Ready to Fly Like An Eagle!

With 10 days to go to Cory's departure for Special Olympics' National Winter Games in St. Albert & Jasper, Alberta, his 5 years of preparation and training are coming to an end. He's just returned from two days at Whistler, where he spent one day at Gatebusters doing some GS gate training, and the next in a Kokanee Super G race. He'll train one more time with Special Olympics, but will use most of the next 10 days resting.

Working with former Canadian ski team member Chris Kent this week, he's been trying to add just a little tweak to his body position by spreading his arms further apart -and "fly like an eagle", as Chris said.

Like any sport, becoming a better racer requires repetitive practice, and Cory has been able to do gate training on 23 days so far this season. On each day, Cory tries to get about 8-10 runs through the race course. With about 20 gates per course, that means that he has made up to about 4600 turns around gates this season.

Here are a few of those 4600 turns....

At a Gatebusters GS session on Ptarmigan at Whistler on February 1, where Cory is working on just trying to find more speed...

But first, some warm ups with Blackcomb's Seventh Heaven in the background:






Spectacular sights are easy to find at Whistler Blackcomb:




And a week later, again at a Gatebusters GS session on Ptarmigan, he seems to have found that extra speed....



And a view of the whole race course....







Got to fit in a lunch break amongst all those runs...





And then on Gandy Dancer on Blackcomb on February 15, working on keeping his arms a bit wider, and it takes him a few runs before he starts to "fly like and eagle"...



At the end of the day, a ride on the Peak to Peak Gondola to get us over to the Peak to Creek run...the longest intermediate run in North America...for the last run of the day. Over the last couple of weeks, we've tried to cut back somewhat on Cory's gate training - after all 4600 gates should be enough! - and just enjoy more free-skiing, just to add a bit more fun, a bit less work, to Cory's routine.






And then a bit of clowning around with Cory trying to "fly like an eagle"..




The next day, it's a race...another in the Kokanee series, and this time it's a Super G on Gandy Dancer on Blackcomb. And Cory does a good job at keeping his arms further apart as he races, though he does drop his inside hand as he turns. But the wider arms will give him more stability and balance in a more athletic stance as he races.

And he said later he heard me ringing the cowbell!



With the Super G cut to only one run due to a continuing snow fall (which adds soft snow to a hard race surface which can be dangerous), then why not use the extra time for some hot-tubbing - but that falling snow is cold!




and talk about a great ski-in/ski-out location - right by the Wizard Chair....




So after 5 years of training - from the 2007 Special Olympics British Columbia Provincial Winter Games when he set his sights to qualify for the 2012 National Games - Cory is ready. He'll train one more time with Special Olympics at Cypress next week, and then get some rest, work some shifts at Canada Safeway, and prepare for his departure with Team BC on Monday, February 27. And then it's onto Marmot Basin near Jasper, where he certainly plans to "fly like an eagle". We'll update again soon.