Team Gold - The Hard Way

Cory is back home and getting some well-earned sleep after a brutal travel schedule that started in London at 2am with a bus trip to Toronto airport to catch a 7am flight home to Vancouver, arriving this morning around 10am Pacific time.

So time to catch up with a bit more detail about the Team Gold Medal game. First, the Team heads to the podium to get their Gold Medals....with Cory last in the line....to receive their medals:




That Team Gold was far from easy and it wasn't decided until the 10th frame.

Here's Cory at the start in the first frame, first ball missed right, second ball missed left...fortunately his competitor on the lane next to him punched the head pin, making it virtually impossible to get a spare:







But he started getting it going in the second frame, and his coach's reaction tells you it's a strike, with his mum's cheerleading in the background, while Cory and his team do their "that's the way we like it, a huh a huh" celebration dance:





Then in the third frame, he throws the ball awkwardly and it goes left of the head pin, but he did pick up the spare, while his opponent did not:





Then in the fourth, a well thrown ball, but the right corner doesn't drop...but a really nice throw for the spare:







Now into the fifth frame, after spares in the 3rd and 4th, a strike. His competitor failed to follow lane courtesy and bowled at the same time as he did, but Cory still managed to stay on target, though she did as well and got a strike too:




A shot of the large crowd on hand, all of us feeling the tension:




Then, after getting strikes in the sixth and seventh frames for 3 in a row, Cory punched the head pin in the eighth, making it virtually impossible for the spare. As he set up for the ninth frame, his competitor once again ignored lane courtesy and bowled without waiting for Cory to finish. Cory wisely stepped off the lane and restarted:





He then takes a long time to refocus, throws a good looking ball, but again, punches the head pin. Two in a row, head pin punch in the 8th and again in the 9th.





In the meantime, his competitor threw a strike in the eighth and a spare in the ninth, and suddenly in spite of Cory's 3 strikes in a row, she had caught up to him.

At this point, we knew the rest of the team had struggled with only one other teammate winning her match up. That meant Cory not only had to win his matchup, but had to win with enough points over his competitor to give his team the 3 additional points that would take them to Gold.

So onto the 10th frame, with the Gold Medal hanging in the balance, Cory prepares himself, focuses as he always does, and once again his competitor fails to follow lane courtesy. With his coach preoccupied with tabulating the scores, I yell to Cory "let her bowl". (Later Cory told me he heard "better bowl" thinking I was telling him to bowl quickly.) At that point, I forgot about any more videos and put my camera down without even turning it off!





Cory stepped off the lane, and let his competitor bowl, and this time she punched the head pin.

Cory then got back into position, calmly refocused, took his time, and then threw a strike.

257!


Game, set, match, GOLD.

And the team's reaction when they get the news...but they didn't know just how close it had been:






A close look at two hard-earned medals (Cory bowled close to 200 games since last October)





A last fond look at Fleetway Lanes, site of Cory's first National Championship.





Will there be a chance for another one in St. Albert, Alberta at the National Winter Games there in 2012? Stay tuned, winter's not that far away, and Cory's already thinking about attending a ski race camp in Colorado in November.


Thanks again to all of Cory's family & friends for your tremendous support - sharing all of this with you has made this even more special.


Look for a note from Cory about his National Games experience in an update soon - after he's caught up on his sleep.

It's Another GOLD!

Cory bowled 257, his best game of the week, and helped his team to a Gold Medal today at the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games in London, Ontario.

Here he is on the podium with the rest of his team.

We'll update with more details later.

IT'S GOLD BABY!! (part 2)

Cory won an individual Gold Medal today at the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games. Here he is when he got the news:






And afterwards with his proud mum and dad:






Now it's on to the Team Gold Medal game tomorrow, around 10am Eastern Time. We fly back to Vancouver tomorrow evening while Cory returns to Vancouver with Team BC on Sunday morning, around 9am. We'll be there to greet him of course, and if any of his supporters who live in the Vancouver area wish to join us, we'd love to see you there. It's an Air Canada flight from Toronto, around 9am on Sunday.

