Ski Racing with Cory

Breakthrough!

2012-01-31T11:54:00.008-08:00

Cory continues to train in the Gatebusters program and race in the Kokanee race series at Whistler Blackcomb in preparation for Special Olympics' National Winter Games that begin in 28 days. And at last Saturday's Gatebusters, his coach - Chris Kent - called it a "breakthrough" day for Cory. And what great timing to breakthrough, with just over a month to race day.

The Kokanee race was held in pleasantly clear conditions a couple of days earlier.

Here's Cory and his Blue Streak teammate Christie taking some course inspection advice from Whistler legend Rob Boyd...

Then it's time to prepare to race:

And into his first run of the 2 runs for the day:

He has worked hard to improve his technical skills and a couple of weeks ago, his coaches suggested he now put those skills to work - that he forget about thinking of his body position and technical skills as he trains and focus on just finding a way to go faster in a race course. Taking a more aggressive line, tucking more often, just attacking the race course. And on Saturday, there was a noticeable improvement and that's what prompted Coach Chris to call it a "breakthrough day, a big step up".

In fact, when we compared Cory's times to those of another racer he often trains with, a racer who has always been up to 5 seconds faster in a race course, we saw that Cory was now the faster racer - by 2 seconds for each run! That is indeed a big step up, a breakthrough day.

Some early runs through the Gatebusters course:

and then as the day progesses, his increased speed is noticeable here as he cuts in closer to a gate and hits it harder than he's ever hit a gate before...

So now it's off to Gatebusters for another GS training day on February 1, then a short training break as Cory takes a well-earned 4 day long weekend with no ski training. He''ll return to snow next week at Cypress with his Special Olympics Provincial Coach - Randy Scott - and then onto more Gatebusters sessions and one more Kokanee race at Whistler.

Here he is with Coach Randy at Cypress on a foggy night of training:

During his training break, we are expecting he will receive his Team BC uniform and gear so we'll update soon with photos of that.

39 Days To Go!

2012-01-15T18:35:00.008-08:00

With 39 days to go until the Opening Ceremonies of Special Olympics' National Games in St. Albert, Alberta, Cory's training is in high gear. Monday nights at Cypress with his Special Olympics Team BC teammates and Coaches Tom Advocaat and Randy Scott, then Wednesdays in the Gatebusters program at Whistler working with Coach Ken Pedersen, Thursdays in the Kokanee Race Series and Saturdays back in the Gatebusters program, both at Whistler.

Kokanee GS, January 5

This was the second Kokanee race of the season, and as always with a Kokanee race, we joke that Cory's goal is to not finish last. And in this race, he is successful - finishing 5th out of 11 racers in his age category, with the 25th best time of the 40 male racers.

First though, a little TLC for those GS race skis...

Then it's race time, on Ptarmigan - now the National Training Centre - on Whistler:

Gatebusters GS, January 7

Back into Giant Slalom training with Gatebusters, again on Ptarmigan. Cory is working on maintaining a dynamic body movement throughout the race course, and trying to keep his weight more over his downhill ski

Gatebusters GS, January 11

Staying on Ptarmigan for the next GS training session where Cory now is working on holding his turns just a bit longer to maintain a higher line in the steep sections. Otherwise he skis more directly at the next gate resulting in a lower and lower line through the course which usually results in a braking motion in order to make a gate. By maintaining a higher line from turn to turn, he can maintain his speed until the course flattens out and then go more directly at gates with speed. It's a difficult concept for him since he instinctely wants to go as fast as possible.

Kokanee GS, January 12

In this Kokanee race, his VASS Blue Streak colleague joins in, and it's a beautiful day for a race.

Cory continues to use these races as a training exercise and in his first run it is clear he is holding his turns longer and managing his speed well, though it likely results in a slower race. For the second run, we talk about using his new skill of holding his turns only when he feels it is necessary as he races through the course, and once again he does not finish last, 4th out of 9 racers in his age group.

Gatebusters SL, January 14

Now a switch into Slalom training, still on Ptarmigan, the National Training Centre at Whistler.

Here in Cory's first slalom training since November, Cory is working on taking a more aggressive line and instead of skiing around the gates, learning how to ski through them. He got arm and shin guards for his birthday and for Christmas, now it's time to put them to good use.

Gatebusters SL, January 18

And then there was this Gatebusters session...the coldest day we've ever experienced on skis. It was -21C, with high humidity, and strong winds. A couple of weeks ago, Cory skied with his Special Olympics Provincial Coach who was impressed enough with Cory's skiing to say that he was ready to compete and the National level now, and it would be OK for Cory to reduce his training if he wished. But Cory would have none of it. He said he's trained too hard and too long to ease off now, with just over a month to go. So let's keep at it he said. So in spite of the weather, he insisted we get out of our warm beds at 5am for the drive to Whistler.

Even his first experience with frostbite didn't stop him. He got 8 runs in, with 4 stops in the warm-up hut in between, and by the last run he was skiing slalom better than ever, and the Gatebusters coach told him so.

He has another Gatebusters Slalom session planned for this Saturday at Whistler, and then a GS Kokanee race on January 26 and a Super G Kokanee race on February 16. There are Gatebusters sessions at Whistler every Wednesday and Saturday, but he'll likely be selective with those. He certainly wants to be in peak condition but not over-trained by his departure from Vancouver Airport for Edmonton on February 27.

We'll update again before then, that's for sure. And then it will be 2 days of racing at Marmot Basin in Jasper for the opportunity to represent Canada at Special Olympics' World Games in Pyeongchang, Korea in 2013. Our fingers are already crossed. We do know that no other athlete there could possibly be better prepared, but we also know that anything can happen on race day.

The Training Grind

2011-12-24T13:53:00.006-08:00

Since his return from Hurricane Race Camp in Loveland, Colorado, Cory has been training and racing at Whistler Blackcomb in the Gatebusters program and the Kokanee Race Series, as well as training with Whistler Mountain Ski Club and Whistler Adaptive Sports Programs.

A few of Cory's runs through the Gatebusters course on Gandy Dancer on Blackcomb... He's working on two things - getting his body over his downhill ski rather than leaning back uphill and being more dynamic - rising and dropping harder onto to his skis as he initiates his turns:

Then in a Kokanee race the next day on the same run on Blackcomb, Cory appears to be a bit cautious on his first run, and posts a time of 1:03.97:

But on the second run, he cranks it up and takes 7 seconds of the time of his first run with a time of 56.47....he was so surprised that he thought they had made a mistake with his time.

Since Cory started racing in the Kokanee series two years ago, we've always joked about his goal being to not finish last. Most of the Kokanee racers are much more experienced than Cory and he usually does finish last in his age group. But not this time, he finishes 7th of the 8 racers that completed the course.

And one of those experienced racers is Rob Boyd, who has worked with Cory when he trains with Whistler Mountain Ski Club. Here's Rob's run through the race course:

A few days later we were back at Whistler, training on a beautiful day with Whistler Mountain Ski Club on Ptarmigan:

Cory keeps increasing his speed and one of his challenges now is to mentally adjust to that speed, to be better prepared as gets through one gate to move into another. On his second run of this video, just as he reaches the camera he does not anticipate the next gate and is too slow to transition as he approaches the blue gate. As a result, he completes his turn well below the gate and must ski across the hill in order to make the following red gate. So he'll need to do as much gate training as possible to get used to his new-found speed through a race course.

The next day Cory gets to practice a little bit of tucking, which he will certainly need for his Super G race at the Nationals next March. But it's obvious he hasn't been using it much as he needs to lower his head and shoulders, move forward on his skis, in order to straighten his back and become more aerodynamic.

Later, he is faced with certainly the most challenging race course he's ever been on...not as icy as the Nor-Am course at Loveland of course but that had no gates. This course had two very steep pitches - which usually means gates that are very much offset in order to slow the racers down, but on this course the gates were more direct and Cory could tell during his course inspection that it would be very fast.

So he starts rather cautiously again but as the day goes on, he really picks up his speed and has an excellent final run:

So now a short Christmas break and back to Whistler Mountain Ski Club for 3 days of Slalom training, then more Gatebuster sessions and a Kokanee race in early January. And 67 days now till the National Games races at Marmot Basin in Jasper.

A Great Start to the New Season

2011-11-28T16:53:00.050-08:00

Cory returned late Sunday night from his week at Hurricane Race Camp in Loveland, Colorado.

First, a huge thanks to Bob Vial for continuing to work with Cory for the third time, after Mount Hood in 2007, and Loveland last year.

The week started with an early drive from Vancouver on Friday, November 18, to board a 6am flight from Seattle to Denver.

Then a short train ride from the aircraft to the Denver International terminal...

Later, after a two hour drive from Denver to Dillon, Colorado, it's time to settle into our condo and get over to the team meeting.

From brilliant sunshine on our day of arrival, to snow & wind the next day, Cory's first day on skis since his camp at Whistler last July, is a full day of free skiing drills with Coach Bob Vial giving instructions:

Coach Bob in one of his classic routines - "Schwinging the Heinie" - a very funny way to get his racers to stop swinging their bodies back and forth as they turn:

The next day brings some sun but it's still windy and quite cold:

Coach Bob starts with a safety reminder - "it's your responsibility!" - and then hits the basics talking about stance, even when the racers are standing still:

Then into a basic drill with poles held horizontally behind the neck. The idea is for the racer to keep the poles horizontal and avoid the natural tendency to let the upper body lean back uphill. For dynamic pressure into the skis, it is critical to keep as much weight and power as possible over the "downhill" ski - the ski furthest downhill on any given turn, which is the right ski on a left turn and the left ski on a right turn. Cory has difficulty with this manoeuvre as he does allow his upper body to lean. Coach Bob even started calling him "I-Lean". It's something he will have to work on during the week and in this video, he gets some shouted reminders from me.

Coach Bob exhorting the racers to "bend the skis". Race skis are stiffer than recreational skis, so they require more effort to pressure the skis to grip the snow. But the stiffness helps not only to grip, but as the pressure is released the skis bounce back, just like a trampoline, and can propel the racer forward. So it's important for racers to use their weight and their strength in a dynamic body movement to apply enough pressure to bend the skis.

Later that day, it's into slalom gate training, starting with stubbies - a less intimidating way to train slalom turns:

As he goes into this turn, Cory looks good with his skis close to the stubby and pointed right at the next stubby on the course. But on a closer look we can see that Cory is definitely leaning uphill, and as a result he doesn't have enough pressure on his downhill ski and lets the tails of his skis skid out, turning his skis far to the left and finishing his turn too far down the race course. Certainly something to work on.

A few runs through a full gate race course ends the day:

Another nice start to the next day...

One of the things we enjoy about Loveland Ski Area is their commitment to racing - they even shut down a lift and a few runs to the general public. No lift lines for racers!

Here's Cory warming up on a brush course. He shows good form as he gets his skis just outside the course and keeps his upper body inside the course.

But he has difficulty transferring that approach to a full-gate course. He does not have full slalom protective armour on his arms and shins, so it looks like it's time to invest in some.

The next morning is an earlier start than usual - we need to be on the hill by 7am, so it's a 6:15 load into the van:

It's the last day of slalom training and Cory continues to show improvement as he seems to get faster each time he goes through the course.

And in the evening video review, Coach Bob points out a flaw with Cory's pole planting:

More blue skies on the next day, Day 4 and we switch to Giant Slalom training now:

A basic GS drill...the J Turn, where the skier holds pressure on the downhill ski until the ski turns back uphill and comes to a stop:

And then it's back to gate training where Cory runs into the Canadian Women's National Slalom Team, who are also training there. He walks over and says hello and wishes them good luck for the upcoming season...that's Anna Goodman looking up from her gear and chatting with Cory:

And later Anna, Erin Mielzynski, and Eve Routhier pose with Cory....

In his first day of Giant Slalom training, Cory shows some good speed. He's working on "driving" the downhill ski - extending his downhill leg further down the hill while bending his uphill knee and trying to prevent his upper body from leaning uphill. This would put more of his weight and more pressure onto his downhill ski and result in cleaner, tighter carving turns. The result would be skiing a tighter run, getting closer and closer to the gates as he races by them:

The next day, more Giant Slalom training, but time for a father & son photo:

Time for "whirlybirds" - 360 degree turns which help in balance and for getting the feel of edges versus the snow, and Coach Bob adds the poles up to the helmet to encourage his racers to get out of their comfort zones:

And in the race course, Cory continues to work on a more dynamic body position and continues to show good speed & some good turns:

After training, a very special opportunity and Cory makes the most of it. A Nor-Am Cup race is to be held a couple of days later on an adjacent run. Nor-Am is one level below the World Cup/Olympians but since it's early in the season, many World Cup racers will participate. Cory's race team is asked if they'd like to ski the run where the Nor-Am will be held. But it's no ordinary run....World Cup and Nor-Am races are held on water-injected runs which creates an extremely hard, icy, and fast surface. A surface much icier than Cory has ever skied on.

One-by-one each of Cory's teammates took their turns, and though most of them are better racers than Cory, they all skied very cautiously, sliding sideways down the hill and often stopping. I stood watching and wondered how Cory would do. There was a real World Cup-like start hut at the top and Cory told me later he really pushed hard out of the start just like they do on TV.

What he didn't know was the next 50 yards or so were just sheer ice - I had skied on it and there was no way I could turn on it, it was frightening! Those 50 yards included a sharp right hand turn down the slope towards where I was standing with my camera...waiting to see how he would approach it.

He skied it like a racer, attacking the run and making turns, though I could hear him yelling something at times, very unusual for him. The video doesn't show how icy it was but the sounds his skis make sure tell a story. His coach and another parent were impressed...and the whoop it up as he skis by them.

