The Road to Worlds
After a long year of training and fine-tuning, Team Canada departed for the month long gauntlet of Pre-Worlds and WSDC. Our first stop was Prague Debate Spring. Prague was a beautiful city and the team had the pleasure of walking through the heart of the city every day to the venue, in addition to exploring the winding streets and bridges on the few days off.
Team Canada broke 5th on 5:1, bowing out in Quarter Finals after an excellent debate with Team England on whether we should regret the narrative of family coming first. Congratulations to Michelle Liu (7th), Barry Gu (17th), and Leo Zhu (19th) for their top 20 finishes.
Serbia WSDC – top speaker, 2nd breaking team
Belgrade was a fascinating, if rather warm, city. Throughout both tournaments, Europe experienced an unprecedented heat wave which posed significant challenges in the non air-conditioned debating rooms. Ingenious use of fans, frozen water bottles, and countless runs for iced drinks kept the team going as temperatures drifted close to 40.
Canada dominated in-rounds, breaking second on a 7:1 record with 21 ballots and the top overall speaker score total. The team engaged in thoughtful debates such as the merits of secularism in democracies, wellness culture, and banning sports betting (our personal favourite after many a lecture from sport obsessed coaches). In Double Octo Finals, Canada lost on a 2:1 split to Bulgaria who went on to face Scotland in the Finals.
Team Canada performed excellently with all 5 members in the top 10% of the tournament.
Congratulations to Jinjou Wang (top speaker), Michelle Liu (3rd), and Leo Zhu (4th) for their top 5 finishes. This is the 2nd year in a row (and 2nd ever) that a member of Team Canada has top spoke the tournament.
Getting to debate with the team is something that you carry for the rest of your life:
“Representing Canada at Worlds has been a lifelong dream. And in the process of achieving it, debate has inexorably shaped my life in ways both big and small. The guidance of our coaches (along with that of countless other members of the TC community) helped me recognise the humility, scholarship, and zen in the face of pressure which defined what it meant to debate for Team Canada. No competitive outcomes can detract from those lessons, even for an activity as intense and high-variance as debate. “
– Leo Zhu
Thanks to our Volunteers
Thank you to coaches Brent Schmidt and Arsalan Ghaemi, and Team Manager Leora Diakuw for supporting the team as they travelled this summer. Countless alumni and volunteers helped along the long journey to Worlds by judging spars, individually coaching, and sending words of encouragement. Team Canada has the privilege of having an army of dedicated, exceptionally talented people committed to supporting us.
Team Canada Debate 