Cory took the first steps on the road to the next Special Olympics World Games to be held in Schladming, Austria in 2017. It's a long road, in 2010 he started on the road to the 2013 World Games in Korea, but didn't quite complete the journey when he finished 3rd at Special Olympics' Canada National Winter Games in 2012. The 1st & 2nd place finishers were selected to go to Korea but Cory was not.
So he has rejoined his former race team with Vancouver Adaptive Snow Sports on Grouse Mountain and yesterday was his first day back on skis since last season. It was a foggy drizzly day at Grouse, but the early-season snow was surprisingly good.
The base at Grouse decked out for Christmas...
Cory now in his red Whistler Mountain Ski Club team jacket waits his turn for...
Just a short gentle run through a few stubbies on Day 1, just to get used to gates again, then we did have a few good free-skiing runs too to finish off a short but enjoyable first day back on snow.
It will be another less-intensive year of training for Cory. He will compete at the Regional Qualifying races in Kelowna, which will automatically qualify him for the 2015 Provincial Games in Kamloops. He'll train with the Blue Streaks throughout this winter and participate in a few fun races, the first one is scheduled for December 29, and then we'll see how he does against some of his main rivals in the first race of the year.