I carefully skied down the run to catch up to him at the bottom and he was still out of breath when I got there. He told me he was out of breath not because of exertion, but out of FEAR! He was so scared he said he yelled "OH F...!" all the way down!! A few seconds later though, he turned to me and said it would be tempting to try it again. He really does have the heart of a champion.

At the end of this special day, there's time for a team visit to the top of Loveland Pass - 11,990 feet - and the Continental Divide...

On top, yes, but not quite the National Games podium yet....still a lot of work to do before then....

And a look down to Interstate 70 back to Denver and to the base of the run where Cory trained all week:

Then it's the last day, the last early morning cup of coffee...

Coach Bob allows Cory and I to work on his body position during some free-skiing and Cory really shows some dynamic body movement, bending his uphill knee and getting down low to put plenty of pressure on his downhill ski:

But he has difficulty using the same amount of body movement in the race course. We talk it over and he admits to a bit of fear - it takes a lot of confidence and trust to put so much pressure on a thin edge of steel on a steep and fast race course. I remind him of the courage he showed the day before on that icy Nor-Am run but it's definitely different when there's gates to get through. So it's something we'll have to work on when we get back home.

But overall, just a great start to Cory's season. He's skiing better than ever and he has 3 months to keep working and improving.

We'll look for a free-ski day at Cypress soon, then head to Whistler for gate training and a Kokanee race in mid-December, then several days of gate training with Whistler Mountain Ski Club over the Christmas holidays.

Leave a comment, we'd love to hear from you.

THANK YOU! WOW!!

2011-11-17T11:44:00.006-08:00

Thanks to all of Cory's supporters for the huge success of our Pie & Cookie fundraising sale! Ali, Tracey, Ashley, Barb, Gary, Elaine, Angela, Donna, Barrie, Donna & Shaw, Marc & Emily, Sarah & Alain, Megan, Kim, Kathleen, Louise, Nicky, Michelle & Iain, Tracy, Gale & Helmut, Pat, and Tanya, we really appreciate your support.

And a very special thank you to Cory's cousin Becki for rallying so many of her friends to participate.

In total, we've sold just over $1600 worth of pies & cookies, which will give Cory $511 towards his training this winter.

And it all starts right now....very early tomorrow morning, around 1:30am, we'll be driving to Seattle for a 6am flight to Denver. Then starting on Saturday, Cory will put in 6 days of slalom and giant slalom training with Bob Vial's Hurricane Race Camp at Loveland, Colorado. Race camp is a lot of hard work....early mornings, carrying gear to and from the hill, lots of "barking" criticism from the coach, plenty of runs both in free-ski drills and through gates, then ski waxing and tuning back at the condo, with video review wrapping up each day.

First though, we have to finish packing up the gear...

and getting it into the car....

We'll update with news from Loveland next week, but once again a big thank you to all of you for giving Cory a helping hand to what we all hope will be the top of the podium at the National Games on March 1 & 2, 2012.

2 Weeks to Snow

2011-11-04T10:09:00.002-07:00

With still 2 weeks to the start of Cory's ski season, he continues to work hard at dryland training - though on this day we joked that it was more like wetland training.

And from this video of him doing wall jumps, it certainly appears that he has increased his leg strength...he easily and quickly gets 20 of them done....

And he's definitely improved his upper body position on Cone Hops, which is a good drill for slalom skiing. Slalom is very different from Giant Slalom and Super Giant Slalom in terms of body position. This is helping Cory understand that in slalom it's all about swinging the legs out in a pendulum style, while keeping the upper body still, as he does very well here. GS and Super G is more about a dynamic body dropping power and strength into the skis for clean carving and aerodynamics.

Those 2 exercises combined with the tortuous leg blasters really appear to be making a difference. In 2 weeks time, we'll see for sure.

Sports Celebrities Festival 2011

2011-10-30T21:16:00.003-07:00

Cory was invited to participate in the Sports Celebrities Festival last week, which is a major fundraiser for Canuck Place and for Special Olympics British Columbia. This was the second time he's participated in this event. Each member of the Vancouver Canucks was paired with a Special Olympics athlete and this year, Cory was paired with David Booth, the newest Canuck who had just arrived via a trade a few days earlier.

Before dinner, Cory played video games with a couple other members of the Canucks, and here he is in serious competition against Cody Hodgson...

A couple of days later, during a Hockey Night in Canada telecast, David Booth was interviewed and he talked about the event and meeting Cory....

But now, with less that 3 weeks to race camp at Loveland, Colorado, it's back to serious dryland training to prepare not just for the 11,000 feet of altitude there, but also to get a great head start to Cory's race season.

Dryland Training Continues...

2011-10-20T19:22:00.010-07:00

With 4 weeks now till Cory is back on snow, he continues to do some dryland training 4 or 5 times per week. He has increased the intensity of his routines now, focusing on building his leg strength and developing quicker feet.

At the end of last ski season, one of Cory's coaches - Sammy Kent - suggested that he work on building his strength during the off-season so that he can maximize the use of a skill that he developed well last year - a more dynamic body action.

A dynamic downward-moving body places more pressure onto the skis, providing not just more edge pressure for cleaner carving, but builds pressure under the ski, which when released at the end of a turn, propels a racer forward. Race skis are very stiff so when pressure is applied downward, the skis bounce back. Just like a trampoline.

So for dryland, he's been doing some Wall Jumps to build leg strength...first on both feet,

then adding weights, and then switching to one foot jumps:

Onto some Cone Hops:

And finally the gruelling Leg Blasters:

Cory now plays basketball once a week and does some weight training with a Special Olympics coach once a week as well. And with an important bowling tournament coming up in mid-March - the first step towards making it back to the Summer National Games - he continues to work on his 5 Pin Bowling too. But the main focus is certainly on 2 days in early March, where all this dryland work, and his on-snow training starting in four weeks, will hopefully culminate in a National Championship and a ticket to Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2013.

Next stop - Loveland Colorado, at Bob Vial's Hurricane Race Camp.

A New Season Approaches

2011-09-23T18:13:00.005-07:00

It's the first day of fall, 2011, so it's back into ski racing season for Cory. Though at the moment, he's limited to dryland training.

Cory has registered for Bob Vial's Thanksgiving 2011 Race Camp at Loveland, Colorado - a week of race training starting November 19 - to get his race season started. This is how he started his season last year, and as he has said, it was a very good season with great results so why not approach it the same way.

Cory's dryland training will focus on two areas that we believe he needs to improve - his leg strength and developing quicker feet. We know he also has to keep his feet further apart when he skis, and move his hips further forward too. So we'll try to incorporate that into his dryland training too. We're still trying different types of drills to see which ones work best for him.

For a change of pace, we throw in some biking or swimming, and some basketball too, as Cory will begin his basketball program in early October so it's a chance to get some early practice.

For building leg strength, Cory is doing some Squat Press work, though we need to get him to squat a bit lower than he's doing here:

And then some side-stepping to work on developing quicker feet:

Some frontward/backward running around a square:

Back to side-stepping but adding a slalom element:

And then a very good dryland training drill for ski racing, what we call hop and drop...the hopping builds leg strenght while the dropping simulates the body motion required for good racing:

And finally another drill for developing quick feet, the double quick step:

So it's all pretty boring stuff compared to racing through a course on the Olympic Downhill at Whistler, but this lays the foundation for a successful year, a year that will determine whether Cory fulfills his dream of being selected to Team Canada in 2013. And now only 8 weeks to snow!

A Rippin' Great Summer Camp with Whistler Mountain Ski Club!

2011-07-16T15:10:00.028-07:00

Cory attended his second ever summer race camp (Hurricane Race Camp at Mount Hood in July 2007 was his first) at Whistler Blackcomb from July 8 to July 12, which was made possible thanks to Rob Boyd, with Whistler Mountain Ski Club.

With snow only at the highest elevations of course, it means early starts to get onto hard snow before it softens by mid-day, and plenty of baggage handling - carrying skis, poles, boots,helmets, jackets, sweaters, gloves, food, water, even sunscreen, to the top, and then back down again at the end of the day. Summer race training really is a special experience, being part of a dedicated group of young athletes and coaches who are excited about giving up a part of their summer to return to winter-like conditions for a few hours each morning.

And as it happened on Mount Hood, where Cory memorably first demonstrated the characteristics of a champion, this time it was his chance to race head-to-head against a Canadian World Cup racer, that will provide life-long memories for us both.

As we often do, we arrived first at the Wizard Chair on Blackcomb Mountain each morning:

But not too much longer, there was a large group of racers ready to get their day going:

But it would take a while....first a ride on the Wizard Chair....

transfer to the Solar Coaster chair.....

From Solar Coaster to a bumpy bus ride with driver "Jean-A" as Johnny calls himself...and finally some snow around...

To 7th Heaven chair....

And finally on with the skis...and our first day at the top is a foggy one:

A few warm-up drills, first time on skis in two months...and yes, that is snow...it's snowing on us in July:

Summer camps are of course conducted on glaciers and they are well utilized with ski teams and clubs from all over North America - Vermont, Colorado, New York, we even met a racer from Florida! And some come from even further...here Cory is warming up next to a coach and athlete from Team China:

With the visibility as poor as it was, the day was limited to short slalom-type drills. The coaches quickly observed that Cory's body was too static, not enough up and down movement to place pressure on his edges and then release at the end of a turn. Done properly, the skis, stiff race skis, will bend under pressure and then act like a trampoline when released, pushing the racer upward and forward if the racer has the correct forward body position.

The difference can be seen in these two videos, taken about 90 minutes apart. In the first video, while Cory's skis do get up on edge, he is not using his upper body to apply pressure, just his legs.

Here, by using his upper body to drop at the hips without bending forward to place more weight down into his boots, through his bindings, and onto his skis, he not only applies more edge pressure to allow him to make sharper cleaner turns, but as he rises to complete the turn and initiate the next, the sudden release pushes him upward and forward into the next turn, allowing him to actually gain speed as he turns. It's still not quite right here but certainly an improvement over his earlier runs.

With no improvement in visibility, the coaches end the day a bit early and we start our trek back down to Blackcomb Village.

Downloading on Solar Coaster...

where we saw over 30 bears during the 5 days, including a mother and two cubs...

After lunch, a "short" 3-hour bike ride around Whistler where we just happen to run into Whistler Mountain Ski Club's Program Director, Rob Boyd, on the Whistler street named in his honour:

Cory wearing his hoodie from Bob Vial's Hurricane Race Camp in Loveland, Colorado last November:

The next morning, heading to Wizard Express for day two...and the fog is gone and it appears it will be a sunny day:

At the top of 7th Heaven, looking down at Horstman Glacier, with the WMSC Giant Slalom race course set up on the right, a bright sunny day indeed:

And the view from the top:

Onto the race course, Cory goes back to a very static upper body:

Then, a visit from Britt Janyk, a Whistler resident who just retired from the Canadian Alpine Ski Team last month:

Perhaps inspired, Cory gets back into the race course with a much-improved dynamic upper body, with me verbally willing him to get up and down, and showing some really good speed at the gate closest to the camera. It was after this run that Coach Jeff McClennan said "Cory is really ripping it up out there!":

Then here in a couple of videos taken by Rob Boyd who makes some observations on Cory's technique....his body now much more dynamic but a bit far back in his boots:

That's the end of Day 2 training and time to head back down...

And more bear sightings:

And there's no 3-hour bike rides on this afternoon, it's a beer in the hot tub instead! Ahhhh....the life of a ski racer....

The next morning is another bright sunny day and Cory is ready to rip it up again:

A couple more videos by Rob Boyd, and Cory continues to do well with a more dynamic body, just still needing to stay more forward:

A bike ride in the afternoon through some old growth forests:

and then along the Whistler Golf Course:

Then back to our rented condo at the Aspens and all that equipment to get dry and ready for tomorrow:

Day Four looks good and clear once again:

Looks great at the top:

And it was another good day of training for Cory and a very good day for bear sightings!

And the next day, the last day of camp, would turn out to be a very special one for Cory. Looking good here, upper body down, body forward, long extended leg, up on his edges and putting plenty of pressure on those skis:

Some really good dynamic body action here, and he's gonna need it even more on his next run!

Because for this one, he's racing head-to-head against Canadian Alpine Ski Team member Britt Janyk, who won a World Cup Downhill at Aspen Colorado a couple of years ago:

And here they go, Britt on the right on the blue course and Cory on the left on the red course, with Coach Jeff cheering him on!

Certainly the highlight of the camp for Cory who will remember the moment forever, as will I. Thanks so much to Britt...what a role model she is for Canada's young ski racers....after years on the World Cup circuit, Britt is just there to help out anyway she can...talking with the racers....racing against them...even carrying salt bags or equipment down the course:

Time for two last runs:

And that was about it for Cory's 2011 summer camp.

He will now take a break from skiing for 3 or 4 months, get as many shifts as he can at Safeway to rebuild his bank account, do some dryland strength conditioning, and enjoy some summertime R&R like fishing, biking, skimboarding, going to the local waterpark, maybe a day at Playland - Vancouver's amusement park.

We'll look at a November camp to get next season going - perhaps in Colorado or maybe Sun Peaks near Kamloops BC. An early season start will be critical to Cory's chances at the National Games in Jasper next March.

See you then! And please, leave a comment about our blog. We'd love to hear from you.

A Rippin' Great Summer Camp with Whistler Mountain Ski Club!

2011-07-13T18:14:00.005-07:00

Cory has just returned from 5 days of hard work and glacier race training with Whistler Mountain Ski Club, and is now catching up on some sleep, in between his work shifts of course.

It was a remarkable five days, not just because he made some real progress and in the words of one of his coaches, he was "really rippin it up out there", but he had the wonderful opportunity to race head to head in a dual Giant Slalom race course against one of Canada's best - Britt Janyk who just retired from the Canadian Alpine Ski Team.

