Air Canada baggage mixup leaves elite skiers from Chelsea, Que. without gear on eve of qualifying race

A team of young elite skiers from Chelsea, Que. says their equipment still hasn’t arrived more than four days after their flight to a major event in B.C., with the clock ticking before they have to race.

The skiers are in Prince George, B.C. to qualify for the world junior cross-country championships in Whistler next month, but the bags that were on their Air Canada flight are still in Vancouver.

The first race is on Wednesday.

Coach Maurice “Moe” Samm made a plea on social media for help Monday night.

“The skis are sitting in Vancouver. There have been seven flights since we arrived and no ski bags and we’re not the only team,” he said in an Instagram post.

“I know every team is missing a bag. In Quebec, there’s more than 20. Every team that flew to Prince George is missing a bag,” Samm told CTV News Ottawa Tuesday afternoon.

At this level of competition, these skiers rely on their personal equipment. Tenths or even hundredths of a second can mean the difference between qualifying or not, and the proper gear is essential.

“We can borrow skis but they’re not fitted to them. It puts our athletes at a disadvantage,” Samm explained.

Tory Audet, 17, says she has 13 pairs in her bag alone. Her Apple AirTag shows the bag is still at the Vancouver airport.

“They keep being moved in the airport but we’re not entirely sure where they are right now or what they’re doing to them,” she said in an interview with CTV News Ottawa. “It looks like they’ve been brought out onto the tarmac and brought back in.”

Tory Audet says her Apple AirTag shows her bag with her skis (identified by the dinosaur icon) is still at the Vancouver airport, more than four days after flying to Prince George, B.C. for a major event. (supplied)

She says her coach has been to the airport in Prince George seven or eight times, hoping their bags would be there.

Air Canada has responded on social media to apologize for the delayed items and to request more information, but so far, there is no word on when the skis will arrive in Prince George, which is more than 750 km north of Vancouver.

The skiers say Air Canada has been helpful locally, but they still do not understand why it has taken more than four days for their equipment to arrive.

“It’s very stressful,” Audet says. “Right now, it’s been long enough without our skis. We thought we would have gotten them by now.”

–With files from CTV’s Graham Richardson.