for the 2023 Canada Winter Games

Athletes from across the country began to arrive in Charlottetown Friday, one day before the scheduled kick off of the 2023 Canada Winter Games.

A total of 13 chartered flights were scheduled to land at the city's airport on Friday, bringing 1,500 athletes and coaches to the Island for the first of two weeks of competition. Only three didn't make it due to a winter storm system accompanied by freezing rain. 

Team B.C. was the first to arrive on the tarmac Friday morning. Lauren Cochrane, a curler with the team, says she got very little sleep on the long flight from Vancouver.

"When we got here, everyone was so welcoming and saying 'Welcome to PEI' as soon as we got through the doors, so it was really awesome," she said.

Jeffer Ward and Elise Froese are on the Team B.C. wheelchair basketball team. They said they've been training multiple times a week in preparation for the Games. 

"This is my first time, so I've been training a lot with my coaches to get to this point so I'm excited to be able to compete again,"  said Ward.

"I think we have a good shot at the gold medal," said Froese. "I'm very excited for that game and I really hope we get to it."

In total, P.E.I. is welcoming more than 3,600 young athletes, coaches and managers from across the country to compete in over 20 sports and 150 events. 

The Games officially start Saturday night at 7:30 p.m., with the opening ceremony at the Eastlink Centre in Charlottetown.

Musicians, artists and technical staff spent most of Friday in rehearsals for the show. 

And with a little over 24 hours left before the kick-off, CEO Brian McFeely said it's all come down to the next two weeks. After more than five years of planning — much of it in the midst of a pandemic — he said it's