We'll post more pics and video from those five days, but for now, here is Cory versus Britt:

Back to Work

2011-07-06T19:16:00.002-07:00

Cory's off to Whistler Blackcomb for 5 days of Giant Slalom training with Rob Boyd and Whistler Mountain Ski Club. As Cory learned on Mount Hood in July 2007, summer race training is hard work. Early starts to get on snow while it's still cold and hard, carrying skis, equipment, food, and water onto the chairlifts, then as many drills and gates as possible until the snow deteriorates around noon, at which time it can get very warm with ski gear on. Then carrying it all back down onto the chairs and a long walk at the bottom back to the condo.

But, then a free afternoon, where there will likely be some biking, certainly some swimming and hot-tubbing, with a beer or two, and it all makes for a very enjoyable and satisfying day.

And some very interesting news from the International Olympic Committee today - they just announced that the 2018 Winter Olympic Games will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. And that's where Cory hopes to compete in 2013, in Special Olympics Winter World Games. And that's just why he's headed to Whistler Blackcomb, to improve his racing so that he has the best chance possible to get to Korea, when he competes at the National Games in Jasper next March.

Here's Cory in action last time he did some summer training - Mount Hood, Oregon in July 2007.

Cory Featured in SOBC Newsletter

2011-06-02T20:33:00.008-07:00

Cory is the featured athlete in Special Olympics British Columbia's newsletter for June 2011. Here's the link to it:

http://www.specialolympics.bc.ca/news/2011/06/01/meet-athlete-cory-duhaime

Training in the Fog

2011-05-24T16:01:00.023-07:00

Cory invested in three days of gate training at Whistler last weekend as he prepares for his first ever national competition in Alpine Skiing next March in Jasper, Alberta.

The plan was a good one. Train with Rob Boyd's Whistler Mountain Ski Club team of very good young racers on challenging terrain in both Giant Slalom and Slalom race courses. Get some great feedback from the Club's coaches, and get 8-10 runs through each course each day. And with still lots of snow at Whistler Blackcomb, not a bad plan at all for late May. Especially with early morning starts - 7am - with only racers having access to lifts and runs until the mountain opened to the public at 10am.

But, the weather didn't quite cooperate. Fog, fog, and even more fog limited Cory's run through the courses considerably. But he did manage to learn a few things, and with Alpine Skiing just like any other sport, where repetition is so important to skill development, and any run through a race course is a good run. So days 62,63, and 64 on snow since November 2010, and days 29, 30, and 31 of gate training.

At first it looked pretty good as Cory headed to the Wizard Express chair lift to get started on the first day:

And after the 2nd snowiest winter ever on Whistler Blackcomb,with over 50 feet snowfall, there is still plenty of snow to train on:

Cory's first warmup run shows a little bit of rust not having skied in over a month. He has lost some of the dynamic body action that he had learned a few months ago. A more dynamic upper body - more up and down movement over the skis - allows for greater pressure on the ski edges, which in turn produces a sharper turn with a cleaner carve (less sliding) and generates speed as the ski flex rebounds when weight is lifted. It's a crucial skill for ski racers to develop speed through a race course:

He improves a bit on his first training run through a Giant Slalom race course...

Whistler Mountain Ski Club offers some great training courses....lots of gates on challenging terrain. Here Cory has a look back at the course:

Then the visibility deteriorated quickly and with soft snow, so did the race course with the racers leaving large ruts by the gates. Not a good combination for racer safety, so that was the end of training for this day.

The next morning brought dense fog not far up the mountainside:

First, a quick run through a short brush course to get used to those quick slalom turns. This is a good warm-up exercise and Cory does need to learn to makes these turns by keeping his skis as close as possible to the brushes:

Then a couple of runs through a slalom course..as visibility again begins to deterioriate:

A coach suggests to Cory that he should be making much stronger pole plants in slalom for improved balance and timing:

But the deteriorating weather and course conditions once again end the day earlier than scheduled.

The next day brings more of the same as Cory tries a rather challenging race course; most racers had a lot of difficulty with that last gate, which brings forth a chuckle from me on this run:

Then after a few more runs, again the weather worsens but Cory puts down his best run of the weekend:

So not the best weekend for intensive training, but nonetheless it's a few more runs through a race course that Cory wouldn't otherwise get. So once again we thank Rob Boyd and the Whistler Mountain Ski Club for giving Cory the opportunity to train with them.

And on a visit to their clubhouse, we notice this in the their trophy case....a good omen perhaps?

After all, Korea 2013 is Cory's ultimate goal. And with that in mind, Cory is hoping to attend a 10-day race camp with Whistler Mountain Ski Club on Blackcomb Glacer in July.

We'll update about that soon. If you've visited our blog, we'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment, you can do so without a google account. Just use the anonymous option and leave your name in the comment section.

Back to Training

2011-05-17T17:47:00.003-07:00

Well after a few weeks of well-earned rest, Cory will be back into race training mode very soon. Rob Boyd, with the Whistler Mountain Ski Club, has again graciously invited Cory to train with his race club at Whistler Blackcomb over the May long weekend.

It'll be early starts - 6:30am - but with exclusive access to lifts and ski runs until the mountain opens to the public at 10am.

Cory should get in a lot of great training with Rob and his coaching staff as he begins the next step in his quest to get to Korea in 2013.

Yes - It's Official!

2011-04-28T21:24:00.003-07:00

Cory has been selected to Team BC to compete at Special Olympics' National Winter Games in Jasper, Alberta next March.

That is what he has been working towards since 2007 - get to the National Games for a chance to qualify for the World Games to be held in Pyeongchang, Korea 2013.

Cory knows that he has had a lot of help all along the way. Thanks to everyone with the VASS Blue Streaks - especially Coach Roy Sperling.

Also thanks to Whistler Adaptive Sports Programs: Chelsey Walker, Sammy Kent, Luke Hadley, and Chris Kent.

Thanks too to Bob Vial of Hurricane Ski Camps as well as Rob Boyd at Whistler Mountain Ski Club.

With help from all of you, Cory has passed into the next stage and can now set his sights on his next goal - Korea 2013!

The Waiting Continues....

2011-04-27T13:49:00.003-07:00

Cory was told a couple of weeks ago that the announcement about the composition of Team BC was going to be made within a couple of days. Then an email announced a one week delay, yet here he is still waiting to hear whether he will compete at Special Olympics' National Winter Games in Jasper, Alberta in March 2012. The Winter Games are only held every 4 years, and they are a qualifier for the World Games to held in Korea in 2013. So he's anxious to hear.

He did compete of course in the National Summer Games in 2010 in London, Ontario, in 5 Pin Bowling.

So a quick trip back to August 2009, when he learned he'd been selected to go to London...we'd put the letter from Special Olympics British Columbia inside a menu at a local restaurant. While it takes him a long time to open the envelope, his reaction was worth the wait....

There won't be quite the same surprise this time since his 3 Gold Medals at the Provincials back in March qualified him as the best skier in Special Olympics BC, and it appears he will find out via the SOBC website, but we'll update as soon as we hear.

Hopefully by the end of this week.

GOLD + GOLD + GOLD!!

2011-03-06T14:09:00.013-08:00

The best result possible:

Slalom: GOLD!

Giant Slalom: GOLD!

Super Giant Slalom: GOLD!

But for at least one of the races, it was close, very close.

We won't know for a couple of months whether Cory will be selected to Team BC to compete in Special Olympics' National Winter Games in Jasper, Alberta next February. But he's done everything he could have to make that happen.

The 2011 Special Olympics British Columbia Provincial Games for Alpine Skiing were held on Crystal Mountain in Westbank, BC. About 60 athletes for around the province competed in the 3 events. Since Special Olympics athletes represent a very wide range of abilities, the racers are divided into Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced, with several divisions of up to 8 racers in each ability level.

In Cory's first provincial skiing competition in 2006, he competed at the Novice level and won all his races. The following year he was moved up to the top division of the Advanced level and earned Bronze medals in each of the 3 races. We knew of course that this year he would also be competing in the top division of the Advanced level.

So the athletes race against others of similar ability and earn points based on their finishing position with first place earning 10 points, second 8 points, etc.

Selection for Team BC to go to the National Games in 2012 is based on gender and age, with the top point earner in each age group in each gender having the best chance to be selected. But the number of athletes who go is based on a quota system provided by Special Olympics Canada.

So it's fair, but complicated, and it takes a few weeks to sort it all out. So now Cory waits for a phone call or letter to let him know if he's been selected.

The trip to Crystal Mountain began on the afternoon of Thursday, March 3, 2011, when Cory and other athletes from Delta and Richmond boarded a chartered bus.

Athletes and coaches were provided with meals and accommodation at Green Bay Bible Camp in Westbank.

The next morning we boarded the bus to take us to Crystal Mountain for the Giant Slalom and Super Giant Slalom races, each involving 2 runs through the respective race courses, so it was going to be a long and suspenseful day.

Cory has spent over 45 days this winter on snow, working on his technical skills during free-skiing, or gate training, or racing. His training and racing have taken him to Colorado and over a dozen trips to Whistler, where he has trained and raced on long steep race courses with up to 45 gates.

But our first look at the Giant Slalom course is anything but steep and long: only 16gates spread over moderate terrain. This is a good safe course to accommodate athletes of all abilities but it does make it a challenge for any racer to recover from a small mistake or to find a little bit of extra speed. And racing against other excellent racers on a short course will bunch the racing times very close together.

Here's Cory at the top and the finish line is by the red fence at the bottom on the right, a short race course indeed:

"Hundies Matter" is a racing expression that reflects the nature of ski racing where the difference between winning and losing can be just a few hundredths of a second. When hundies matter, everything must go right, no equipment problems, good wax and sharp edges, and most importantly, perfect technique combined with a line through the race course that maximizes speed, especially through the flatter portions of a race course where carrying speed from the steeps to the flats is often the biggest difference maker.

On this day, Special Olympics chose to not provide a scoreboard for some reason, so there would be no easy way to quickly get race results. And with Cory assigned bib #1he would be one of the first down the course, so after getting him organized at the top I skied down to the finish line to stand next to the timekeepers to hear the racers' times being recorded. I knew that Cory had only 2 main rivals and they were starting soon after him.

During course inspection, Cory decided he would look for speed at the steeper section at the top by taking a higher line rather than skiing directly towards the gates. This would enable him to make rounder turns and develop speed over the first section of the course that he could then carry through into the flatter sections. The alternative is to ski more aggressively, more directly at the gates, but this requires a very high degree of technical skill to edge properly and avoid braking when speed is developed too quickly in steep sections.

I watched Jesse leave the start for his run and he attacked the gates quite directly forcing him to make hard turns by the 3rd and 4th gates. I felt then that Cory had made the right decision to be less aggressive at the top, build his speed, and carry through to the finish.

And sure enough, that's exactly what happened. Except for a slight wobble just after the last gate before the finish line where Cory looked for a gate that wasn't there Cory finished his run 1.4 seconds faster than Jesse. The other rival was slower than Jesse so Cory was in first place after the first run of the Giant Slalom. Cory and I talked it over and we decided he would use the same tactics for the 2nd run since there seemed to be no need to be more aggressive.

Cory skied another clean run, made some nice round turns at the top, linking them nicely together and carried his speed to the end, didn't wobble at that last gate, and the Gold was his, 2.66 seconds faster than Jesse for the two runs combined.

The next event was the Super G and we knew this would be a close race with Cory, Jesse, and another racer, David, all having an excellent chance to win. David in particular is bigger and heavier than both Cory and Jesse and that's a real advantage in a speed event with fewer turns.

Here's Cory's first run, being watched carefully by the Provincial team coach. His time 22.15 seconds:

A bit later it was David's turn and his time: 22.17 seconds, just 2/100ths of a second behind Cory! So the Super G Gold Medal would be decided in the second run which would likely be just as close.

Cory and I talked about his first run and we decided he would tuck a bit sooner than he did in the first run. The last few gates had little offset so good turns weren't as critical, but a tuck would certainly give him more speed.

So in the second run here, you can hear me whisper "tuck now, tuck now" as Cory approaches the finish line and sure enough he does. His time of 21.73 is better than his first run so now it's a matter of waiting for David to complete his second run.

David crosses the finish line in 21.84, better than his first run too but not enough to catch Cory, who wins Gold by a total of 13/100ths of a second!!

So Day One ends with 2 Gold Medals and one more race to go, the Slalom, on Day Two. Jesse would likely provide Cory's biggest competition in the Slalom.

On a beautiful sunny morning, Cory completed both runs in 56.64 seconds, 2.56 seconds faster than Jesse:

So 4 years of preparation pays off with Cory stepping up from 3 Bronze medals 4 years ago to 3 Gold Medals this year.

Now, Cory has a chance to sit back and enjoy the moment, do some casual free-skiing as opposed to hard training, and wait for the announcement of the Special Olympics British Columbia Alpine Ski Team for the Special Olympics 2012 National Winter Games.

In the meantime, we'll start planning for the best and look at training and racing options for Cory between now and the National Games in February 2012.

4 Years of Preparation For 4 Minutes of Racing

2011-02-26T14:08:00.021-08:00

It was four years ago that Cory participated in his first Special Olympics British Columbia Provincial Winter Games in Alpine Skiing. He finished third in each of his 3races: slalom, giant slalom, and super giant slalom.

The two racers who beat him are no longer competing but it won't be an easy step up to the top of the podium as Cory has at least two very good competitors who have also worked hard to improve since 2007.

Over the last four years, Cory has worked on a plan we developed shortly after the 2007 Winter Games. That plan was to obtain better coaching, more race experience, improve his equipment, and maintain his fitness.

Finding better coaching started a few months later, when in July 2007, he attended Bob Vial's Hurricane Race Camp on Mount Hood in Oregon.

