Meet Evan Neufeldt,

Aspiring Olympian & Epilepsy Canada Ambassador

Evan Neufeldt pursues life headfirst, on his belly, with an icy blur providing most of his scenery. The Saskatoon skeleton racer is an aspiring Olympian living with epilepsy.

Evan was diagnosed 1.5 years ago with left temporal lobe epilepsy. A life altering event that he took in stride.

But Evan is no stranger to setbacks or injury. He is resilient, to say the least. (In fact, it was a shoulder injury in a different sport that originally began his skeleton journey in 2011). Last year he had a seizure in the hospital where he fell out of bed and broke his neck!

His plan is to be at the next Winter Olympics for Canada in Skeleton. And it’s a realistic one! After his diagnosis he took two seasons off from competition and a few months spent in rehab. Since then he’s completed one very successful return season on home ice to make sure skeleton is feasible and safe (enough!).

As someone with a visible platform in international sports, Evan sees the incredible position he is in to raise awareness for epilepsy. “I want to show adults and kids who have epilepsy that they can still live their lives” he says.

Since his diagnosis, he’s had 7 seizures. He considers himself “almost stable” learning what his own triggers are and how to balance his health with his rigorous training schedule and travel. “I’m training hard. I had a seizure last week, but from lack of sleep, and we are working on it!”

Evan’s journey to the Olympics is not just a grueling physical one, it is a taxing economic one. Like most of his fellow aspiring Olympians, much of that cost comes out of his own pocket. Evan has worked hard and fought to get back on the national podium, but he can’t do the rest alone. Financial support in the months leading to the 2022 Olympics will allow him to focus on training, purchase the equipment he needs, and advocate for epilepsy awareness and research funding on the world stage.

We are so incredibly proud and excited to be partnering with Evan, and to call him an Epilepsy Canada Ambassador. We hope you’ll consider donating to help Evan reach his Olympic dreams and raise money for epilepsy research!

And we hope you’ll follow along with us as we document Evan’s journey over the next year, training, competing and advocating for epilepsy awareness!