By Trevor Greenway
Lily Kunstadt is going on Chelsea’s Wall of Fame.
The 13-year-old elite skier is this year’s recipient of the inaugural Rising Star award for the Chelsea Foundation’s Wall of Fame and will be inducted, along with 11 other leaders in sport, innovation and leadership, on Oct. 26.
Kunstadt was one of the best skiers in her age group across the province, but the young athlete was severely injured in a ski lift accident in Switzerland earlier this year and is currently recovering at the Holland Bloorview Rehabilitation Centre in Toronto.
“Lily continues to be her funny, positive self and is working hard at physio,” said her mom, Shannon. She added that her daughter hopes to be in attendance this Saturday at the awards ceremony, although her family is waiting for the go-ahead from doctors.
Lily placed second in giant slalom and slalom at the U14 international ski race in Tärnaby, Sweden, earlier this spring, and just missed first place by less than 0.2 seconds in each race. Lily hopes to continue racing but is facing 1–2 years of recovery, according to her parents.
Joining Lily are another 11 individuals who have contributed to Chelsea in some way, through sports, arts and culture and community building. These include: professional racing cyclist Mike Woods, who won Stage 9 of the Tour de France in 2023 and Canadian former Lethwei fighter Dave Leduc.
Leduc is a former six-time Lethwei world champion who held the openweight Lethwei Golden Belt and was undefeated under traditional rules KO to win. Lethwei, or Burmese boxing, is a full-contact, combat sport originating from Myanmar and is regarded as one of the most brutal martial arts in the world. Leduc first gained widespread notoriety after winning a controversial prison fight inside a maximum security prison in Thailand. He was not a prisoner.
Ray Zahab is another inductee this year. The ultra-marathoner took the world by storm when he ran across the Sahara Desert in 2006 while filming the documentary film ‘Running the Sahara’, produced by Matt Damon. The film raised awareness for the drinking water crisis in North Africa. In 2008, Zahab founded his Impossible2Possible charity, which inspires and educates youth through adventure learning, inclusion and participation in expeditions.
In 2022, Zahab was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer Lymphoma, but that didn’t stop him. In February of the following year, in between chemotherapy treatment, Zahab and Val Gagne and Kevin Vallely completed a winter crossing of Baffin Island through the Paalik Valley.
Other inductees this year include: Monica Dashwood in the Sport Builders category; Carson Becke, Paula Murray, James Stephens and Ian Tamblyn in the Arts & Culture category; and Dr. Nicole Bruinsma, Michelle Hegge and Stephen Woodley in the Community Builders category.
Tickets for the gala are on sale now at https://chelseafoundation.ca/. The gala is part of the Chelsea Foundation’s 26th anniversary.
“This program celebrates our community and its uniqueness both in terms of exceptional individual achievements in sports and the strength and quality of the voluntary sector that sustains and shapes our community,” said Fiona Duguid, president of the non-profit charitable organization, whose principle purpose is to promote sport, culture and leisure, as well as foster a sense of community in the municipality of Chelsea.