And later, in December 2010, he even worked under the eye of Rob Boyd, a former Canadian Olympic ski racer who won a World Cup downhill race which took place exactly where the two of them are standing now (the start of the Dave Murray Downhill run at Whistler):

Of course, since 2008 he's been a Vancouver Adaptive Snow Sports Blue Streak, training on Grouse twice a week and working first with Carley Stobbart (in pre-Blue Streak jacket days)

And now with Roy Sperling:

With Mark Anderson, from Whistler Adaptive Sports Programs at Whistler in 2010:

And most recently with WASP's Luke Hadley...

WASP's Chris Kent:

And WASP's Sammy Kent:

So it certainly seems that the better coaching part of the plan has been achieved.

And as for his equipment, from one pair of Head Monster recreational skis...

To a wax-room full of Volkl Racetigers, the longer set for Giant Slalom and Super Giant Slalom, and two sets of Slalom (one set is slightly damaged so we use those when snow conditions are poor...commonly known as "rock skis")

And now two pairs of Atomic race boots:

For fitness, Cory bowls twice a week, plays basketball every week and does weight training once a week as well.

So he's followed his plan and now it's almost time to put it to the test. But first some final days of training:

A Gatebusters slalom session with Luke Hadley on the Olympic run at Whistler:

In slalom, Cory has been working hard at getting his skis as close as possible to the gates, and he does a good job of that right here:

The next day, it's a Kokanee Slalom race on Raven/Ptarmigan at Whistler and this time it's under extreme weather conditions - minus 25 degrees C and winds gusting well over 50 kms/h. Cory wanted to train under any conditions so that he'll be ready to race under any weather conditions. But this was extremely cold.

And for his final training session before the Provincial Games, we headed to Cypress Mountain where he looked really good in this run following his rival Jesse:

So our next update will include the results of his racing on Friday and Saturday and we'll know by then about his chances to be selected to Team BC to race at the National Games in Jasper in 2012.

4 Years of preparation for 4 minutes of racing.

Treating Those Skis Like Gold

2011-02-18T15:22:00.021-08:00

With 2 weeks to go now until Cory's participation in Special Olympics British Columbia Provincial Winter Games, and those 3 qualifying races he'll be competing in, we'll take a look at some of Cory's behind-the-scenes work that he hopes will carry him to the top of the podium and a chance to compete at the National Games in Alberta in 2012.

Besides the 3 times per week training and racing, Cory makes sure his skis are always in top condition by tuning and waxing them after each use. Having raced yesterday at Whistler in his fourth Kokanee race, it's time for another tune and wax.

First thing to do is use large rubber brake retainer bands to hold the ski brakes in place and out of the way:

Then a gentle brushing with a nylon brush to remove any dirt, wax residues, etc.

First is to sharpen the edges in order to remove and burrs and nicks. Race ski edges are not square, they are bevelled according to the racer's abilities. Cory uses a 3 degree side edge:

The sharpening stone on the opposite side:

And it's simply a matter of sliding the multi-tuner along the side edge of the ski. This is everyday tuning and 3 or 4 times per year we bring the skis into a ski shop for a machine tune:

A similar procedure for the base edge, the part of the edge that lines the base on either side of the ski, but with the base edge, Cory uses a 1 degree bevel, or an 89 degree angle:

With the sharpening stone in place:

And again it's simply a matter of sliding the multi-tuner back and forth and let the sharpening stone do its work:

Once the edge sharpening is done, a quick wipe to remove and bits of metal:

Then it's time to wax. Using an iron specially made for ski waxing,

it's a matter of dripping wax onto the ski, making sure to provide enough wax to cover the ski and to ensure the iron is not so hot that it damages the ski:

And then ironing the wax into the base of the ski, again being careful not to overheat the ski base:

This leaves a flat layer of wax on the base, that needs to be scraped off.

The idea is over time and repetition, the wax penetrates the base and provides a longer lasting layer of protection that allows the ski to glide more effectively over snow. The type of snow and its temperature determines the type of wax to be used. Warmer temperatures that create more moisture require a softer wax while colder snow with less moisture requires a harder wax.

To begin removing the wax, we use a specially made plastic scraper with a notch in one corner:

And simply scrape it across both the side edge and base edge to remove the wax:

Next, using the same scraper to remove as much wax as possible from the base:

Then brushing the base with a nylon brush. The will give the ski "structure", basically grooves in the waxed base of the ski that acts like tire treads and moves the moisture in the snow away from the ski base, allowing the ski to glide more efficiently across the surface of the snow:

Once the ski wax has been brushed (we finish with 10 full-length strokes of the ski with the brush), the wax is polished using a clean cloth. The amount of polish depends on the temperature, the colder the temperature the more polishing is required. Less polishing is required on warmer snow to allow for deeper structure to handle the increased moisture.

This leaves the base of the ski with obvious grooves - the structure - that will take moisture away from the base:

And that's about it. With Cory doing this after every training session or race, he hopefully will have skis to race on that will carry him to the top of the podium on March 4th and 5th.

We'll know soon enough.

More Training, More Racing, Encouraging Results

2011-02-02T22:00:00.015-08:00

Cory's preparations for the Special Olympics Provincial Games in early March continued with 2 races at Whistler and some gate training at Cypress.

The first race was his 4th Kokanee race, a Giant Slalom on Lower Franz at Whistler Creekside. This time he did finish last in his age group, but still gained enough points to remain in 3rd place overall.

His coach for this race was Sammy Kent, who has now coached Cory a half dozen times or so. Sammy's been working with Cory to move his hips forward and to start his turns earlier as he goes through a race course.

The race course started with a steep pitch so Cory had a good look before getting in the starting gate:

Here's Cory in his first run, with good speed but he holds his turn a bit too long after the blue gate nearest the camera, and he loses some of that speed:

And in his second run, which looks good:

Sammy has also talked to Cory about being just as aggressive in his first run as he is in his second run down a course. He normally is a couple of seconds faster in his second run. Since the times are combined, not best of the two, it's important that Cory put two good runs together in order to be successful. But Cory's first run is 1:22:26 and his second run is 1:20:77, so he still has some work to do on that.

His next race was his first Masters Race ever, and it was also a Giant Slalom held on Lower Franz at Whistler.

Joining him for this race were two of his VASS Blue Streak teammates, including Jesse - his main rival from Special Olympics. So this race was to be a good test of Cory's progress and an indication of his chances of being at the top of the podium in March.

Chris Kent - a former Canadian ski team member - coached the Blue Streaks and spent a lot of time doing an extensive course inspection with them.

It was a cold windy day, but with clear skies and hard snow, that makes it ideal for racing:

Cory's first run, in 1:09:03:

And his second run:

And this time his two runs are very close together, with his second run in 1:09:60, just a half second slower. So he may be making progress in being equally aggressive in both runs.

But what was very encouraging is that he was faster than Jesse by almost 3 seconds in his first run and by close to 5 seconds faster in his second. Cory was very pleased with those results as it seems that all those early mornings and hard work seem to be paying off.

The Masters Races are open to anyone 18 years of age or older. Here presenting Cory with his first place finish (Cory and Jesse were the only two Masters under 30 years old), is an 80 year old Masters Racer....whose overall time was 4 seconds faster than Cory's!

The peak of Whistler, on our last run of the day after the race, down Peak to Creek, a 5.5 kilometre long intermediate run, the longest in North America:

The next night, a clear crisp evening, Cory trained with Special Olympics at Cypress in North Vancouver.

Cory's rival Jesse is training at Cypress too, and he and Cory stick together the entire evening, running the training course one after the other, and heading back up on the chair together. They may be rivals, but they remain good friends.

And Jesse is fired up! Perhaps driven Cory's performance at the Masters Race the day before, Jesse really pushes himself and really drives himself hard down the training runs. Cory responds and skis aggressively too:

Maybe a bit too aggressively here as he gets into some soft snow, but makes a good recovery and gets way up on his ski edges as he turns:

Really up on his edges on this run too, but a bit too bent over at the waist, which is something he often does when he's tiring, or in this case, looking for more speed:

So in spite of some very good results at the Masters Race, Cory will continue to train hard. Not only does Jesse continue to be a formidable opponent, there are one or two other Special Olympics athletes who have their eyes on the same prize. Since we don't know how their training is going, Cory will have to keep at it. Next up is a day of training with the VASS Blue Streaks at Grouse Mountain, then a Gatebusters day at Whistler, followed by two more VASS Blue Streaks sessions later in the week.

Ahh....the life of a ski racer.....a free Kokanee beer after each Kokanee race....

But then there's the post-race helmet hair!

2011-01-25T18:30:00.016-08:00

Cory's race training has continued through January with a couple of Kokanee races, training on Thursdays and Saturdays with the VASS Blue Streaks, and on Mondays with Special Olympics.

His 3rd Kokanee race of the season took place on January 13, with strong winds and snow falling rather heavily. As a result, the race was reduced from 2 runs to a single run, since heavy snow poses a danger to the racers.

Here's Cory taking a long look at a very long race course...it's hard to see but it disappears around a corner in the far distance where the trees narrow. 45 gates in total, and it would take Cory one minute, 45 seconds to complete it. What do they think this is...the Olympics??

Waiting with the other racers for the race to get started...check out those flags flapping in the wind!

And some pre-races warm-ups with Coach Sammy Kent:

And then it's race time. As this video begins, Cory gets a bit off course and has to ski through thick soft snow and that slows him down quite a bit:

After each Kokanee race, there is a video review of all racers....here's Cory taken from the projection screen so the quality is poor:

Cory usually finishes last in his age category at Kokanee, so we always laugh about his goal being not to finish last. And on this day he doesn't finish last, 3rd out of 4 racers. And finishing third gets him a bronze, a bronze Whistler Blackcomb promotional pin that is.

The announcement! which I found quite funny...

The award!

But having participated in all 3 Kokanee races so far, and with only one other racer in his age group having done the same, that gives Cory enough points from the 3 races to put him in 3rd place overall, out of 14 racers!

And then there's a few days of training with the Blue Streaks on Grouse Mountain:

First run on fresh tracks, always a delight:

A little practice through a short stubby course:

A quick run down The Peak:

Nothing like a bit of slalom through the fog to quicken one's feet:

And then a few runs down a dual slalom against Cory's main rival from Special Olympics, and he's pretty pleased with the results...

Until....

Then Cory wins again as his rival crashes:

And then even though it becomes obvious that the blue course has a real advantage over the red course, Cory prefers to stay in the red one...a strategic little move perhaps since the race that counts is still 5 weeks away...

The rivals in action:

Cory showing some great technical skills here...upper body pointing towards the finish line, eyes looking ahead to the next couple of gates, hands up and in front of his body, hips forward over his feet, knees bent for stability and angled to the side for good pressure on this ski edges

And looking forward to a couple of races this week...and in one of them he'll be racing against his rival, so we're both looking forward to see how he does.

We'll update again soon. Leave us a comment, we'd love to know you visited our blog.

Kokanee Race #2

2011-01-07T11:49:00.003-08:00

Cory continues to train hard for his upcoming Qualifying races at Special Olympics' BC Provincial Games in March, 2011. These are the races that Cory must likely win if he is to qualify for Special Olympics National Winter Games in Alberta in 2012.

He is about to start ski training 3 times a week now, including the Kokanee races at Whistler on most Thursdays. He continues to bowl twice a week, a bit of basketball once a week, with some weekly weight training too.

Yesterday was the second Kokanee race of the season, a Giant Slalom on the Ptarmigan run on Whistler Mountain. Even the "lifers" admitted that yesterday's race was a very challenging one with lots of fresh soft snow (racers prefer harder surfaces....not just for speed but for safety, soft snow makes it easier to catch a ski edge and crash) and a couple of gates on a very steep part of the hill that had plenty of offset (horizontal space between the gates...the more offset the greater a turn is required in order to get through the gates).

Cory has usually finished last in his age group in the Kokanee races, so we laugh about his goal - to not finish last. Unfortunately, on this day, he did finish last. But it's a series of races and since Cory completed his race he did earn 43 points and now, after 2 races, he is in 5th place out of 13 racers.

Whistler Adaptive Sports Programs Coach Sammy worked with Cory and noticed that Cory usually improves significantly on his second run through a course in comparison to his first run. It's quite likely a matter of Cory gaining confidence after his first run so we'll have to work on Cory's race preparation. We also discussed the fact that there's now only 8 weeks to go until the Qualifying races, so it's time to move from technical skill development more towards mental preparation. Cory has improved his technical skills and we believe he is capable of improving his racing speed, but so far his confidence hasn't kept pace. He needs to develop more trust in his skills in order to increase his speed.

On this day, he once again improved his time by 2 seconds in his second run versus his first, so it's certainly something we'll have to work on.

Here's Cory with Coach Sammy talking things over at the start of the race course:

Then it's time for a course inspection prior to the first run with Coach Sammy and VASS Coach Rob:

And Cory's first run, negotiating that challenging gate on the steepest part of the race course, and then does pick up quite a bit of speed through the delay gate as the course flattens out (a delay gate is an additional gate added to the course that does not require the racer to actually make a turn around it, but changes the rhythm of the racer's turns...it's the blue gate right after the red gate situated directly in front of the camera position)

And his second run...while he is quite far from the camera at the beginning of this video, it still shows his speed coming off that steep pitch at the top. Coach Sammy wants him to start his turns earlier - another indication that Cory hasn't quite grasped the improvement in his skills...he's still turning at the same speed he used to do, yet he is racing faster, so his turns are now delayed. This results in a need for him to turn his skis sideways to slow down in order to get around a get and completely eliminates his speed improvements. But his turns through the gates in this section of the course at least are quite good and he maintains most of his speed as he tucks through a flat portion of the course.

