Special Olympics Athlete Tanner Was Once Non-Verbal, Now He's a Local Play-by-Play Commentator

Tanner Svenson was born with autism and non-verbal until age six. Through a combination of occupational therapy, speech therapy, and a remarkable ability to memorize and recite entire Disney movies, Tanner gradually learned to communicate verbally.  

A graduate of Special Olympics North America's media training program, this past season Tanner began working as a broadcaster for the U18AAA Prince Albert Mintos (amongst many other local sports teams). Tanner began the season as a colour commentator and then expanded into doing the play-by-play broadcasting for the team’s FloHockey TV livestreams. 

Tanner will also represent Saskatchewan in Bocce at the Special Olympics Canada Summer Games 2026 Medicine Hat, AB! 

However, the athlete and—in his words—semi-professional sports commentator wasn’t always so verbal; like many people with autism, it took Tanner and his family an immense amount of effort to make him capable of using his voice at all. 

Tanner's father, Mike Svenson, recalled. While it sounds shocking, young Tanner’s sudden disability is common enough to have a name: regressive autism. Some children traditionally develop with no signs of having an intellectual disability, until they start displaying autistic symptoms somewhere between the ages of 15 to 30 months old.  

Tanner was one of those children, and through a combination of occupational therapy as well as speech sessions, he eventually relearned verbal English by the age of six. Mike and Taryn said their child had been non-verbal for around three to four years. 

Tanner and his dad Mike both joined Special Olympics Prince Albert around the same time in 2016, with Mike spending eight years on their Board of Directors, helping to develop programs for people like his son. After spending time as President of the Special Olympics Prince Albert Board of Directors, Mike retired in 2024, proud of the work they accomplished and trusting his successors to continue growing programs. 

The Svensons are a sport family through and through, with Tanner having two younger siblings that both play in competitive hockey leagues. Himself a floor ball hockey player in Special Olympics, Tanner’s career began when he started commentating on his brother’s and sister’s hockey games for fun. Over the years many people would comment how great of an announcer and stats guy Tanner was, yes he also has a photographic memory, and one of the manager’s for the Prince Albert Mintos team’s —a man named Dennis Pott—had heard Tanner’s commentary and thought he had potential to become a part of the team. A U18 AAA hockey team in the top division, The Mintos boast that two of the top 18 picks from the NHL’s 2025 Draft played for them. Dennis reached out to his team’s media provider, who were looking for a new colour commentator, and suggested they hire Tanner. 

A colour commentator is – as Tanner explained – someone who sits alongside the Play by play announcer in the commentary booth providing quick yet flavourful descriptions of the game in real time, so they can describe the game highlights to a live audience. “Basically a [a colour commentator is] describing the game and the play-by-play,” Tanner said, giving some examples. “[You’re describing] what a certain player did right and what they did wrong. How is the game going? Is it fast, is it slow, is it rough, is it clean?” 

Halfway through the season, Tanner’s play-by-play announcer was unable to make it to a game, so he was given the opportunity to fill in for him. He jumped at it, describing the job as “mostly there to describe the play for all audiences and viewership.” Broadcasting has become a true passion for Tanner. While he continues to volunteer and work in various game-day roles throughout Prince Albert's hockey community, his long-term goal is to gain additional experience in sports broadcasting and potentially attend broadcast school in the future. 

As he trains to compete on the national stage, Tanner expressed gratitude to the Special Olympics Canada programs that have been there for him over the last decade.