The 16-year story of a 35-year-old man with autism who has a passion for ski racing, and his dream-come-true of representing Canada at Special Olympics World Winter Games. In February 2020, Cory qualified for Team Canada and was due to compete at Special Olympics' World Winter Games in Russia in January 2023. Those Games have been cancelled. The next World Winter Games are to be held in Italy in 2025. Come along and Race With Cory!
Welcome to Race with Cory and thanks for visiting our blog.
If you wish to read the story from the beginning, click here http://racewithcory.blogspot.com/2007/09/beginnings.html. When you're done, click on "2007" in the right column, then "September", then on "Special Olympics Ski Racing, From Beginner to Racer" and go from there.
Cory was invited to join the Whistler Mountain Ski Club for some gate training last week. WMSC has been the home club for many of Canada's best racers and is coached by Rob Boyd, one of Canada's best known ski racers. Rob was born and raised at the foot of Whistler and remains as the only Canadian male to win a World Cup downhill race in Canada - and that was on the Dave Murray Downhill at Whistler. Cory was the first ever athlete with a disability to train with Whistler Mountain Ski Club.
Here Cory is waiting in line with members of WMSC for his turn at some start training. He has never trained this specific part of racing before and it is certainly something he needs to improve upon, so this was a good way to start the day.
His first try is a bit on the lazy side:
And in spite of some instruction from his coach and a reminder from me to put a bit more effort into it, not much improvement:
Some improvement in the effort here, but it's clear that Cory needs to work on this part of his racing:
Then it's time for some Giant Slalom gate training, with Rob Boyd at the start:
Continuing to show improvement in his stance, with his hands forward and feet apart, and looking more comfortable doing so:
And the final run of the day as the snow begins to fall heavily on the Dave Murray Olympic Downhill:
Cory trained again with Whistler Mountain Ski Club the following week for two days of gate training, one for Slalom and another for Giant Slalom.
A little warm-up here on some stubbies. There was a fair amount of soft snow which quickly became deep ruts as the racers practiced through the course.
Some instructions from Coach Rob:
More video from slalom training with Whistler Mountain Ski Club:
Our sincere thanks to Rob Boyd and the Whistler Mountain Ski Club for including Cory in some of their Christmas 2010 Race Camps. We'll look forward to another opportunity to train with them.
Next up is the second Kokanee race of the season. Cory will once again aim to not finish last!
After his week at Hurricane Race Camp in Loveland, Colorado last month, Cory kicked off his local training and racing season with 2 days of training and racing with Whistler Adaptive Sports Programs at Whistler-Blackcomb.
Working with a new coach, Luke Hadley (who's father was a teammate of Nancy Greene in the 70s...and Cory has met Nancy Greene a couple of times now...the Canadian ski racing community is a small one!), Cory participated in a Gatebusters session on the Dave Murray run at Whistler - the same run that was used during the 2010 Olympic Games last February.
It was Luke's first time at working with a disabled athlete and it worked out really well. Luke was impressed with Cory's skiing ability and his willingness to learn - his coachability - and by the end of the day Luke was saying he was looking forward to working with Cory more often.
One of our objectives when Cory went to Loveland was to improve Cory's racing by one second - find a way to make Cory faster by one second through an average race course. Over the last couple of years, Cory has been neck-and-neck with his main competitors at Special Olympics, so going into any given race it's difficult to say who will come out the winner.
It will likely be only the winner of the qualifying races next March that will be invited to the Nationals in 2012, so we figured if Cory could find a way to become one second faster, then he would have a much better chance of qualifying and give him a larger margin for a small error.
After Coach Luke had worked with Cory for the day, he said that Cory could easily improve by one second with more coaching and training, and that's on top of what Cory learned at Loveland. So that was great for Cory to hear, giving his confidence a real boost and motivating him even more to keep working hard at improving his skills.
Coach Luke continued to work on the same things as Cory worked on at Loveland, though he has now mastered keeping his feet further apart. Luke told him to keep his hands out in front of his body and to move his body further forward, and to work harder at getting up on the edge of his skis.
And we can see some of that work in these videos:
On this day the training course was not directly accessible by chair lift, so there was a fair amount of walking uphill involved. It made for a tiring day, so by 2pm we're on our way back down...and Whistler is covered in snow.
Later, a walk through Whistler Village all dressed up for Christmas:
The next day is a chance for Cory to put his learning to work, in the first Kokanee race of the season. This series of races is held on most Thursdays during the winter at Whistler-Blackcomb. It is open to all and Cory is often the only racer with a disability. Racers earn points depending on their finish, with 100 points to the winner. The racer with the most points at the end of the season is the Kokanee champion. Cory normally finishes in last place in his age group (19-29), so we jokingly set an objective of not finishing last and picking up a few points!
Looks like a good day for a race:
Cory having a good look at the 25 gates on this Giant Slalom race course set out on the Gandy Dancer run on Blackcomb mountain:
This day, Cory is working with Sammy Kent, a former Canadian ski team member and here they are working together during the pre-race course inspection:
And some warming up just before it's Cory turn to race:
And his first run...1:06.76....though I picked a poor location, shooting a video right into the sun:
And then his second run, a much improved 1:00.24, the most improvement of any of the 52 racers entered:
So a combined time of 2:07.00, and 8th out of the 11 racers in his age group, so Cory doesn't finish last and picks up 40 points! And Coach Sammy agrees with Coach Luke that Cory can easily find another second or two with more coaching and training. Cory will need to keep working on his stance, especially moving his hips forward, and will need to learn to take a more aggressive line through a race course.
A good couple of days of training & racing. Next week, a return trip to Whistler is in the plans, perhaps working with Coach Luke again but this time with Whistler Mountain Ski Club.
Then the first week of January kicks off the official training season for both Special Olympics and Vancouver Adaptive Snow Sports, so it will be 3 times a week of training or racing, in preparation to those qualifying races in Kelowna on March 4 and 5.
We'd love to hear from you so please leave a comment below. Just post it anonymously if you don't have an account, though it would be nice to leave your name so we know who visited.