This coming week is the start of Cory's training with his Vancouver Adaptive Snow Sports Blue Streaks Race Team on Grouse Mountain, then training with Special Olympics British Columbia Delta on Cypress, and then Kokanee Race #3 at Whistler. So we'll be updating soon.

Leave a comment to let us know you visited.

Training with Whistler Mountain Ski Club

2010-12-25T13:11:00.012-08:00

Cory was invited to join the Whistler Mountain Ski Club for some gate training last week. WMSC has been the home club for many of Canada's best racers and is coached by Rob Boyd, one of Canada's best known ski racers. Rob was born and raised at the foot of Whistler and remains as the only Canadian male to win a World Cup downhill race in Canada - and that was on the Dave Murray Downhill at Whistler. Cory was the first ever athlete with a disability to train with Whistler Mountain Ski Club.

Here Cory is waiting in line with members of WMSC for his turn at some start training. He has never trained this specific part of racing before and it is certainly something he needs to improve upon, so this was a good way to start the day.

His first try is a bit on the lazy side:

And in spite of some instruction from his coach and a reminder from me to put a bit more effort into it, not much improvement:

Some improvement in the effort here, but it's clear that Cory needs to work on this part of his racing:

Then it's time for some Giant Slalom gate training, with Rob Boyd at the start:

Continuing to show improvement in his stance, with his hands forward and feet apart, and looking more comfortable doing so:

And the final run of the day as the snow begins to fall heavily on the Dave Murray Olympic Downhill:

Cory trained again with Whistler Mountain Ski Club the following week for two days of gate training, one for Slalom and another for Giant Slalom.

A little warm-up here on some stubbies. There was a fair amount of soft snow which quickly became deep ruts as the racers practiced through the course.

Some instructions from Coach Rob:

More video from slalom training with Whistler Mountain Ski Club:

Our sincere thanks to Rob Boyd and the Whistler Mountain Ski Club for including Cory in some of their Christmas 2010 Race Camps. We'll look forward to another opportunity to train with them.

Next up is the second Kokanee race of the season. Cory will once again aim to not finish last!

Training and Racing at Whistler

2010-12-18T14:48:00.018-08:00

After his week at Hurricane Race Camp in Loveland, Colorado last month, Cory kicked off his local training and racing season with 2 days of training and racing with Whistler Adaptive Sports Programs at Whistler-Blackcomb.

Working with a new coach, Luke Hadley (who's father was a teammate of Nancy Greene in the 70s...and Cory has met Nancy Greene a couple of times now...the Canadian ski racing community is a small one!), Cory participated in a Gatebusters session on the Dave Murray run at Whistler - the same run that was used during the 2010 Olympic Games last February.

It was Luke's first time at working with a disabled athlete and it worked out really well. Luke was impressed with Cory's skiing ability and his willingness to learn - his coachability - and by the end of the day Luke was saying he was looking forward to working with Cory more often.

One of our objectives when Cory went to Loveland was to improve Cory's racing by one second - find a way to make Cory faster by one second through an average race course. Over the last couple of years, Cory has been neck-and-neck with his main competitors at Special Olympics, so going into any given race it's difficult to say who will come out the winner.

It will likely be only the winner of the qualifying races next March that will be invited to the Nationals in 2012, so we figured if Cory could find a way to become one second faster, then he would have a much better chance of qualifying and give him a larger margin for a small error.

After Coach Luke had worked with Cory for the day, he said that Cory could easily improve by one second with more coaching and training, and that's on top of what Cory learned at Loveland. So that was great for Cory to hear, giving his confidence a real boost and motivating him even more to keep working hard at improving his skills.

Coach Luke continued to work on the same things as Cory worked on at Loveland, though he has now mastered keeping his feet further apart. Luke told him to keep his hands out in front of his body and to move his body further forward, and to work harder at getting up on the edge of his skis.

And we can see some of that work in these videos:

On this day the training course was not directly accessible by chair lift, so there was a fair amount of walking uphill involved. It made for a tiring day, so by 2pm we're on our way back down...and Whistler is covered in snow.

Later, a walk through Whistler Village all dressed up for Christmas:

The next day is a chance for Cory to put his learning to work, in the first Kokanee race of the season. This series of races is held on most Thursdays during the winter at Whistler-Blackcomb. It is open to all and Cory is often the only racer with a disability. Racers earn points depending on their finish, with 100 points to the winner. The racer with the most points at the end of the season is the Kokanee champion. Cory normally finishes in last place in his age group (19-29), so we jokingly set an objective of not finishing last and picking up a few points!

Looks like a good day for a race:

Cory having a good look at the 25 gates on this Giant Slalom race course set out on the Gandy Dancer run on Blackcomb mountain:

This day, Cory is working with Sammy Kent, a former Canadian ski team member and here they are working together during the pre-race course inspection:

And some warming up just before it's Cory turn to race:

And his first run...1:06.76....though I picked a poor location, shooting a video right into the sun:

And then his second run, a much improved 1:00.24, the most improvement of any of the 52 racers entered:

So a combined time of 2:07.00, and 8th out of the 11 racers in his age group, so Cory doesn't finish last and picks up 40 points! And Coach Sammy agrees with Coach Luke that Cory can easily find another second or two with more coaching and training. Cory will need to keep working on his stance, especially moving his hips forward, and will need to learn to take a more aggressive line through a race course.

A good couple of days of training & racing. Next week, a return trip to Whistler is in the plans, perhaps working with Coach Luke again but this time with Whistler Mountain Ski Club.

Then the first week of January kicks off the official training season for both Special Olympics and Vancouver Adaptive Snow Sports, so it will be 3 times a week of training or racing, in preparation to those qualifying races in Kelowna on March 4 and 5.

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A Week at Hurricane Race Camp, Loveland, Colorado

2010-11-30T17:27:00.043-08:00

Cory attended his second Hurricane Race Camp last week. His first was in July 2007 at Mount Hood in Oregon. This time, under very different weather conditions, the camp was held at Loveland, Colorado. In July 2007, temperatures soared to over 30 degrees C. Last week, wind chills hit minus 30C. So Cory has learned to race under a variety of extreme weather conditions.

We drove two hours to Seattle, then flew for about 2 1/2 hours to Denver, Colorado, where we were picked up by another racer and her mom. We then drove for another couple of hours to our condo at Silverthorne, CO.

The next morning we awoke to this view from our bedroom window:

Then it was time to load up the van for the 15 minute drive to Loveland:

Loveland Ski Area is built in a horseshoe shape bisected by Interstate Highway 70, which runs through a tunnel under the mountain where we skied.

The west entrance to the tunnel:

I-70 bisecting the ski area:

And here are the magnificent views from the top on our first day:

Cory was part of a group of 10 racers, all younger than him, and no others had a disability. The coach of Hurricane Race Camps is Bob Vial, who also coached Cory at Mount Hood in 2007. Bob has been very gracious at accepting Cory into his camps, and holds Cory to the same standards and expectations as he does with the other racers. And that's fine with us...it's a challenging environment for Cory since he is expected to listen, understand, and learn at the same pace as the others. In addition, there is a lot of non-skiing work involved with preparing equipment and carrying from house to car to ski lodge, putting all the equipment on, and being ready to go at the right time. But in both camps, Cory has learned a lot about what it takes to excel at ski racing.

In 2007 at Mount Hood, Cory learned about the mental challenge of ski racing, and the courage it takes to race through a race course full of plastic poles, on steep and icy terrain. He showed at Mount Hood that he had the heart of a champion, that he wasn't afraid to attack a race course and work through his fear.

Last week, he learned about the physical challenges of ski racing, not just due to the extreme cold, but also he learned how physically demanding it has to be to become a better racer. It's no longer just a matter of pointing skis down a hill and making some turns...he learned that good racers need to put into place a long series of small body movement culminating in tremendous pressure being applied, at just the right angle, to the appropriate edge of a ski, by leg muscles from the hip, through the thigh, knees, and ankles, all the while keeping the upper body straight and facing towards the bottom of the hill. For the first time, I heard him grunting as he made turns through a race course.

The days consisted of coach-assigned drills during the morning runs and then gate training in the afternoon.

One of the drills consists of sking on one leg at a time:

And here's Coach Bob instructing the team on a drill where they ski with their hands on their hips (after taking the ski poles away from the racers, Bob asks me to carry them):

Here's an example of how Coach Bob encourages his racers to get out of their comfort zone. By suggesting they put their poles up from their heads while doing a one-ski drill. By pushing themselves into doing something out of the ordinary, Bob hopes this will encourage them to continue to try to do things they don't normally do. The video also shows how windy the conditions were that day.

And here is the Hands on Hips drill, again under very windy conditions. Here the racers learn to push their hips to the side in order to gain an angle to their legs that allows for their feet to roll over in order to get their skis higher up on their edges.

This video is just about the wind:

Then one of my favourite video clips of Coach Bob in action. A great demonstration of how to keep the upper body still while making turns - imagining a flashlight in your navel.

One of the things that I like about Cory working with Bob is shown here. Bob has the ability to observe each of this racers and give them excellent individual feedback. Somehow he sees something in each of them and then can recall it a little while later to let them know what they're doing well and what they need to improve. This was still Cory's first day at Hurricane, and Bob points out that Cory isn't getting his skis up on edge enough. He has to learn to keep his feet further apart to give himself the space to turn his ankles over to get those skis up. Otherwise, instead of doing a carving turn, his skis slide away from the turn and this forces him to pivot his feet in order to complete the turn. This removes the pressure that builds under the skis, which when released to begin a new turn, actually propels the skier forward. If Cory is to truly improve his racing, then he must learn to get his skis further up on their edges.

Coach Bob then discusses how the racers need to use their Coach's feedback even while free-skiing and keep working without the coach's presence.

The next drill has the racers holding the poles across the back of their shoulders. This drill is intended to have the racers keep their upper bodies facing the bottom of the hill. Cory's body faces the bottom of the hill quite well, but he is moving his body up and down in order to generate pressure on his skis rather than shifting his hips and knees to allow his ankles to roll over.

And the snow dancing in the wind at the top of Loveland:

And then it's off to the Fuxi Racing store. Fuxi is a bit of a legend in the US racing world, and he is certainly a character. Cory and I had visited his store at Mount Hood in 2007, and believe it or not, he remembered us and remembered what we'd bought there.

Here's Fuxi in action:

And the moon rises over the Colorado Rockies as we head home:

The next morning is Day 2 of Cory's week at Hurricane Race Camp, and on this day and the rest of the week, there will be free-ski drills with Coach Bob in the morning, then gate training in the afternoon. Here we are unloading the vans as we arrive at Loveland Basin. Cory learned at Hurricane on Mount Hood in 2007 that ski racing is very much a lot of baggage handling. And this time, even more so, since after lunch each day it's time to move to Loveland Valley for gate training.

But well worth the effort since Loveland Ski Resort closes the Valley area to the public and reserves it only for race training, giving the racers the opportunity to access lifts with no waiting so they can maximize their gate training time.

And that attracts race teams from not just all over North America, but from all over the world. Here's a racer from Scotland with her coach from Team Great Britain. During the week we saw racers from France, Croatia, Norway, Argentina, and Canada. We had the opportunity to sit with the Canadian team in their trademark yellow race suits. And we really enjoyed talking with Team Argentina, 4 women who had raced at the 2010 Olympics so we had seen them in action there. Two of them were sisters: Maria and Macarena Simari-Birkner and they wished Cory good luck in his own quest to race on an international stage.

Back on the race course, a short course has been set up with brushes just to give the racers a warm up for a normal slalom course. It is easy to see here that Cory is not getting up on his edges enough and is making his turns by pivoting his feet, which results in the tails of his skis sliding along the snow.

His next run really shows his pivoting as he goes around the red brush just before the camera position as he slides down the mountain rather than hold the turn towards the next gate. But you can already see some improvement in the space between his feet:

And then his first run though a normal course, though it's quite flat near the camera and so his speed really slows. But he hasn't had much experience at attacking gates and knocking them down. There will be a total of 3 days of slalom training and 3 days of giant slalom...this is still day one.

The next day, more slalom training and Cory seems to be more comfortable knocking down gates. He's wearing new padded gloves that he bought at Fuxi's and is now wearing a "stealth" armoured vest for additional protection.

Each night at Hurricane, Coach Bob does a video review of each racer's work during the day. Here's Bob's analysis of one of Cory's runs and he tells Cory that his pole plants should be up near the tips of his skis rather than by his boots. This will move Cory's body into a more aggressive position with his weight forward and over his boots rather than behind.

Back on the way to Loveland the next morning, some old American west architecture....

And a gorgeous bluebird day on the mountain...as Bob instructs his Team Hurricane racers for another drill...

And then much to the delight of the Team, Coach Bob takes a tumble!

Team Hurricane November 2010:

Then it's back to the racecourse:

It's the first day of Giant Slalom training and Cory is showing some good speed through the course, though with all that slalom training for two days he forgets he can tuck in a GS course to pick up speed....you can hear me trying to remind him! He's now learned to keep his feet further apart and he's getting better edge pressure on his skis. He has an agressive athletic stance but needs to relax his arms a bit and keep his pole plants closer to his ski tips. He does need to move his stance up and forward a bit more as well, but as Coach Bob said, he's really starting to look like a racer now.

And a beautiful end to the day:

The next morning during a drill, Cory gains some unexpected air on a sharp turn and flies off the course and down an embankment. Fortunately, he crashed into some safety netting which pushed him away from that tree just to the right of his ski in this photo, taken as he made his way back up.

Back on the race course, this sequence of photos shows Cory in that same aggressive stance, but in this case much too far back on his skis.

