A Day At The Races

The final race of the 2010 Blue Streaks season - the annual Rotary GS at Whistler Mountain - took place on Saturday, April 17, and Cory earned himself a silver medal. But it was far from easy.

We combined race day with two days of gate training at Whistler with our good friends at Whistler Adaptive Sports Programs.

Here's what greeted us when we disembarked from the Whistler Gondola, and while Cory's favourite run - The Saddle: straight + steep = racer speed! - beckoned to him under gorgeous blue skies, he was here to train, so off we go to the training course.

Under the direction eye of Phil Chew, Provincial Coach for the Disabled Skiers' Association of BC, and Paul Hothersall, Whistler Adaptive Sports Programs coach, Cory put in a number of runs in training course set up on the Jolly Green Giant run...here's one of his first runs...

And a bit later in the day when the sun warms things up very nicely:

But a good training day just has to include some free-skiing too. So it's off to The Saddle and then down a run at Whistler called the T Bar Run, which oddly enough is located right next to a T-Bar. Paul, Cory, and WASP athlete Avery:

Then it's an evening at the condo (rented, not owned) for relaxation, chat, and a 9pm (there was lots of chat) dinner of spaghetti and meat sauce (thanks to Cory's mum, who unfortunately couldn't join us this time but made sure we were still well fed).


The next day, most of the remaining VASS Blue Streaks joined us for training under yet another day of bright blue skies. Cory, second from left, with Blue Streaks Alex, Tamika, and Christie (photo courtesy of Edward Tai):







Again thanks to Edward Tai for this sequence:







And then it's Race Day. The Rotary GS is an annual race open to members of the Disabled Skiers Association of British Columbia. In this group are members of the BC Paralympic Team who hope to one day make it to the Canadian Paralympic Team. The racers are divided into category and Cory's Cognitive Disability category has 8 other competitors, including rivals Mark and Jesse, who also competes against Cory in Special Olympics.

Cory won this race last year when it was also the BC Provincial Championships, but this year the Championships were held in January at Sun Peaks near Kamloops.



The night before the race Cory was assigned bib #4, and it was pretty cool to be wearing the actual bibs worn at Whistler by the athletes at the Paralympics Games just a few weeks earlier. This bib had been worn by Sabine Gasteiger of Austria, a gold medalist in slalom for visually impaired: (and by coincidence, we met the bronze medalist in that event, Jessica Gallagher of
Australia, in the gondola during our previous visit to Whistler)







Race registration at the base of Whistler Gondola with Coach Roy:




Then the Blue Streaks line up for a little bit of pre-race fun:









Then some last minute equipment checks at the top of the Gondola....







And a bit of stretchin'...







First look at the race course with the morning sun gone and a definite threat of snow or rain:








Course inspection with Coach Roy and the rest of the Blue Streaks:








And then it's race time...here's a brief video of part of Cory's first run, in some light snowfall. This race consisted of 2 runs through 25 gates, with a vertical drop of 150 metres, with the times combined to determine the winner:













Another sequence courtesy of Edward Tai:








Cory's time for the first run was 43.21 seconds, just over 4 seconds slower than Mark, but just under one second faster than Jesse. But, but there's surprise - a racer from Vernon, BC beats Cory's time by 14 hundredths of a second, which puts Cory into 3rd place, with one run still to go.


Cory and I talked over the results on the chair back up to the race course. He understood that he would have to really attack the course if he wished to stay ahead of Jesse and even have a chance to move up into 2nd place.


And he did just that...

...and completed his second run in 41.08, over 2 seconds faster than his first run. The Vernon racer posts a 42.75 and Cory took over second place by 1.4 seconds with a combined time of 84.29.

I told Cory after the race that I considered that his best race ever...that competitive fire within him - in 2007 I called it the Heart of a Champion - burned a way for him to find an extra gear to put him into 2nd place. He even moved to within 2 seconds of Mark's time in the second run.

So a hard-earned and very satisfactory silver medal.

Here's a link to a video of Cory's second run, courtesy of Edward Tai:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=106558776053206

Then it's off to the dinner and awards ceremony where Canadian Paralympic Skier Morgan Perrin presents Cory with his medal.

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So that's just about it for the ski season for this Olympic year - in spite of some real challenges for snow conditions, overall another really good year for Cory's skill development as he continues his pursuit of his dreams to represent Canada at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in 2013.

Cory now wants to shift his focus big time onto his bowling to prepare as best as he can for Special Olympics' National Games in London, Ontario in July. He's been bowling 2 or 3 times a week all winter and now he plans to increase that to 5 times a week.

Stay tuned....and please, leave a comment. Cory and I always enjoy and appreciate your support.