The Nationals!

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!

Silver!

Silver Medal for Cory in the Giant Slalom race at Special Olympics' National Winter Games at Marble Mountain in Corner Brook, Newfoundland!

Cory earned bronze at the 2012 National Games and his goal was to move up to Silver and hope for maybe on Gold.  So mission accomplished so far.

On the podium with teammate Jesse in 3rd place and current World Champion Michael Gilbert from Quebec in the Gold position.

Super G and Slalom coming up tomorrow.

With a few days break from training, and a bit of clear sky, we headed to one of Cory's favourite places...Point Roberts, Washington, just across the border from us, for a few photos of Cory's Team BC uniform.

The ski jacket, with two orcas in the Team BC logo - we've seen many orcas in the ocean right behind Cory here.  And Cory's home mountain - Cypress - a tiny white speck below the clouds in the upper right corner.

Then an insulated vest as a mid-layer....

and then his racing vest.

The backpack....

And a long-sleeved Tshirt for the walk-in during the opening ceremonies at the Corner Brook Civic Centre on March 1, just under two weeks from now.

Building Up to His Best

Cory continued with his intensive training program with 3 days of working in Giant Slalom race courses with BC Adaptive in their Building Our Best program.  And it wasn't easy as the day started with a lot of cloud that soon became a lot of rain - time for those ponchos!

Whistler Village, waiting to load the Whistler Gondola...

With Building Our Best Coordinator Ben Thompson at the top of the race course, on....

The Dave Murray National Training Centre (with teammate Christie)

Ponchos don't make for fastest skiing but it does allow for training to go on...and with just a month to go until the National Games, Cory wasn't going to let a bit of rain interfere with his preparations.

He has been working on more up-and-down movement as he makes his turns to put more pressure on his edges in order to make a cleaner carve and prevent his skis from skidding through the end of his turns.





After a few runs, Coach John from BC Adaptive suggests that Cory start trying to do some counter-rotation.  This is an advanced race technique that allows the racer to ski ever closer to a gate, thereby shortening the race course and improving the times.

But it requires Cory to make major changes to his body position, rotating his arms and shoulders in the opposite direction that he is moving towards.  Coach John says this technique will improve his race times considerably, but with so little time left to the National Games, it will be challenging for Cory to perfect this technique in time.




Here at the evening video review of the day's training, Coach John asks Cory about what he's working on while a fellow racer has some complimentary things to say about Cory's skiing.




And then of course, time for beer in the hot tub to end the day...the life of a racer:

The next day brings more poncho weather and after some instruction from Coach Morgan on making quicker switches from one turn to the next....







Cory gets some good encouragement from Ben during the evening video review:




Then it's race day, 2 Giant Slalom races of two runs for each race, and the rain turns to a gentle snowfall.  These two races will be a good test for Cory's progress as he competes against his main rival from Special Olympics BC.  Cory has set his sights on the National Champion from Quebec (who is also the World Champion since 2009) who he will face at the National Games, but his times from these two races versus his BC rival will show whether Cory has progressed since the BC Provincial Games last year.

 There were some apparent timing issues for the first run which showed Cory trailing his rival by one second......




But the results for the second run show Cory winning by nearly two seconds, for a combined win of .8 seconds:





In the second race, Cory posts two terrific times, winning by a combined time of nearly 4 seconds over his rival.  And since he won at the Provincials last year by 1.03 seconds for one run on a longer race course, it's a very encouraging result that indicates Cory has improved significantly since then.

In spite of those results, Cory went right back to work a few days later at a Gatebusters Slalom session at Whistler.  He's been trying to improve his starts...






We expect Slalom will give Cory his best chance to reach the top of the podium at the Nationals, and practicing here on a more challenging race course at Gatebusters than he'll see in Newfoundland will give him some valuable confidence for the Games.





And once again back to Whistler the following week for some Giant Slalom training with Gatebusters, on a very soggy rainy day.  But Cory looks aggressive and his coach likes how he is charging the race course throughout the day...