And after hard day of training, a nap on the way back to the condo:

Next day, Thanksgiving in the USA, it's back into slalom training and under extremely cold conditions. With a wind chill factor of -35F, we managed 11 runs in the morning before heading over to the race course for another 7 runs through during the afternoon.

Looking really good here, attacking that gate, up on his edges, looking down the course, and his left ski bends under the pressure he's putting on it.

And after another couple of runs through, he's starting to show more confidence as he starts skiing right at the gates, getting his ski tips very close to the poles, moving his body forward a bit more, and really pushing on his edges. And for the first time ever, I can hear him grunting with exertion as he skis by me.

And yes it was cold! Cold enough to form icicles on your clothing!

And after all that work out in the cold, time to tuck into some Thanksgiving turkey dinner!

And then it's our final day at Loveland with the Hurricane Race Team. It's a day of training on a full-length Giant Slalom course and a chance for Cory to put all he's learned into the last few runs.

Here's his last run....feet apart, body forward, up on his edges, poles plants closer to the tips of his skis, and showing some good speed even on the flat part of the course.

So a very good week of learning....a week of travel, dealing with new surroundings and teammates, early mornings, new skiing drills, lots of hard work, plenty of baggage handling, listening to Coach Bob's instructions and feedback, coping with extreme cold, and racing at a whole new level.

Cory has his first race of the year in mid-December, just a Kokanee race at Whistler, but on difficult terrain and competing against non-disabled athletes who have more experience. It will be a good test of his new found skills.

But the true test remains with his qualifying races in Kelowna next March 4 & 5. There he will learn whether this very demanding week at Loveland helps put him at the top of the podium with a chance to join Team BC at the 2012 Special Olympics National Games in Alberta.

But first, he has to put all his gear away for another day.

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Look for an update after the Kokanee race on December 16.

Some Great News!

2010-09-03T18:30:00.008-07:00

Even though it's just the beginning of September, it's been an eventful week in terms of news for Cory's ski racing career.

First, he's been invited to attend Bob Vial's ski racing camp in Loveland, Colorado in late November. Cory attended Bob's camp on Mount Hood in Oregon in 2007. Here he is with Bob on Mount Hood...

This camp will be a great start to Cory's preparations for his race in March - the qualifying race for the 2012 Special Olympics National Winter Games in Alberta - his next step to the World Games in 2013.

Here he is in action on Mount Hood in 2007.

Then at Whistler yesterday, Cory met with Rob Boyd, a former Canadian World Cup ski racer, who now is Head Coach of the Whistler Mountain Ski Club. After a brief discussion about the challenges of Cory's autism, Rob invited Cory to attend his race camp at Whistler over the Christmas holidays. Another great opportunity to improve his skills and prepare for the qualifying race in March.

Still a long time till ski season, but some exciting developments for Cory.

Cory in slalom action in January 2010 at Sun Peaks near Kamloops, in the Disabled Skiers Association of BC Provincial Championships:

2010-08-19T14:21:00.044-07:00

Time now for our last posting about Cory at the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games in London, Ontario last July, with photos and video that we just didn't have time to post earlier.

Starting with departure day, July 11, 2010.

At home, looking rather pleased and excited to get going:

Airport parking lot...Cory discovered on Mount Hood 3 years ago that the life of an athlete is very much the life of a baggage handler:

With a lot of "hurry up then wait"....

...while the rest of Team BC congregates:

Time to check-in at the flight counter:

See ya in London Cory - Good Luck!

Now onto the competition:

A strike in Game 1 versus Saskatchewan, and with a score of 251, 42 points over his average, Cory earns a point for his team which gains 6 out of 8 possible points:

During Game Two, this time vs Alberta, a score of 206, 3 points below his average, but still earns a point and his team earns 7 of the 8 possible points:

Then a nice spare with Cory's uncle Gilles cheering him on:

Game 3, against Prince Edward Island, and a score of 192 which would turn out to be Cory's lowest score for the entire competition. Cory does not earn a point and the team gains only 1 of the 8 possible points.

After punching the head pin, an awkward delivery that still takes down a couple of pins:

Then a strike with Uncle Gilles still cheering with a big "Yes!":

Another good ball, still against PEI on Day One, but the right corner refuses to fall:

Then Day Two, starting with Manitoba...a nice throw..and his mum groans as the left corner pin stays up:

Next it's the right corner pin's turn again, and it was starting to look like just one of those days!

But as he has learned, he forgets about the last ball and any thought of bad luck, and focuses on getting the spare.

Then two strikes in a row...and a focused attempt for a turkey (3 in a row), with dad doing some tongue-in-cheek play-by-play, that just misses:

Cory bowls 231 in this game, 22 points over his average, earns a point and the team takes 7 of the 8 points.

Looking back, it's clear that Cory was able to win this tournament not by throwing a lot of strikes - the most consecutive strikes he had was 3, and he only did that twice all week. He has bowled up to 6 in a row before. But his ability to not get discouraged by pins not dropping and focusing on getting the spare really gave him an advantage. This was a difficult bowling alley for the higher average bowlers as only 4 of the 30 top bowlers beat their averages. With the pins not dropping as easily as they normally do, bowlers who would normally get a strike with a good ball often left just one pin standing. So it really was the bowlers with the ability to focus on their second ball that did well. Bowlers with lower averages normally need two or three balls to get all five pins anyways so the pins staying up after the first ball didn't really affect them. But for those bowlers who bowl 4 or 5 strikes per game with averages in the 200-range, spares were the only way to get a high score.

Then onto the next game, a memorable one, this one against another team from Alberta. And things did not start well, with Cory punching the head pin in the first frame.

The next frame not much better as Cory misses his target:

And by the fifth frame, halfway through the game with only 60 points up on the board, Cory struggles with his composure and it's time for his coach Judy to have a chat:

And whatever Judy said, it worked. Cory came back with a strike in the 6th frame, and with this spare on his last ball of the game, put 163 points up on the board over the last five frames to finish at 223, 14 points over his average. You can hear me say "one of his best games ever" - not because of the score but because he had to overcome a lot of adversity to get there. His 223 is 14 points over his average but not quite good enough to earn a point and his team takes only 3 of the 8 points.

After the game, a few minutes to chat with Cousin Debbie, with Uncle Gilles looking on with his other Cousin Diane.

Then it's onto Day 3 and a game against the Northwest Territories. At this point, we knew Cory's team was in 2nd place, 3.5 points behind another team from BC, a team they will compete against in the second game of the day. That game could likely decide which team will go directly to the Gold Medal game the next day.

Here's a good looking ball against the Territories, but the right corner stays up:

But all the pins fall down on this shot:

The left corner stays up on the next shot, but Cory nicely picks up the spare:

Then a strike and this game seems to be going just fine:

But then a couple of open frames where Cory did not spare or strike, followed by a couple of strikes in a row, finishing with a score of 247, 38 points above his average,earning a point and the team takes all 8 possible points.

Then it's the game against the other team from BC, which will determine who will qualify for the Gold Medal game the next day. A good start...

But then this...

and this.....

and this.

Which means time for another chat with Coach Judy.

And again Coach Judy knows exactly what to say...

And that spare ends a game of 226, 17 points above Cory's average, earning one point for the team and the team earns 6 of the 8 points and takes 1st place, moving directly to the Gold Medal game the next day.

And, Cory has a total pinfall count of 1576 for the 7 games, 113 points over his average, and that gives him 1st place in the A Division where 6 of the other 7 bowlers did not beat their averages. The 2nd place bowler was 50 points above his average, so Cory's score was more than double his nearest rival. An excellent week of bowling under pressure in a difficult bowling alley for high average bowlers.

It's great to know that Cory prepared himself very well, both in practicing a lot by playing over 200 games during the winter as well as being prepared for the pressure and adversity. Certainly his coach helped him a lot but few champions can do it all on their own. He has learned that a good plan is the basis for good results, so now he is working on a plan for the upcoming ski season which hopefully will include a first-ever race camp in November to kick-start this qualifying winter of ski racing.

The team Gold Medal win is well documented in previous posts so that brings the story to his triumphant arrival back at Vancouver airport on July 18. We had flown back the night before in order to be there when Team BC returned, and other family members and friends were with us too.

Here's Cory at Vancouver airport with good family friend Elaine, Aunt Sandie and Uncle Brian, and his mum. Sandie had brought large Canadian flag, fitting for a national champion:

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Waiting for his luggage with Cousin Rebecca:

So that's it, 2 Gold Medals from the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games hang on Cory's bedroom wall. A first and wonderful experience at a National competition.

Bowling season restarts in about 3 weeks and there may be a few local tournaments to compete in, but of course this is a big ski year. We'll post again in a few months when the ski season is near.

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The 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games - In Cory's Words

2010-08-04T22:28:00.005-07:00

The National Summer Games was such a fun experience. I came back home with 2 Gold Medals (one individual and one team award). It all started when I found out at the end of August last year when I received the letter telling me I had qualified for the National Summer Games. I decided that I really wanted to do as well as I could so I joined a second bowling league in addition to the Special Olympics one - with older women and my team is called the Shellmont Beauties! - so that I could get more practice. In total, I played over 200 games from September to last May. Then the bowling season ended, so I started practicing 3 or 4 times a week on my own and once a week with my Team BC teammates and coach.

As part of my Team BC training program, I had to keep track of everything I ate and all my physical activity since last November in a daily journal which my coach reviewed with me every week. So I think by the time the Games started in July I was ready to do my best.

Then the Team BC uniforms arrived with a snazzy blue bowling shirt to wear during the Games. We were also given shorts, T-shirts, a jacket and a hat, and two bags to put it all in, all of them said "Team BC" on them. By then, I was getting really excited about it all.

We left Vancouver on the evening of Sunday, July 11, all of us wearing our Team BC jackets, shorts, T-shirt, and hat. We all flew together on two planes to Toronto and then we got on a bus to take us to London.

We rested the next day, played cards, unloaded our stuff, and got to know our new surroundings at the University of Western Ontario. It was great to find out that the food was very good with lots of choices. The Opening Ceremonies were at the University Stadium on Tuesday July 13. It was really exciting to walk into the stadium with over 200 other athletes from BC, all in uniform. I couldn't help but find my mum and dad in the bleachers since they were making so much noise and waving a huge BC flag.

The next day we practiced and I was terrible - I bowled 132 and my average is 209. So I was very nervous going into the real tournament the next day. My coach Judy helped calm me down though. It seemed to be a difficult bowling alley since the pins would wobble a lot but not fall down.

So then the tournament began the next day and I bowled 251 so I was much more confident and bowled 206 and 192, a little below my average. But my teammates were doing really well so our team had a very good first day overall.

Things started well the next day as I bowled 231 in the first game. But halfway through the second game, my score was only 60! I was getting anxious and confused and started to get angry, upset, and worried. Coach Judy talked to me again about the situation, she told me to slow down and take it easy. I then added 163 points to my score so by the end of the game, I had bowled 223. Phew!!

By now we had to two more games to play the next day before we'd know if we'd have a chance at a Team medal, and there were individual medals to be awarded after the two games. I bowled 247 and 226 and I thought I had a good chance for a medal, which is what I had wanted, of any colour. I don't know if my dad knew, but he wouldn't tell me. So I waited for the announcement.

They started with Division A, which was my division. They announced the Bronze Medal winner and it wasn't me. Then the Silver Medal winner and that wasn't me either. Then I'm thinking "is it me for the Gold, or no medal at all?". Then I heard my name and I RAN up to get my Gold Medal! I felt proud of myself, and I shook everyone's hands on the podium. I was so relieved that I had won a medal, and it was even a Gold one! I went back to my team and everyone wanted to see and touch the medal - especially my dad and mum.

We then found out that our team finished in first place in our division so we'd be bowling for Gold the next day. We went back to the University to play cards and relax. I was still pumped with energy and looking forward to the next day.

The next day we learned that we'd be playing one of the teams that beat us earlier in the week. I was feeling good and confident and I was bowling quite well, though my teammates were struggling a little. But then I punched the head pin in the 8th frame and again in the 9th (punching the head pin with the first ball makes it pretty much impossible to get a spare). I saw my opponent bowl a spare in the ninth frame so now I was nervous and started to look at the scores too much so I took a small break to rethink my next ball. I tried to relax and took longer than usual to throw my ball and then I threw a strike. I bowled 257 but I didn't know if that was enough for my team to win the Gold Medal.

When we found out we had won, I was excited with a weird feeling in my stomach. It felt pretty good and I sure was happy!

My team and I celebrated a bit with our families - we had a Dairy Queen ice cream cone, my dad's such a big spender - and then we headed back to the University to prepare for the Closing Ceremonies. We walked into an arena in uniform with music, some speeches, and a dance party. I danced a little and we partied until we had to leave to prepare for our return to Vancouver.

When we arrived in Vancouver the next morning, my mum, dad, aunt, uncle, and cousin were there to greet me at the airport and I was excited to see them all there. We had a cup of coffee together - I was desperate for a good cup of coffee - and we talked about the Games. I then went home and slept for most of the afternoon. Tired happy sleep.

What a great experience it all was. Maybe I'll be able to go again in 2012 for the Winter Games in Alberta, but first I have a lot of work to do and I'm already thinking about what I'll have to do to get there.

I want to thank my mum and dad, Coach Judy, and my relatives for all their support. It was especially nice to see my uncle and cousins from Montreal in London to cheer me on.

My next big event will be next March in Kelowna, BC, where I will compete in the BC Provincial Winter Games to try to qualify for the Nationals in 2012. I'm sure my dad will put it all in this blog!

Thanks everyone! And I enjoy reading your comments (you can use the anonymous option and just add your name in your message).

Team Gold - The Hard Way

2010-07-18T16:38:00.011-07:00

Cory is back home and getting some well-earned sleep after a brutal travel schedule that started in London at 2am with a bus trip to Toronto airport to catch a 7am flight home to Vancouver, arriving this morning around 10am Pacific time.

