Kamloops Paralympic champ debuts special beer collab that benefits Canadian athletes

KAMLOOPS — Outside of professional sports, being an elite athlete doesn’t guarantee financial prosperity. However, for athletes who compete for Canada at Olympic and Paralympic competitions, there are resources out there to help make sure they’re able to focus on training and not how they plan to pay their rent.

Friday (Feb. 4), CFJC News met up with Kamloops’ very own Paralympic Shot Put Champion Greg Stewart to learn about a new enterprise he has brewing.

“I love it,” Greg Stewart says as he takes a sip of the beer he helped create. “Are you allowed to drink on TV?”

The beer is called ‘Shot of Gold.’ Stewart came up with the idea after his friend Keith had a special gift made up for him after his Paralympic win this past summer — a custom 24-pack of Steamworks Pilsner with an extra special label.

“It got me thinking,” Stewart explains. “I’m a recipient of CANFund, which supports Olympic and Paralympic athletes. If you get supported by them, they always ask if you can give back in any way. The more support, the better. With Keith doing this, I thought maybe this is an opportunity for me to give back to my CANFund community and support generations of Olympics and Paralympic athletes moving forward.”

He pitched the idea to Jared Tarswell at Iron Road Brewing. A couple of phone calls later and that idea started to become reality.

“I got another call from Jared and he was like, ‘Okay, we’re in.’ I was like, ‘That’s awesome man, but what do you mean we’re in?’ He was like, ‘All of us — all five breweries are in,’” Stewart recounts. “Iron Road, Red Collar, Bright Eye, Alchemy, Noble Pig all come together to support CANFund and our Kamloops community.”

“It was cool to bring us all together, and really make something special,” Tarswell says. “And really, that was Greg. It was all Greg’s idea. When he called me, he wanted to make it Kamloops’ thing and really include everybody. We jumped on board.”

A dollar from each bottle or pint of Shot of Gold sold will go to CANFund, which offers financial support to Canadian athletes in their quest for the Olympics and Paralympics.

“Training to be a high-performance athlete takes a lot of money. It takes a lot of time and energy and everything like that,” Stewart says. “CANFund plays such a huge role for that. They’ve probably given close to 150 to 200 athletes $6,000 this year. It’s been a huge, huge year. Here’s my opportunity to support them and give back to them.”

You can get a pint at any of the five breweries involved, and you can find bottles at your local liquor store throughout Kamloops.