Golden Days in Kamloops

It was 2 Golden days for Cory at the 2015 Special Olympics British Columbia Provincial Winter Games at Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops.

Under excellent race conditions with mostly sunny skies & terrific racer snow, Cory took 1st place in the top Advanced Division in Super G, Giant Slalom, and Slalom.

The Golden weekend started last Thursday as Cory loaded his gear onto the team bus to take them to Kamloops:

With Coach Chris

Later that night, it's the opening ceremonies at the Tournament Capital Centre in Kamloops:

And Cory's team enters the arena, but unfortunately the organizers decided to keep the lights off during the athlete parade but Cory is in here somewhere!

The flame is lit and the Games are open!

And a smile from Cory as his team leaves the ceremonies:

It's a nice clear racer-friendly morning as we drive from Kamloops to Sun Peaks.

The first race of the weekend would be the Super G with a practice run first:




And then Cory's timed run:





And it's his first Gold!  but it was close, a margin of only .51 seconds, though still unofficial results...

Our thanks to Edward Tai for these photos:

looking for speed...

Cory is very definitely Canadian and yes, he's wearing a Team USA suit, but hey, he likes blue!  And he won't wear a Canadian suit till he's earned one...well, he's now taken a big step towards just that.

A winning run, but those hands could be higher in your tuck, Cory!

 This photo courtesy of SOBC;  carve baby, carve!

And then his winning Giant Slalom run, in spite of a little slip near the top of the hill, but he takes a great line from the 2nd last gate straight to the finish line:



And unofficially wins by 1.03 seconds

A little off balance here, it was a relatively challenging race course and it doesn't have to be perfect, just fast!

(photos courtesy Edward Tai)

About to pole plant to start his next turn...

Close and in tight against this gate, one inch closer and it's a straddle, but that's the way to race!

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The next day is Slalom day and the sun continues to shine

And so does Cory - nailing two terrific slalom runs and unofficially beats his rival by an amazing 14 seconds - a rival that only 8 years ago had beaten Cory at his first Provincial Games.  Because I knew he had a huge lead after his first run - but he didn't - you can hear thinking out loud..."easy, easy"...as I was concerned he might miss a gate or crash if he was going too fast, and be disqualified...but that wasn't going to happen on this day!

Then onto the plaza at Sun Peaks for the medal presentation, waiting with his new teammates from Vancouver, Vancouver North Shore, and Whistler.

where Cory would hear his name called to the podium 3 times, so those Golds are now officially his!

Gold #1

#2

And #3

And those medals sure are shiny!  Cory's medals gleaming in the Sun Peaks sunshine...

And one for mum, one for dad, one for Cory.....well, if only for a moment...

Heading back home to the coast...

to greet the team bus early the next morning...

A very tired Cory somewhat reluctantly lets go of one medal for a moment to thank Coach Chris

but the handshake is genuine and heart felt..

So Cory has likely completed the next step in his quest to represent Canada at the 2017 World Games in Austria, pending the confirmation of his selection to Team BC within the next 2 months.  We'll post as soon as we know for sure that he will attend the National Games in Corner Brook, Newfoundland on March 1 - 5, 2016.

Cory plans to compete in the Western Canadian Paralympic Championships at Silver Star near Vernon, BC in mid-March and he has been invited to return to Silver Star to attend his second high performance camp with Special Olympics BC in late March.

But first, he will enjoy a well-earned vacation on the beaches of Puerto Vallarta.

Our thanks to Chris Vanderwel, Whistler Adaptive Sports Programs, the Gatebusters program at Whistler Blackcomb, and to Heather, Mark, and John, his coaches at SOBC Vancouver, all of whom helped Cory to prepare as best as he could under very difficult weather conditions during this unusually warm winter with no snow in our local mountains.

It was a true team effort, and we will hope for similar success next year too.

Golden Days in Kamloops!

It sure was a golden weekend in Kamloops as Cory competed in the 2015 Special Olympics Provincial Winter Games.

Gold in Super G:

Gold in Giant Slalom:

And Gold in Slalom!

We'll update with more details, photos, and videos soon.

Fine Tuning with One Week to Go

With just one week to go before Cory competes at the Provincial Games at Sun Peaks, he headed to Whistler for one more day of Slalom training with Whistler Adaptive Sports Programs.  WASP had set up a nice long course and Cory worked on fine-tuning his starts and his finishes, while being quite cautious in the rest of the course so as to avoid any chance of injury.

Nice strong push off at the start...






