The story of a 35-year-old man with autism and a passion for ski racing, and his dream-come-true of representing Canada at Special Olympics World Winter Games. In 2020, Cory qualified for Team Canada and was due to compete at the World Winter Games in Russia in January 2023. Those Games were cancelled. Cory then had to restart the 3 year qualification process which culminated at the 2024 National Winter Games where Cory qualified for the next World Winter Games in Italy in 2025.
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.
Well, ski season isn't quite over but Cory has plans to participate in some summer sports too, namely soccer, softball, and basketball. This year is the regional qualifying year for summer sports in Special Olympics where local teams compete to see who will represent our area at next year's Provincial Games, in a yet to be announced location.
Not long ago, when Cory first started playing basketball, he often ran towards the wrong basket. It has taken him a while to better understand the game and rather ironically, now finds himself as a team leader on a team where many of his teammates played in a competitive game for the first time ever this past weekend. So participation was definitely the key aspect and the team suffered a tournament-starting loss of 39-6. But showed some improvement in the next game, losing 20-7 and then battled hard in their last game to lose only 8-6. So qualification for the Provincials likely won't happen for Cory in basketball but it was a successful weekend nonetheless just to be part of a team that is just starting to learn to play as a team.
And here's a video that shows exactly that...Cory passes the ball to Ashton, back to Cory, over to Clayton, then Ashton, shot missed but Cory gains the defensive rebound back at the other end, gives to Ashton, over to Sam, who scores the 2 points!
But sometimes it's best just to carry the ball...
or reach for it...
and running with it again...
It might not have been a podium performance this time but Cory enjoyed a great weekend of team-building.
Cory's National Games in Newfoundland started the night before departure with plenty of gear to pack at home.
The next day - February 28 - and Cory meets up with his Team BC teammates at the south terminal of Vancouver Airport. Here's Cory holding up the BC flag...
And time for a photo with Coach Mark:
then boarding the chartered Flair Air flight to Deer Lake, Newfoundland....
Mum and Dad followed a few hours later....
Getting our first and impressive glimpse of the race venue, Marble Mountain, in Steady Brook, just outside Corner Brook.
Next day is a training day, and the race course is ready...
And here comes Cory!
Then it's time to head over to the Corner Brook Civic Centre for the Opening Ceremonies...
And the arrival of Team BC...and a wave from Cory when he hears our ringing cowbell...
The next day looks perfect for racing, cold but dry with some sunshine...
First up is a divisioning run, used to place the racers in the appropriate division so that they all race against others of similar ability. As expected, Cory's time places him in the top division where he will compete against the current World Champion (M) who is from Quebec, and his rival from BC (J).
Then it's race time and Cory posts a time of 43.01 seconds, closely followed by his BC rival (J) with a time of 43.60, but both well behind the World Champion's (M)) time of 39.30 seconds. In the second run, M improves to 39.02, J also improves to 43.20, and Cory posts a slightly slower time of 43.11.
And that means SILVER!
The official results:
Onto the following day, but racing is cancelled due to rain...a chance to see some of spectacular Newfoundland...Cox's Cove in particular:
By the time we get to Lark Harbour just and hour or so later, the weather has changed again:
And winter comes back in full force for the next day of racing, cold and very windy for both Super G and Slalom scheduled for the last day of competition.
The World Champion sets the time to beat in the Super G with a run of 33.41 seconds:
But Cory is not far behind with a great run of 35.46 seconds, good for Silver #2! And only about 2 seconds slower than the World Champ!!
Here's the medal presentation for Cory:
Final Results for Super G:
And finally, Slalom. And things didn't go quite so well even though Cory skied his very best as he always seems to do in the most important events.
He looks great here in his first Slalom run, posting a time of 39.21 seconds, well behind M at 32.85 but comfortably ahead of J at 43.51. A 4.3 second lead is a very comfortable lead in a 40 second race in Alpine Skiing.
All Cory had to do now was to avoid any major mistakes on his second run and a 3rd Silver Medal was his.
But something did go wrong...with the timing system, not Cory's skiing. His second run was very similar to his first, with a time of 39.67.
The timing system was fine for Cory's run. You can see the clock display here, and it had been 100% accurate with the posted final results. But for a few of the racers during the 2nd slalom run, the display clock stopped. For the World Champion M, it stopped just before he reached the finish line, and with such a big lead it didn't affect the race results.
But for J, who was 4.3 seconds behind Cory after the first run, the clock stopped when he was about 5 gates from the finish of the race course. There is usually a manual system to back up the electronic one and we figured they would make the adjustment to J's time. But unexplicably, the official results showed a time of 34.85 for J, nearly 9 seconds faster than his first run.
Such a difference is unheard of in Alpine Skiing, especially in a race that was only 40 seconds long, unless the racer made a major mistake in the first run. But we saw the entire runs for all 3 racers, and J's first run and second runs looked very similar, just like Cory's and M's runs. Cory had beaten J at the Provincials last year by 14 seconds over two runs, so it is just not believable to us that J had a second run that was so much faster than his first.
Yet the results stood, and J edged Cory out by .52 seconds for Silver, even though the obvious error had been brought to the attention of Cory's team management.
It was a special week...travelling all the way to Newfoundland, our first time ever there. Enjoying the hospitality of so many friendly people, and watching Cory perform at his very best when it counted most. Just a shame to have it marred by a timing malfunction and team management that appeared to just shrug it off and not do anything about it.
At the closing ceremonies, Cory had the chance to meet his MP, Carla Qualtrough, who coincidentally is the Canadian Minister of Sport and Disabilities.
After a snowstorm delayed his Flair Air flight back to Vancouver by 18 hours, we were at the airport early in the morning to welcome Cory home.
A hug from mum....
Back home, putting away those hard-earned medals...
His race bib....
Check out the Newfoundland dogs on the medal ribbons!
In 2012 at Marmot Basin in Jasper, Alberta, Cory earned 3 Bronze Medals. He knew Gold would be difficult with the World Champion also being a Canadian. But he set his goal for 3 Silvers, and maybe with a bit of luck one Gold instead of Silver. Well, we believe he did earn 3 Silvers, but the smile on his face here shows he's pretty happy with one Bronze instead of a Silver anyways.
And he continues to break into a big smile whenever we talk of the 2016 Special Olympics National Winter Games in Corner Brook. What an terrific experience for us all!
It will probably be early May before we find out whether Cory has earned enough points with 2 silvers and one bronze to qualify for Team Canada to compete in Schladming, Austria next year at the World Games. That's been his real goal. So now, he's worked hard, prepared so well, and done all he could, now we wait.
Next up though is the Canadian Association of Disabled Skiers Annual Festival in Kimberley, BC. Always a good time!