So time to catch up with a bit more detail about the Team Gold Medal game. First, the Team heads to the podium to get their Gold Medals....with Cory last in the line....to receive their medals:

That Team Gold was far from easy and it wasn't decided until the 10th frame.

Here's Cory at the start in the first frame, first ball missed right, second ball missed left...fortunately his competitor on the lane next to him punched the head pin, making it virtually impossible to get a spare:

But he started getting it going in the second frame, and his coach's reaction tells you it's a strike, with his mum's cheerleading in the background, while Cory and his team do their "that's the way we like it, a huh a huh" celebration dance:

Then in the third frame, he throws the ball awkwardly and it goes left of the head pin, but he did pick up the spare, while his opponent did not:

Then in the fourth, a well thrown ball, but the right corner doesn't drop...but a really nice throw for the spare:

Now into the fifth frame, after spares in the 3rd and 4th, a strike. His competitor failed to follow lane courtesy and bowled at the same time as he did, but Cory still managed to stay on target, though she did as well and got a strike too:

A shot of the large crowd on hand, all of us feeling the tension:

Then, after getting strikes in the sixth and seventh frames for 3 in a row, Cory punched the head pin in the eighth, making it virtually impossible for the spare. As he set up for the ninth frame, his competitor once again ignored lane courtesy and bowled without waiting for Cory to finish. Cory wisely stepped off the lane and restarted:

He then takes a long time to refocus, throws a good looking ball, but again, punches the head pin. Two in a row, head pin punch in the 8th and again in the 9th.

In the meantime, his competitor threw a strike in the eighth and a spare in the ninth, and suddenly in spite of Cory's 3 strikes in a row, she had caught up to him.

At this point, we knew the rest of the team had struggled with only one other teammate winning her match up. That meant Cory not only had to win his matchup, but had to win with enough points over his competitor to give his team the 3 additional points that would take them to Gold.

So onto the 10th frame, with the Gold Medal hanging in the balance, Cory prepares himself, focuses as he always does, and once again his competitor fails to follow lane courtesy. With his coach preoccupied with tabulating the scores, I yell to Cory "let her bowl". (Later Cory told me he heard "better bowl" thinking I was telling him to bowl quickly.) At that point, I forgot about any more videos and put my camera down without even turning it off!

Cory stepped off the lane, and let his competitor bowl, and this time she punched the head pin.

Cory then got back into position, calmly refocused, took his time, and then threw a strike.

257!

Game, set, match, GOLD.

And the team's reaction when they get the news...but they didn't know just how close it had been:

A close look at two hard-earned medals (Cory bowled close to 200 games since last October)

A last fond look at Fleetway Lanes, site of Cory's first National Championship.

Will there be a chance for another one in St. Albert, Alberta at the National Winter Games there in 2012? Stay tuned, winter's not that far away, and Cory's already thinking about attending a ski race camp in Colorado in November.

Thanks again to all of Cory's family & friends for your tremendous support - sharing all of this with you has made this even more special.

Look for a note from Cory about his National Games experience in an update soon - after he's caught up on his sleep.

It's Another GOLD!

2010-07-17T16:12:00.003-07:00

Cory bowled 257, his best game of the week, and helped his team to a Gold Medal today at the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games in London, Ontario.

Here he is on the podium with the rest of his team.

We'll update with more details later.

IT'S GOLD BABY!! (part 2)

2010-07-16T19:39:00.004-07:00

Cory won an individual Gold Medal today at the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games. Here he is when he got the news:

And afterwards with his proud mum and dad:

Now it's on to the Team Gold Medal game tomorrow, around 10am Eastern Time. We fly back to Vancouver tomorrow evening while Cory returns to Vancouver with Team BC on Sunday morning, around 9am. We'll be there to greet him of course, and if any of his supporters who live in the Vancouver area wish to join us, we'd love to see you there. It's an Air Canada flight from Toronto, around 9am on Sunday.

We'll try to update this blog before we leave London.

Thanks again for all your support and messages - over 20 hits to this blog today alone - thanks so much everyone.

A special thank you to Cory's Montreal relatives - and especially to my brother Gilles- for making the surprise trip down to London and making this just an extraordinary week for us.

IT'S GOLD BABY!!!

2010-07-16T16:05:00.006-07:00

Cory won an individual Gold Medal today, in the highest division, which means he was the best 5 Pin bowler in the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games here in London, Ontario.

Today he bowled 247 and 226, ending the tournament with an average of 225. That's 16 points over his average for the 7 games he played, and no other bowler in the top division did better than that.

And he helped his team into 1st place so tomorrow they play for team Gold.

But like yesterday, he struggled at times and was around 75 after the fifth frame in his second game. But once again, he put together enough strikes and spares in the second half of the game to finish with a 226.

His team started the day in second place 3 points out of first. But they picked up the entire 8 points available in the first game to move into first place overall. They then faced the second place team and quickly fell behind. But by the time Cory threw the last ball, they were well ahead and collected 6 out of 8 possible points. Cory earned both points from the two games, for a total of 5 out of a possible 7 for the tournament.

So tomorrow is the Gold Medal game, around 10am eastern time. Look for an update with photos and video later tonight and another tomorrow evening.

Right now, it's time for his mum and dad to go out and celebrate.

Thanks so very much to all of you who have encouraged and supported Cory along his journey to a National Championship. I'm sure he would agree to share his medal with all of you.

That Emotional Roller Coaster Called Sports

2010-07-15T09:31:00.003-07:00

We rode the sports roller coaster this morning....the second day of competition at the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games here in London, Ontario.

Cory's team began the day in second place in their division of eight teams. The top 3 teams at the end of play on Friday afternoon will advance to the medal round on Saturday.

Cory bowled a very good 231 in his first game, 22 points over his average. His entire team did very well, taking 7 of 8 possible points from their competition from Manitoba. Those 7 points vaulted the team into FIRST place as they headed into their next game against Alberta.

But that game did not start well for Cory or the team. Cory had only 60 points after 5 frames, meaning if that continued, he'd bowl 120. He was clearly frustrated and getting upset, and his mum and dad weren't exactly pleased with things either. The entire team was struggling, and at one point found itself over 100 points behind Alberta.

But then they started getting it together. Cory bowled strikes in the sixth and seventh frames, and finished with a 223, amazingly clawing enough points in the final few frames to finish over his average. And the team closed in on Alberta, falling just 18 points short of a victory, but a remarkable finish considering how far behind they had fallen. They did earn 3 points for individual matchups, leaving them in second place, 3.5 points behind another BC team, whom they play against tomorrow.

We'll update later with photos and video.

Day One Competition

2010-07-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Cory had a good start to the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games. This event is being held at Fleetway Lanes in London, Ontario. There are eight teams from BC competing in this event, Cory's team is BC #5. All athletes stay in dorms at the University of Western Ontario; our contact with him is very limited, just some very brief conversations before and after competition. Here's a Team BC bus arriving at Fleetway:

Cory's team anxiously waiting for the start of competition:

Cory here looking good in warmup:

And the first ball he's ever thrown in National competition is a good one, but....

His next one is even better:

And a double! Bowling next to teammate Tyler:

A good ball going for the triple - which is called a Turkey - but the corners don't drop, and that's called Aces:

Back on track here with a strike:

The scoring system for this tournament is a bit unusual. The teams are divisioned according to averages, then each player is matched up against a player from the other team. Those players then compete using pins over average, meaning whichever player scores highest over their average wins. Cory bowled 251 in his first game, 42points over his average of 209. His opponent bowled well under that, so Cory's team earned one point. That is done with all 5 players on each team. As well, the team with the highest score over average is awarded 3 points. In this game, Cory's team earned 7 points, with 4 of his 5 teammates winning their individual matchups and the team collected the 3 team points.

It's time for us to head to the bowling alley for Day Two of competition, so we'll post this now and come back later to finish it, and add the results from Day Two.

Thanks to Brian, Becky, and Elaine for your comments yesterday!

Great Opening Ceremonies

2010-07-14T21:19:00.000-07:00

Under ideal weather conditions, the Opening Ceremonies to the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games were held on July 13 at the TD Waterhouse Stadium at the University of Western Ontario in London.

Here's how the stadium looked as we waited for the arrival of the athletes:

And here comes British Columbia!

And in that large group of BC athletes, there's Cory, looking up and finding us in the large group, proudly waving a small Canadian flag: (sorry about the camera shake - it was quite a moment)

Team BC moving into their seats:

And the arrival of the Host Team - Ontario:

All the athletes from all over Canada now in their seats, with Team BC on the left:

Then Cory stands, turns around to look for us, and starts waving his flag. I had a large BC flag with me and waved it back:

And then the arrival of the Torch. Law enforcement officers all across Canada raise funds for Special Olympics through the Law Enforcement Torch Run. Here a very impressive and very long procession of officers leads the Torch runner into the stadium:

Then the Torch arrives:

And, after a bit of a delay, the Olympic cauldron is lit and the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games are officially open!

Now we're off to Day Two of competition....look for another update later today.

Good Start

2010-07-14T12:52:00.001-07:00

The first three games are over and Cory and his team are off to a pretty good start. Cory bowled 251 in his first game, 206 in the second, and 192 in his last game, earning 2 of 3 points for his team and helping the team to an overall tie for 2nd place.

Watch for photos and video later today, with 2 more games tomorrow morning, and 2 more on Friday.

Good Thing Day One Was Only Practice!

2010-07-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

It's Day One of the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games here in London, Ontario, Cory's first ever appearance at a National event. And fortunately, Day One was only for practice!
Cory bowled his worst game in at least a year - 132! Not that he seemed to do anything wrong, just a lot of stubborn pins...like this one:

Or this one....

The first day of competition is tomorrow, hopefully those pins won't be so stubborn then.

Off to the Opening Ceremonies now, another update later.

Off to London, Ontario with Team BC!

2010-07-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

Just two days to go now before Cory joins his Team BC teammates on a flight to London, Ontario to participate in Special Olympics' National Summer Games in 5 Pin Bowling. He is really excited about the experience and is really looking forward to it. Team BC athletes receive a lot of gear from Special Olympics for their trip....here's Cory proudly wearing some of it:

Cory is a bowler as well as a ski racer with Special Olympics and next March hopes to qualify for the National Winter Games in St. Albert, Alberta in 2012 in alpine skiing.

But for now it's 5 Pin Bowling, which is played only in Canada so unfortunately there is no opportunity for Cory to qualify for the World Summer Games in Greece next year.

He has been working hard over the last few months, practicing 3 to 5 times a week, often on his own, sometimes with his teammates and coach, other times with me. Special Olympics uses a pins over average system, which makes it fair for bowlers of all abilities. But with Cory's average of 209, he will need to bowl exceptionally well in order to have the opportunity to medal. The average for most Special Olympics athletes is probably under 150. He has averaged 216 over his last 30 practice games, including a 336 just last weekend. So he seems to be ready.

Here he is, in the middle, with this Team BC teammates, wearing their Team BC uniforms. We'll be waving that flag in the bowling alley in London next week:

Practicing here....working on staying low and delivering the ball smoothly onto the floor, keeping his shoulders square to the pins, hitting his target (in this case one board right of the middle marker) and following through with his right hand in line with his right shoulder. His ball sometimes has a tendency to move to the left, and in this case that's a good thing as it moves across the front of the head pin on the way down and hits it on the left...

On this shot, he stays low, follows through right up to his shoulder, hits his target just right of the middle marker, and his ball stays straight and hits the head pin on the right:

But it doesn't always work out quite perfectly...

More Team BC gear:

This is what Team BC athletes will wear as they march into TD Waterhouse Stadium at the University of Western Ontario during the Opening Ceremonies next Tuesday evening:

So it's goodbye west coast....lookout London! Cory's team practices next Tuesday and competes on Wednesday and Thursday mornings and Friday afternoon, for the right to compete for medals on Saturday July 17. We'll update each day beginning on Tuesday. See you then, from the 2010 Special Olympics National Summer Games in London, Ontario.

Cory's Last Race of the Year

2010-05-21T22:41:00.001-07:00

Progress

2010-04-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

In the spring of 2007, Cory started working on his plan that could hopefully get him to the Special Olympics World Games in 2013.

That plan included better coaching, better equipment, more racing experience, and improved fitness.

Based on these two photos - the first taken at his second race ever in February 2007 and the other taken in his last race on April 17, 2010 - he certainly has made a lot of progress.

From tentative and awkward...

to graceful and confident:

A Day At The Races

2010-04-18T13:51:00.000-07:00

The final race of the 2010 Blue Streaks season - the annual Rotary GS at Whistler Mountain - took place on Saturday, April 17, and Cory earned himself a silver medal. But it was far from easy.

We combined race day with two days of gate training at Whistler with our good friends at Whistler Adaptive Sports Programs.

Here's what greeted us when we disembarked from the Whistler Gondola, and while Cory's favourite run - The Saddle: straight + steep = racer speed! - beckoned to him under gorgeous blue skies, he was here to train, so off we go to the training course.

Under the direction eye of Phil Chew, Provincial Coach for the Disabled Skiers' Association of BC, and Paul Hothersall, Whistler Adaptive Sports Programs coach, Cory put in a number of runs in training course set up on the Jolly Green Giant run...here's one of his first runs...

And a bit later in the day when the sun warms things up very nicely:

But a good training day just has to include some free-skiing too. So it's off to The Saddle and then down a run at Whistler called the T Bar Run, which oddly enough is located right next to a T-Bar. Paul, Cory, and WASP athlete Avery:

Then it's an evening at the condo (rented, not owned) for relaxation, chat, and a 9pm (there was lots of chat) dinner of spaghetti and meat sauce (thanks to Cory's mum, who unfortunately couldn't join us this time but made sure we were still well fed).