We'll try to update this blog before we leave London.

Thanks again for all your support and messages - over 20 hits to this blog today alone - thanks so much everyone.

A special thank you to Cory's Montreal relatives - and especially to my brother Gilles- for making the surprise trip down to London and making this just an extraordinary week for us.

IT'S GOLD BABY!!!

Cory won an individual Gold Medal today, in the highest division, which means he was the best 5 Pin bowler in the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games here in London, Ontario.






Today he bowled 247 and 226, ending the tournament with an average of 225. That's 16 points over his average for the 7 games he played, and no other bowler in the top division did better than that.

And he helped his team into 1st place so tomorrow they play for team Gold.

But like yesterday, he struggled at times and was around 75 after the fifth frame in his second game. But once again, he put together enough strikes and spares in the second half of the game to finish with a 226.

His team started the day in second place 3 points out of first. But they picked up the entire 8 points available in the first game to move into first place overall. They then faced the second place team and quickly fell behind. But by the time Cory threw the last ball, they were well ahead and collected 6 out of 8 possible points. Cory earned both points from the two games, for a total of 5 out of a possible 7 for the tournament.

So tomorrow is the Gold Medal game, around 10am eastern time. Look for an update with photos and video later tonight and another tomorrow evening.

Right now, it's time for his mum and dad to go out and celebrate.

Thanks so very much to all of you who have encouraged and supported Cory along his journey to a National Championship. I'm sure he would agree to share his medal with all of you.

That Emotional Roller Coaster Called Sports

We rode the sports roller coaster this morning....the second day of competition at the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games here in London, Ontario.

Cory's team began the day in second place in their division of eight teams. The top 3 teams at the end of play on Friday afternoon will advance to the medal round on Saturday.

Cory bowled a very good 231 in his first game, 22 points over his average. His entire team did very well, taking 7 of 8 possible points from their competition from Manitoba. Those 7 points vaulted the team into FIRST place as they headed into their next game against Alberta.

But that game did not start well for Cory or the team. Cory had only 60 points after 5 frames, meaning if that continued, he'd bowl 120. He was clearly frustrated and getting upset, and his mum and dad weren't exactly pleased with things either. The entire team was struggling, and at one point found itself over 100 points behind Alberta.

But then they started getting it together. Cory bowled strikes in the sixth and seventh frames, and finished with a 223, amazingly clawing enough points in the final few frames to finish over his average. And the team closed in on Alberta, falling just 18 points short of a victory, but a remarkable finish considering how far behind they had fallen. They did earn 3 points for individual matchups, leaving them in second place, 3.5 points behind another BC team, whom they play against tomorrow.

We'll update later with photos and video.

Day One Competition

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Cory had a good start to the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games. This event is being held at Fleetway Lanes in London, Ontario. There are eight teams from BC competing in this event, Cory's team is BC #5. All athletes stay in dorms at the University of Western Ontario; our contact with him is very limited, just some very brief conversations before and after competition. Here's a Team BC bus arriving at Fleetway:








Cory's team anxiously waiting for the start of competition:





Cory here looking good in warmup:





And the first ball he's ever thrown in National competition is a good one, but....



His next one is even better:




And a double! Bowling next to teammate Tyler:





A good ball going for the triple - which is called a Turkey - but the corners don't drop, and that's called Aces:






Back on track here with a strike:






The scoring system for this tournament is a bit unusual. The teams are divisioned according to averages, then each player is matched up against a player from the other team. Those players then compete using pins over average, meaning whichever player scores highest over their average wins. Cory bowled 251 in his first game, 42points over his average of 209. His opponent bowled well under that, so Cory's team earned one point. That is done with all 5 players on each team. As well, the team with the highest score over average is awarded 3 points. In this game, Cory's team earned 7 points, with 4 of his 5 teammates winning their individual matchups and the team collected the 3 team points.

It's time for us to head to the bowling alley for Day Two of competition, so we'll post this now and come back later to finish it, and add the results from Day Two.

Thanks to Brian, Becky, and Elaine for your comments yesterday!

