Special Olympics Ski Racing - From Beginner to Racer

So it became clear quite quickly that Cory liked to ski fast, that he truly had no fear. So a couple of years later, we found a Special Olympics chapter in a neighbouring community that offered an Alpine Skiing program.

As luck would have it though, Cory missed registration by only a couple of weeks, so he was not eligible to race that first year. Which meant that he would have to wait a full four years before he could race with Special Olympics, since they use a four year cycle (see "The Beginnings" blog)

So we continued skiing once a week with Special Olympics on Cypress Mountain, usually with one ski trip per year. The photo above was taken at Sun Peaks in Kamloops in 2004.

A few trips to Whistler too...this one in 2005...but all of it for fun skiing, no racing yet.

Finally, in February 2006, his first chance to race. Now there had been some gate training on Cypress, but he had not had any exposure to skiing through gates and being timed, racing against others.

This was at the Regional Qualifier on Crystal Mountain near Kelowna, BC, and only the best skiers in each ability level would qualify for the Provincial Winter Games the following year. So much to Cory's disappointment, he was placed in the Novice division since he had never raced before - "but I'm not a BEGINNER" he said.

Weather conditions were nothing short of awful - cold, very strong winds, blowing snow, very poor visibility.

But the races went on, and sure enough Cory won all 3 races: slalom, giant slalom, and super giant slalom. He was pretty pleased with himself, and qualified for the Provincial Games in February 2007.

Next, getting serious about racing; friends who have helped Cory along the way; and some real challenges to Cory's progress.