Canada’s 2026 Olympic team begins competition without a chaplain, prompting debate over spiritual care for athletes on sport’s biggest stage.
Newsroom (11/02/2026 Gaudium Press ) As the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics begin, one notable absence in Team Canada’s ranks has sparked quiet reflection and debate: for the first time in recent memory, the national Olympic delegation does not include a designated chaplain.
The decision, confirmed in an email to The Catholic Register by the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), leaves athletes without a dedicated spiritual presence on-site. It’s a move some view as overlooking the holistic care athletes often receive at other levels of competition, where chaplaincy is considered as integral as coaching or mentorship.
Angelo Minardi, chaplaincy leader at St. Michael Catholic Secondary School in Bolton, Ontario, said the news took him by surprise.
“For me, I think that the decision would have been second nature,” Minardi said. “I can’t imagine athletes, at such a high level like the Olympics, away from home and having worked all these years to compete at this level, not have someone like a chaplain who could accompany them.”
Minardi, who has served as a chaplain for nearly 25 years, speaks with the calm assurance of experience. He once coached basketball and continues to weave faith and sport together in daily ministry. That practical engagement, he explains, transforms chaplaincy from a role of preaching into one of presence.
“To be able to have someone who’s not a coach, a mentor or a family member, who could just be there to talk, sit down and have a meal — that’s essential,” he said. “These athletes should know that someone has their back, that someone truly cares and wants to be there for them regardless of the outcome.”
Minardi’s philosophy of ministry through sport is born of decades on courts and in classrooms across Ontario’s Catholic schools. Coaching, for him, has always been a gateway to connection — a way to see athletes as whole people rather than performers.
“When you coach, you develop trust,” he said. “And when that trust exists, you can really see the student with a different perspective. That’s when genuine ministry begins — not necessarily about academia or faith, but about life.”
Such relationships, he insists, humanize athletes who are so often portrayed as “superhuman,” stripped of ordinary fears and vulnerabilities. A chaplain’s role, by contrast, is to remind them they can be both exceptional and real. That duality, he believes, builds stronger characters as much as stronger competitors.
Team Canada’s 207 athletes will represent the nation across 14 sports, a tapestry of backgrounds and beliefs as diverse as the country itself. For Minardi, that diversity strengthens — rather than diminishes — the case for spiritual support.
“Almost every person, whether or not they identify with a particular religion, recognizes something spiritual in their lives,” he said. “It’s almost inevitable that those athletes would want to talk to someone about that.”
Why, then, no chaplain this year? Minardi suggests it may reflect broader societal shifts — and a fear of overstepping in an increasingly pluralistic environment.
“Sports psychologists serve a great role,” he said. “But we can’t deny the role of the spiritual — of clergy or chaplains. I don’t think that’s something we can just remove from our athletes or from that world.”
The irony, he adds, is likely to emerge in moments of triumph. Inevitably, some Canadian medalists will stand atop the podium thanking God and faith first — even as they compete without formal spiritual accompaniment under the maple leaf banner.
For Minardi, the absence doesn’t diminish his mission. His chaplaincy continues in schools and on sidelines, where faith and sport often meet most authentically. Even after nearly 25 years, he says it’s the athletes themselves who sustain him.
“What I receive from the athlete is always way more than what I give them,” he reflected. “They teach me about myself, about the love of God, and what it truly means to serve my neighbour.”
And perhaps that is the quiet lesson in Team Canada’s spiritual void at these Winter Games: that in removing a chaplain, something essential may have been lost — not only for those competing, but for those who serve.
“While it might seem like it’s the chaplain providing the service,” Minardi said, “it’s what these young people give me in return that keeps my ministry alive.”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Catholic Register
Related Images:
