Article by: Doug Gallant

At the 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, Alberta’s Evelyn Beaton took home a gold medal for the individual female - 44 kg Judo division.

Four years later at the PEI 2023 Canada Winter Games, her brother Ewan followed in her footsteps. Beaton, age 16, won the gold medal in the individual male - 55 kg Judo division.

Beaton and his sister are both members of the Lethbridge Judo Club, one of the most competitive judo clubs in all of Alberta. That club produced nine of the 14 competitors Team Alberta sent to the Canada Games in Charlottetown to compete in Judo.

Beaton was thrilled with his win Thursday. “I’m very happy with what I’ve done today,” Beaton said. “One of my dreams has been accomplished. My sister won this last time so I’m happy I could follow her up.” Beaton observed that his class was very competitive.

“But this year I’ve been on top most of the time. I’ve had my ups and downs though. I was in Europe last weekend and I got sick and it was very disappointing. So to come here today and win was just phenomenal for me. I’m very happy with it.” Beaton said he trained very hard for the Games.

“I train basically every day, at least six times a week, there are multiple days when I train twice a day. I also do weights at least three times a week minimum.”

He’s been involved in Judo for roughly 13 years and says he still has a long way to go.
Right now Beaton said he’s happy to stay in his current  -55 kg class but at some point down the road, he might try to bulk up and compete in a heavier class.

“Right now my goal is to go to the world’s and then to PanAms but after that, I’d have to bulk up to 60 kg which is tough. Right now I’m at 54 so it would be minimum six kilos more.” The weekend after he gets home Beaton heads to Edmonton and then off to Bremen in Germany two weeks after that.

In Germany, he’ll compete in an all-male tournament in both the under-18 and under-21 classes. That tournament will be quite different from the Canada Games.

“There will be quite a lot of people there who are around 50.” Beaton competes again this week in the team competition. He said he might compete against some people from the next weight class up for better match-up reasons.

The Beatons train at the Judo Canada Regional Training Center in Lethbridge which his father Ewan runs. Ewan Beaton, a member of the Judo Canada Hall of Fame, represented Canada at both the 1992 Olympics in 1992 and the 1996 Olympics in Barcelona.

So the apples don’t fall far from the tree in that family. Judo competition resumes today (Thursday) and continues Saturday. More information on judo at the Canada Games can be found at http://www.2023canadagames.ca.