Successful First Step To 2013!

The first step to the World Winter Games for Special Olympics in 2013 took place on March 13, 2010 at Silver Star Mountain Resort, near Vernon, BC. This was the Regional Qualifying races where racers compete to see who will advance to the 2011 Provincial Winter Games.

In spite of an error on Cory's part (and a lesson learned) - and no photos or video due to a lost camera! - it was a successful race day for Cory and he will qualify for Step Two - the British Columbia Provincial Games next February.


Two races were held - a Super Giant Slalom and a Giant Slalom. Under beautiful sunshine skies, 65 athletes raced down the Big Dipper run at Silver Star. In the first race of the day, the Super G, Cory was the third last skier to race. That meant a two-hour wait while the other 62 athletes completed their runs.


In the start area of a ski race, there is a spring-loaded "wand" that is pushed by the racers legs as he/she starts down the race course. This activates the electronic timing device that determines each racer's time.


Here's Cory in a start, showing the wand in front of his shins:






Well, it looks like the 2 hour wait made Cory eager to get going. As I watched him prepare to start his race, I noticed he nudged the start wand a bit, then moved again and pushed it open by about two inches. A few seconds later, he started his race, but by then the clock had already started. So he finished with a time of 53.32 seconds, which turned out to be about 7 seconds behind his main rival Jesse. Cory and Jesse usually have similar race times, so it does seem that he started the race clock when he nudged the wand, well before he ready to go.


As a result, he was bumped from the 1st division in Advanced to the 2nd division, though he did finish in first place in that division.


In the Giant Slalom race later in the day, Cory had the best time of all 65 racers, 29.62 seconds, just under 2 seconds faster than Jesse. I was pleased that Cory put the disappointment of the Super G race out of his mind quickly, and focused on having a great race in the GS. We'll never know if he could have had the best overall time in the Super G as well, but the main thing is he was good enough to qualify for the Provincial Games next year.


There's still some racing to be done this year - a Giant Slalom at Whistler on April 17 where he will again compete against Jesse - so there is still some training to be done.


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