What if....

Special Olympics Canada selects athletes for the World Games based on their performance at the National Games.  Athletes are divisioned and compete by ability, but qualify by gender and age group.  Cory raced in the top Advanced Division but there were male racers in his age group that competed in lower levels of Advanced, or in Intermediate or Novice.  4 of those male racers earned more points than Cory did at the Nationals.  Special Olympics Canada selected 4 male racers from his age group, and Cory finished 5th.  He finished 8th at the previous Nationals in 2012, so a good step forward.

But, what if...what if Cory had qualified.  How would he have compared to the other Advanced racers from around the world?


Here's what happened in Austria:

SLALOM

Well, in Slalom at the 2016 Nationals in Newfoundland, Cory was 20.37% slower than Michael Gilbert, the World Champion from Quebec who qualified for the World Games in Austria.  Michael Gilbert's time in Austria was 1:17.43, which means Cory could have posted a hypothetical time of 1:33.20.

Canada no longer has the World Champion skier, that is now a Russian in Slalom, and Michael Gilbert was 2nd:

World Champion Semen Ksenyk, Russia:  1:16.86
2nd Michael Gilbert, Canada: 1:17.43
3rd Thomas Prazmarer, Austria:  1:21.51
4th Jonathan Ojerteg, Sweden: 1:22.30
5th Yusuke Kizuki, Japan: 1:23.67
6th Joel Seiler, Leichtenstein:  1:24.14
7th Johan Solander, Sweden:  1:26.38
8th Artem Gelzhinis, Russia: 1:27.89
9th Frans Salmi, Finland: 1:32.82

Cory's hypothetical time of 1:33.20 would place him 10th best in the world in Slalom!



GIANT SLALOM




















In Giant Slalom, at the 2016 Nationals, Cory was 9.96% slower than Michael Gilbert.  Michael Gilbert's time in Austria was 1:23.88, so Cory's hypothetical time would be 1:32.23.

The GS World Champion is the same racer from Russia:

World Champion Semen Ksenyk, Russia:  1:23.29
2nd Michael Gilbert, Canada: 1:23.88
3rd Oleg Babaev, Russia: 1:24.93
4th Rogier Blaas, Netherlands:  1:26.27
5th Peder Hald, Norway: 1:29.51
6th Jonathan Ojerteg, Sweden:  1:31.01
7th Johan Solander, Sweden:  1:31.31
8th Simon Berchtold, Austria:  1:31.72
9th Pascal Haller, Switzerland:  1:31.90

Again, Cory's hypothetical time of 1:32.23 would place him 10th best in the world!


SUPER G

In Super Giant Slalom, Michael Gilbert did not compete in Austria, and neither did the Russian skier.  (there must have been some logistical issue, as the participants seem to have been limited to just 2 events, not 3 as is usually the case).  But a very good female skier from Quebec named Stephanie Savard did participate and at the 2016 Nationals, Cory was 4.06% faster than she was.

Stephanie's time in Austria was 1:00.73, making Cory's hypothetical time 0:58.26

A different skier from Russia is Super G World Champion, Oleg Babaev, Russia:  0:52.94
2nd Thomas Praxmarer, Austria: 0:54.85
3rd Rogier Blaas, Netherlands: 0:54.92
4th Peder Hald, Norway:  0:55.66

So in Super G, Cory's hypothetical time of 0:58.26 would be good enough for 5th best in the world!

Oddly, there are no American Special Olympians in the top 10 of any of the events.  But there could have been 2 Canadians!  If Cory had qualified.

But it does look as if he's top 5 or top 10 Special Olympics skiers in the world...

The next World Games are in 2021, apparently Lillehammer Norway may be interested in bidding.

What if....