Well, we now know the Games will be held from January 22 to January 28, 2022.
And we now know the Games will be held in Kazan, Russia.
What we still don't know is whether Cory will be there wearing the Maple Leaf.
So a good time to review how Cory got to this point, so close to realizing a dream that started over 15 years ago. And the last 3 years certainly provided some new challenges to Cory.
Including some health issues, both minor and major, and Cory continues to suffer from foot pain that started earlier this year.
The first year of the current cycle was 2018, with the Regional Qualifier held in Kimberley. Cory represents Region 3 at Special Olympics British Columbia (Richmond, Burnaby, Delta). Being the only alpine skier from his Region, Cory was pretty much guaranteed to qualify for the 2019 Provincial Games, especially since in previous cycles, all participants in the Regional Qualifying races were invited to the Provincial Games the following year, unlike all other SOBC sport programs.
Cory had not lost an SOBC race since 2007, and was expecting to do well again. Though he certainly expected to be challenged by his main rival from North Vancouver. Until that racer broke his wrist in training and could not race at the Qualifiers.
So Cory was feeling pretty good about finishing first at the Regionals, though he knows anything can happen on race day.
And it did. Cory raced well, but did not win any of the 3 races, beaten by 2 newcomers from the Cranbrook area.
So now, while qualifying for the Provincial Games was still quite certain, Cory would have to work very hard to find a way to beat these two new athletes at the 2019 Provincial Games if he hoped to qualify for the National Games in 2020.
As it turned out, for the first time, not all athletes who participated qualified for the 2019 Provincial Games. And even though 2 racers beat Cory, neither of them qualified. There were no explanations provided, so we can only guess that the racers who beat Cory were not actually registered with Special Olympics.
So onto the 2019 Provincials we go, at Silver Star near Vernon. Again, expecting to do well but knowing that only 3 Gold Medal finishes would guarantee him a trip to Thunder Bay for the 2020 National Games.
It's a cold and very snowy couple of days at Silver Star. And very short race courses, which levels the playing field and makes even a small error very costly.
The first day goes very well, as Cory wins the Giant Slalom and Super Giant Slalom races, though the Super G was by a .49 of a second margin, it was close.
The next day would be Slalom, 2 runs to determine if Cory would grab his 3 Gold Medal. Then, about 10 minutes before he was to start his first run on the course, Cory had a seizure. They don't usually last long and neither did this one but he still had to get back into race mode in a hurry. And he did, winning by close to 3 seconds over the 2 runs.
So after the uncertainty of believing he would be competing against faster rivals, and then overcoming a pre-race seizure, Cory received a letter in early May, 2019, that he would represent BC at his third National Games.
A month later, attending the National Games would become much less important to us all. On June 20, after experiencing pain for a few weeks, Cory was diagnosed with cancer. He was fortunate with surgery taking place two days later, and within 6 weeks or so, he was declared free of cancer and has remained so ever since.
So by fall, it was back to work to prepare for the 2020 National Games. Starting with the terrific new full-time race program at Rocky Mountain Adaptive in Banff, Alberta, in early December, 2019:
and again in January 2020, where wind chill values dropped to -37C, which would turn out to be good training for the weather Cory would deal with at the National Games in Thunder Bay...
as well as with BC Adaptive at Sun Peaks...
So on to the National Games in Thunder Bay in late February, where Cory would try for the 3rd time to earn enough points to be selected to Team Canada.
And he would once again deal with a health issue, plantar fasciitis in his left foot. Up until that week, it hadn't bothered him in ski boots but he was experiencing a lot of pain when we watched him do some training runs on the first day of the Games.
But he persevered and with a little bit of luck, earned the maximum number of points possible by winning 3 Gold Medals in his 3 races.
Gold in Super G:
Gold in Giant Slalom:
Gold in Slalom:
So not quite at the finish line yet, but hopefully we will know soon whether Cory will be travelling to Russia in 2022.
Spasibo!