Great Opening Ceremonies

Under ideal weather conditions, the Opening Ceremonies to the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games were held on July 13 at the TD Waterhouse Stadium at the University of Western Ontario in London.

Here's how the stadium looked as we waited for the arrival of the athletes:







And here comes British Columbia!





And in that large group of BC athletes, there's Cory, looking up and finding us in the large group, proudly waving a small Canadian flag: (sorry about the camera shake - it was quite a moment)

Team BC moving into their seats:

And the arrival of the Host Team - Ontario:




All the athletes from all over Canada now in their seats, with Team BC on the left:





Then Cory stands, turns around to look for us, and starts waving his flag. I had a large BC flag with me and waved it back:









And then the arrival of the Torch. Law enforcement officers all across Canada raise funds for Special Olympics through the Law Enforcement Torch Run. Here a very impressive and very long procession of officers leads the Torch runner into the stadium:



Then the Torch arrives:



And, after a bit of a delay, the Olympic cauldron is lit and the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games are officially open!





Now we're off to Day Two of competition....look for another update later today.

Good Start

The first three games are over and Cory and his team are off to a pretty good start. Cory bowled 251 in his first game, 206 in the second, and 192 in his last game, earning 2 of 3 points for his team and helping the team to an overall tie for 2nd place.

Watch for photos and video later today, with 2 more games tomorrow morning, and 2 more on Friday.

Good Thing Day One Was Only Practice!

It's Day One of the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games here in London, Ontario, Cory's first ever appearance at a National event. And fortunately, Day One was only for practice!
Cory bowled his worst game in at least a year - 132! Not that he seemed to do anything wrong, just a lot of stubborn pins...like this one:





Or this one....




The first day of competition is tomorrow, hopefully those pins won't be so stubborn then.

Off to the Opening Ceremonies now, another update later.

Off to London, Ontario with Team BC!

Just two days to go now before Cory joins his Team BC teammates on a flight to London, Ontario to participate in Special Olympics' National Summer Games in 5 Pin Bowling. He is really excited about the experience and is really looking forward to it. Team BC athletes receive a lot of gear from Special Olympics for their trip....here's Cory proudly wearing some of it:




Cory is a bowler as well as a ski racer with Special Olympics and next March hopes to qualify for the National Winter Games in St. Albert, Alberta in 2012 in alpine skiing.

But for now it's 5 Pin Bowling, which is played only in Canada so unfortunately there is no opportunity for Cory to qualify for the World Summer Games in Greece next year.

He has been working hard over the last few months, practicing 3 to 5 times a week, often on his own, sometimes with his teammates and coach, other times with me. Special Olympics uses a pins over average system, which makes it fair for bowlers of all abilities. But with Cory's average of 209, he will need to bowl exceptionally well in order to have the opportunity to medal. The average for most Special Olympics athletes is probably under 150. He has averaged 216 over his last 30 practice games, including a 336 just last weekend. So he seems to be ready.

Here he is, in the middle, with this Team BC teammates, wearing their Team BC uniforms. We'll be waving that flag in the bowling alley in London next week:




Practicing here....working on staying low and delivering the ball smoothly onto the floor, keeping his shoulders square to the pins, hitting his target (in this case one board right of the middle marker) and following through with his right hand in line with his right shoulder. His ball sometimes has a tendency to move to the left, and in this case that's a good thing as it moves across the front of the head pin on the way down and hits it on the left...




On this shot, he stays low, follows through right up to his shoulder, hits his target just right of the middle marker, and his ball stays straight and hits the head pin on the right:




But it doesn't always work out quite perfectly...








More Team BC gear:














This is what Team BC athletes will wear as they march into TD Waterhouse Stadium at the University of Western Ontario during the Opening Ceremonies next Tuesday evening:
























So it's goodbye west coast....lookout London! Cory's team practices next Tuesday and competes on Wednesday and Thursday mornings and Friday afternoon, for the right to compete for medals on Saturday July 17. We'll update each day beginning on Tuesday. See you then, from the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games in London, Ontario.