With less than 3 weeks now to the start of competition at Marble Mountain in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Cory will reduce the intensity of his training program, working with his Special Olympics teammates on Monday nights and perhaps a visit with his Blue Streaks friends on Grouse Mountain.  But now it's time to rest a bit and look forward to putting down his best race runs ever in Newfoundland on March 2, 3, & 4.

New Uniform

25 days to go until the Opening Ceremonies for Special Olympics' National Winter Games in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Cory has just received his uniform and gear.  Here he is trying on his Pacific Blue race jersey.  

Cranking It Up!

With the National Games now less than 40 days away, Cory has cranked up his training schedule and is on snow now a couple of times of week, either at Cypress Mountain in North Vancouver or at Whistler.

His Special Olympics ski program began on a nice day on January 4...with some free skiing:

Then onto a rather challenging - for so early in the season - Giant Slalom training session with the Gatebusters program at Whistler on January 6, where Cory was understandably rather cautious in a race course for only the second time this season...

And an opportunity to renew acquaintances with Robbie Dixon, a member of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team who was training adjacent to the Gatebusters course.  Cory had met Robbie at a World Cup race at Whistler in 2008 and in the meantime had been given Robbie's race bib from his time as a forerunner at Lake Louise several years ago.

Then after wishing each other good luck in upcoming races, it's back to work for Cory:

Then over to Cypress again on January 11, for more free-skiing under snowier conditions:

Then back to Whistler on January 14 under changing weather conditions for the first Super Giant Slalom training of the season with our good friends at Whistler Adaptive Snow Sports.

Next week, it's 3 days of Giant Slalom training and racing at Whistler for BC Adaptive's Building our Best camp.  We'll update again then.

A Good Day of Training with Whistler Mountain Ski Club

Cory eased back into some gate training with Whistler Mountain Ski Club on a gorgeous day at Whistler.

At the top of Whistler Creekside gondola,

A leisurely ski down to Garbonzo chair to meet up with WMSC on the Ptarmigan run on Whistler....

And this scene at the top of Garbo, which was actually the start area for the 2010 Olympic Men's Downhill race

After a couple of runs through a long and challenging race course, Cory's focus was to learn how to produce turns of a shorter duration to avoid being on his ski edges as his skis crossed the face of the mountain.  It's a matter of starting his turns earlier than he is used to, using a lot more exertion to get the turn completed just as he passes each gate.  Here, his turns are finished several feet past each gate.

If he can master this skill, it will significantly improve his race speed.




Whistler was a busy place with such great conditions so Cory managed only 6 runs through the race course on this day, with long waits at the Garbonzo chair.  But a really good day nonetheless to start his final 8 weeks of preparation for the National Winter Games.

Next week, Cory will rejoin his teammates with Special Olympics Vancouver at Cypress Mountain in North Vancouver every Monday for the rest of the season as well as a return to Whistler for a day-long Gatebusters session.

Back on Snow!

With a base of over 10 feet of snow on Cory's home mountain - Cypress Mountain in North Vancouver - it's time to get back onto snow as he prepares for Special Olympics' National Winter Games in Newfoundland in March 2016.

But with fresh powder, this day isn't about gates, but instead Cory just enjoyed some free-sking on his rarely-used powder skis.

He has started his gate training though, albeit just one day so far - with his Team BC teammates at Sun Peaks in late November.

And of course there's been 3 months of dryland training, which becomes rather tedious so this day on fresh powder snow is a therapeutic one too!

In addition to working out with his National Games Training Coach every week, Cory has been training with his Special Olympics Vancouver alpine ski coaches, following a series of exercises to help improve his agility, endurance, balance, and strength.

And he's also in the basketball program with Special Olympics British Columbia Delta, which is a summer sport so that he also has the opportunity to compete at the next Provincial Summer Games if his team were to qualify.



But there's also time for a bit of fast-moving fun!




As the new year rolls in, it will be time for Cory to ramp up his on-snow gate training on Cypress with Special Olympics Vancouver as well as the Gatebusters program and Whistler Adaptive Snow Programs at Whistler.

Less than 70 days to go till the National Games!