Meet Audrey Mitchell: Team PEI softball player embracing her first national Games

Audrey Mitchell takes the field against Team Nova Scotia on August 12, 2026 in Medicine Hat. Audrey helped her team secure a victory and is embracing her first national Games experience.

When Audrey Mitchell first tried out for Team PEI, she didn’t expect to make the roster.

The 21-year-old Charlottetown athlete assumed more experienced players would earn the opportunity to represent Prince Edward Island at the national level. Then came the news she never saw coming.

"My dad's like, 'Guess what Audrey, you made the team,' and I was, 'No way, that's crazy,'" she recalled with a laugh. "I'm a first-year player and I made the team. That's insane."

Today, Audrey is representing Team PEI at the 2026 Special Olympics Canada Summer Games in Medicine Hat, competing in softball alongside teammates she now considers family.

“The team we have now, we’re like a family because we’ve been together for two years now,” she said.

For Audrey, the journey to the national stage began in high school.

After participating in unified sports programs, she was introduced to Special Olympics by a teacher who encouraged her to get involved. Inspired by a family connection to softball, she signed up and quickly discovered a passion for the sport.

Three years later, that decision has taken her hundreds of kilometres from home to compete against some of the country's top Special Olympics athletes.

The experience has already been memorable.

“We really had to work hard for this,” Audrey said. “Our team was hyped up for it.”

While softball brought her to Medicine Hat, she says Special Olympics has given her something even more valuable: confidence.

“It means a lot to me,” she said. “It gave me more opportunities, like interviews and doing events, and just being able to put myself out there a bit. Playing the sport has given me a lot of confidence in what I can do.”

Away from competition, softball remains a major part of her life.

"I am obsessed with softball," she admitted. "When I'm not playing softball, I'm practising my softball skills and trying to see what I can do differently to make myself better."

Representing Prince Edward Island is something Audrey doesn't take lightly.

"It means a lot to me because I've never represented PEI this way before," she said. "It's quite a big deal for me to be competing for Team PEI at a national level."

For a player who never expected to make the team, competing at the 2026 Special Olympics Canada Summer Games feels a little surreal.

Then again, that's exactly what makes the experience so special.

— story by Emily Conley, Special Olympics Canada Summer Games

Charlottetown's Audrey Mitchell is representing Team PEI in softball at the 2026 Special Olympics Canada Summer Games. The 21-year-old is competing at her first national Games.