But the touchdown at finish needs a bit of work.  This is something new for Cory.  Reaching down with his hand is a way to stop the time clock a fraction of a second earlier than it would otherwise and as Cory knows, hundies (hundredths of a second) matter.  He won the Super G at the last Provincial Games by only 13/100ths of a second over two runs, with one run only 2/100ths of a second.

But he's not reaching quite far enough down here at the finish line...




Later, he removes his jacket and ski pants to train in the same conditions - just a race suit - as he will be racing in next week.  It wasn't a cold day but still a chilly ride back up on the long Garbonzo chair to the top of Ptarmigan.  He understands that he must be ready for any conditions in order to perform at his best at the Provincials.

And his touchdown improves by the end of his day.





Cory is also trying to improve his tuck, getting into a lower position by bending his knees more, trying to get his thighs parallel to the snow - he's close here.  And he's been working on keeping his hands higher in order to become more aerodynamic.





So our next post will be with results from his first race next Friday.  This is it!  It's Cory's time to put all his training into action!

Here's the reigning Special Olympics British Columbia Provincial Champion in serious preparation for the Provincial Games in 2 weeks' time....

Actually, after a 530am wake up and a 2 hour drive to Whistler, we discovered that training had been cancelled due to a communications mix-up.  No, it wasn't his dad's fault!

Last week, however, things went pretty much as planned, even getting our favourite parking spot at Whistler Creekside!

And the blue sky was a bonus!

But there hasn't been much snow on the coast so far this winter - Cory's regular training at Cypress in North Vancouver has been cancelled till further notice due to lack of snow - and Whistler on this day presented some challenging conditions on a very icy race course.  With Cory well aware that an injury now could postpone his dreams another four years, he started his first day of Slalom training this year very tentatively, often holding onto his turns in order to control his speed.  This race course had been set up by the Gatebusters program at Whistler (not Special Olympics) and was designed for very experienced racers.  

 But after a few tries, Cory finds out that even the more experienced Masters racers found the course very difficult and several had already given up.  With some instruction from Coach Tomio, he finds some new confidence and shows an obvious improvement.  He also had the opportunity to train in a less challenging race course courtesy of Whistler Adaptive Snow Sports, so with 3 different race courses on each run, and with 7-8 runs during the day, it was a very productive day of Slalom training after all.  

Let's race along with Cory!

And a smile to end his day on our way back down to Whistler Creekside.

Bronze Meets Bronze

Cory was invited to attend a practice for the Canadian Women's National Soccer Team today - the inspiring bronze medalists from London 2012. Several players were gracious enough to chat with him and he even showed off his own bronze medals from the 2012 Nationals.

Our thanks to Assistant Coach Simon Eaddy. here with Cory, Christine Sinclair and Karina LeBlanc.

Cory is off to Whistler tomorrow for Slalom training, now with just over 2 weeks to go to the Provincial Games.

Finding a Way to Prepare for the Provincial Games

With less than one month to go now to the Provincial Games at Sun Peaks, Cory is faced with a real challenge as he tries to prepare to defend his status as Provincial Champion.  His regular training grounds - Cypress Mountain in North Vancouver - has more brown areas than white, marginal conditions would be an improvement we'd say!

But even under less than ideal conditions, it's always worth stopping to enjoy the view of the city below.

YAY, SNOW!

And a chance to practice his starts.  Special Olympics race courses tend to be rather flat so Cory is working on building speed as quickly as possible by improving his starts.  Using both his arms and his legs to power out of the start gate, and in some cases getting lower to the ground to gain leverage on his poles, and using the skate technique whenever possible.










Cory participated in a Building Our Best camp with BC Adaptive, also at Sun Peaks.  It was a great opportunity to get in some substantial GS training over 4 days earlier this month, including two races.  He will also be working to improve his tuck position, holding his hands higher in front of his face to deflect the wind, as well as getting down into a more compact position in order to be more aerodynamic.

In race action in those great-looking BOB bibs:

A second place finish in both races, behind a non-Special Olympics racer brings a smile to Cory's face.

So then we were off to Whistler for what we thought would be a good day of GS training in their Gatebusters program....it turned out to be Super G training, which was even better since Cory had not yet trained Super G this year.

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Faced with even warmer and wetter weather over the last few days, Cory hopes to return to Whistler's Gatebusters program for some Slalom training this coming week.  The training at Sun Peaks and Whistler has boosted his confidence and Slalom training will only add to his technical and mental preparation for his most important races since the National Games 3 years ago.