The next day, most of the remaining VASS Blue Streaks joined us for training under yet another day of bright blue skies. Cory, second from left, with Blue Streaks Alex, Tamika, and Christie (photo courtesy of Edward Tai):

Again thanks to Edward Tai for this sequence:

And then it's Race Day. The Rotary GS is an annual race open to members of the Disabled Skiers Association of British Columbia. In this group are members of the BC Paralympic Team who hope to one day make it to the Canadian Paralympic Team. The racers are divided into category and Cory's Cognitive Disability category has 8 other competitors, including rivals Mark and Jesse, who also competes against Cory in Special Olympics.

Cory won this race last year when it was also the BC Provincial Championships, but this year the Championships were held in January at Sun Peaks near Kamloops.

The night before the race Cory was assigned bib #4, and it was pretty cool to be wearing the actual bibs worn at Whistler by the athletes at the Paralympics Games just a few weeks earlier. This bib had been worn by Sabine Gasteiger of Austria, a gold medalist in slalom for visually impaired: (and by coincidence, we met the bronze medalist in that event, Jessica Gallagher of
Australia, in the gondola during our previous visit to Whistler)

Race registration at the base of Whistler Gondola with Coach Roy:

Then the Blue Streaks line up for a little bit of pre-race fun:

Then some last minute equipment checks at the top of the Gondola....

And a bit of stretchin'...

First look at the race course with the morning sun gone and a definite threat of snow or rain:

Course inspection with Coach Roy and the rest of the Blue Streaks:

And then it's race time...here's a brief video of part of Cory's first run, in some light snowfall. This race consisted of 2 runs through 25 gates, with a vertical drop of 150 metres, with the times combined to determine the winner:

Another sequence courtesy of Edward Tai:

Cory's time for the first run was 43.21 seconds, just over 4 seconds slower than Mark, but just under one second faster than Jesse. But, but there's surprise - a racer from Vernon, BC beats Cory's time by 14 hundredths of a second, which puts Cory into 3rd place, with one run still to go.

Cory and I talked over the results on the chair back up to the race course. He understood that he would have to really attack the course if he wished to stay ahead of Jesse and even have a chance to move up into 2nd place.

And he did just that...

...and completed his second run in 41.08, over 2 seconds faster than his first run. The Vernon racer posts a 42.75 and Cory took over second place by 1.4 seconds with a combined time of 84.29.

I told Cory after the race that I considered that his best race ever...that competitive fire within him - in 2007 I called it the Heart of a Champion - burned a way for him to find an extra gear to put him into 2nd place. He even moved to within 2 seconds of Mark's time in the second run.

So a hard-earned and very satisfactory silver medal.

Here's a link to a video of Cory's second run, courtesy of Edward Tai:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=106558776053206

Then it's off to the dinner and awards ceremony where Canadian Paralympic Skier Morgan Perrin presents Cory with his medal.

So that's just about it for the ski season for this Olympic year - in spite of some real challenges for snow conditions, overall another really good year for Cory's skill development as he continues his pursuit of his dreams to represent Canada at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in 2013.

Cory now wants to shift his focus big time onto his bowling to prepare as best as he can for Special Olympics' National Games in London, Ontario in July. He's been bowling 2 or 3 times a week all winter and now he plans to increase that to 5 times a week.

Stay tuned....and please, leave a comment. Cory and I always enjoy and appreciate your support.

Successful First Step To 2013!

2010-03-21T21:16:00.000-07:00

The first step to the World Winter Games for Special Olympics in 2013 took place on March 13, 2010 at Silver Star Mountain Resort, near Vernon, BC. This was the Regional Qualifying races where racers compete to see who will advance to the 2011 Provincial Winter Games.

In spite of an error on Cory's part (and a lesson learned) - and no photos or video due to a lost camera! - it was a successful race day for Cory and he will qualify for Step Two - the British Columbia Provincial Games next February.

Two races were held - a Super Giant Slalom and a Giant Slalom. Under beautiful sunshine skies, 65 athletes raced down the Big Dipper run at Silver Star. In the first race of the day, the Super G, Cory was the third last skier to race. That meant a two-hour wait while the other 62 athletes completed their runs.

In the start area of a ski race, there is a spring-loaded "wand" that is pushed by the racers legs as he/she starts down the race course. This activates the electronic timing device that determines each racer's time.

Here's Cory in a start, showing the wand in front of his shins:

Well, it looks like the 2 hour wait made Cory eager to get going. As I watched him prepare to start his race, I noticed he nudged the start wand a bit, then moved again and pushed it open by about two inches. A few seconds later, he started his race, but by then the clock had already started. So he finished with a time of 53.32 seconds, which turned out to be about 7 seconds behind his main rival Jesse. Cory and Jesse usually have similar race times, so it does seem that he started the race clock when he nudged the wand, well before he ready to go.

As a result, he was bumped from the 1st division in Advanced to the 2nd division, though he did finish in first place in that division.

In the Giant Slalom race later in the day, Cory had the best time of all 65 racers, 29.62 seconds, just under 2 seconds faster than Jesse. I was pleased that Cory put the disappointment of the Super G race out of his mind quickly, and focused on having a great race in the GS. We'll never know if he could have had the best overall time in the Super G as well, but the main thing is he was good enough to qualify for the Provincial Games next year.

There's still some racing to be done this year - a Giant Slalom at Whistler on April 17 where he will again compete against Jesse - so there is still some training to be done.

We'll be back with an update soon, but if you've visited, we'd love to know you where here. Leave a comment, OK? It's easy, just click below, you don't need a google account, or any account for that matter.

Cory Enjoys the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games

2010-03-01T17:25:00.000-08:00

Cory took a break from his race training to enjoy the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. We attended two skiing events, hung around downtown to enjoy the incredible atmosphere, and we even were lucky enough to attend the gold medal presentation to Alexander Bilodeau, Canada's first athlete to earn a gold medal on Canadian soil.

Arriving in downtown Vancouver on February 15, we discovered a great place to watch some big screen action - the German Fan Fest building - not to mention a delicious bratwurst and tasty German beer. Here's how everyone reacted to the highs and lows of snowboard cross as Mike Robertson of Canada is edged out of a Gold Medal so close to the finish line:

Then onto BC Place stadium for the Alexandre Bilodeau medal ceremony:

"Ticket please"

Inside the stadium, time for a photo or two before the ceremonies begin:

Gotta wear red!

And then, Alex is introduced to the roar of the crowd:

That historic gold medal goes around his neck:

The Maple Leaf rises as the crowd sings Oh Canada:

After the ceremony, a walk to the waterfront to see the Olympic torch:

A couple of days later and we're off to Whistler to see the Ladies's Super Combined - one downhill run + one slalom run.

A 5:30am bus to Whistler meant a 3:30am rise - but after all, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend Olympic Games in your home town!

Weird feeling...on a chairlift with no skis!

It's Official - Cory's first ever Olympic event!

And the finish line with the ladies Downhill course above to the right and the mens' Downhill course on the left. Cory has skied them both and they are a blast!

And we'll be sitting right there....so if you watched it on TV, you saw us!!

See, there we are...no we're not Games volunteers, they just happened to pick the same blue as our Blue Streak jackets:

Cory's 15 seconds of Olympic fame!

The sun rises on a gorgeous Whistler day:

Having met Canadian Olympian Nancy Greene at Sun Peaks just a couple of weeks ago, now it's Canadian Gold Medal winning ski racer Kerrin Lee Gartner (she won the downhill at Albertville in 1992):

Race time - with the crowd enjoying Canadian Emily Brydon's run:

But this day belongs to Germany, with Maria Riesch on top of the podium:

A few days later, and it's the Ladies' Giant Slalom, also at Whistler. But the weather isn't quite as good...

Time to mingle with some visitors...first Italy

then Germany

And a chance to get up close to some Olympic athletes after they've completed their course inspections. Don't know who you are but thanks for the smile!

Now, waiting for the second run, in a weather delay...having a look around...Austrian fans in grey & yellow...a flagged Finnish fan....and our Italian friends now bundled up in black jackets:

Well, the fog sticks around and eventually the 2nd run is postponed till the next day. So up again before dawn to board our bus, but first a greeting from a host of Games volunteers...that's Cory in the middle:

At Whistler, we discover this odd choice of location for a long line of porta-potties:

Cory congratulates Chirine Njein, an Olympic skier from Lebanon:

And the world's best ski racing fans, the Swiss... they carry these huge cowbells to races all over the world and they love to ring them. For the entire run of each Swiss racer, plus they'd ring them for Canadian racers too. But complete silence for the Austrian racers (their nemesis) and the same for the Germans and Italians. And when a Swiss racer has the lead, they'll ring those bells every time another racer finishes behind the Swiss racer. If your volume is up, you may wish to turn it down before you play this video:

We also spent a lot of time in downtown Vancouver, enjoying all the Oh Canada's, the colourful uniforms of so many different countries, the tremendous pride that was so obvious everywhere, and just an incredible experience. Once-in-a-lifetime for us for the Winter Olympics. Could there be a Special Olympics World Games experience for Cory in 2013? Well, for that to have any chance of happening, he must get back to work. Training at Whistler and Grouse this week, some weight training in there too. Then next week, the Special Olympics Regional Qualifying race at Silver Star near Vernon. This race determines who will compete at the Provincial Games in 2011, which in turn could lead to the National Games in Alberta in 2012 and then of course the World Winter Games in 2013. Next week, it's that first step at Silver Star, so we'll update this blog then.

Thanks for dropping by...leave us a comment so we'll know you were here.

Going Looking for Snow

2010-02-02T17:33:00.000-08:00

We've just been through the warmest ever January in Vancouver so we've had to go looking for snow. Cory's first big race of the season was just this last weekend when he participated in the Western Canadian Para-Alpine Championships at Sun Peaks near Kamloops, BC. Before that, he had been training mostly at Whistler with Coach Mark Anderson (a former Canadian Ski Team member), participating in some Kokanee Races, and a bit of training with his VASS Blue Streak teammates at Grouse.

The Kokanee Race Series is open to anyone and Cory entered one race a couple of years ago and finished last in his age group. Many of those participating have been racing for many years and some of them are ski coaches. As part of Cory's plan to improve, he needs more race experience and Kokanee certainly provides that. And on much more difficult race than he would normally race on in Special Olympics or even with VASS. Cory understands that it doesn't matter that he may finish last, just the experience and the enjoyment of race day is what's important. That, and the free Kokanee beer at the end of the day, that is!

His first Kokanee race of the year was a Giant Slalom on January 7 on Ptarmigan at Whistler.

Checking-in at race registration:

Then some course inspection work with Coach Mark and Blue Streak teammate Mark:

And a look at the finish area:

This course had a very steep start, probably the steepest race course Cory's ever been on. He had a late starting number and by the time it was his turn, there were quite a few ruts near the 3rd gate down from the start. Of the 5 racers before Cory, 3 of them all fell at that gate. So when Cory set off, I was very concerned that he would crash at that gate as well, and you can hear me voicing that concern. But he made that gate and all the rest of them. Skiing cautiously for sure, but he got through the entire course.

Now on his second run, taken further down the race course:

And the official race results, with the 3 racers who crashed showing a disqualification:

MEN 19-29
1 ANTON SODERBERG (108) 1.04.93 1.04.86 2.09.79 100.00
2 IAN STIRK (98) 1.08.03 1.09.20 2.17.23 80.00
3 TOM FRANCIS (205) 1.09.37 1.09.01 2.18.38 60.00
4 DAVID EASTWOOD (100) 1.10.98 1.11.46 2.22.44 55.00
5 ROGER ZOGG (105) 1.11.87 1.11.50 2.23.37 51.00
6 KOKI OZAWA (102) 1.11.71 1.12.71 2.24.42 47.00
7 TOM BROTHERTON (107) 1.12.49 1.12.84 2.25.33 43.00
8 SOZO MUNEMASA (99) 1.20.98 1.24.03 2.45.01 40.00
9 CORY DUHAIME (104) 1.31.35 1.34.33 3.05.68 37.00
MAARTEN TURNER (106) DNF 1.28.17 DSQ
YUMA MAEOKA (103) DNF 1.33.76 DSQ
CHRIS BROWN (101) DNF 1.17.86 DSQ

After a Kokanee race, the racers gather at a local Whistler pub for video review, prizes, and of course a Kokanee. Here's Cory's first run taken from the large screen in the pub:

And on this day, the Olympic torch made an appearance and Cory proudly held the Torch for a photo:

His next Kokanee race was another Giant Slalom on January 14, this time on Gandy Dancer on Blackcomb. Whistler-Blackcomb has had record-setting snowfall this winter, and sure enough it was snowing on race day too (over 31 feet of snow as of February 1/2010!).

Here's a clip of one of his two runs. Unfortunately, Cory did miss a gate on his other run and was disqualified:

From the pub:

And the official results

MEN 19-29
1 ROGER ZOGG 92 1.21.04 1.22.31 2.43.35 100.00
2 IAN STIRK 86 1.22.26 1.22.24 2.44.50 80.00
3 KOKI OZAWA 95 1.25.58 1.22.61 2.48.19 60.00
4 TOM FRANCIS 218 1.25.05 1.23.19 2.48.24 55.00
5 TOM BROTHERTON 89 1.23.78 1.27.18 2.50.96 51.00
6 JIM HUGHES 93 1.28.96 1.29.55 2.58.51 47.00
7 CHRIS BROWN 85 1.35.74 1.36.82 3.12.56 43.00
8 YUMA MAEOKA 87 1.40.00 1.36.82 3.16.82 40.00
9 JAMES HUTCHINSON 90 1.40.77 1.41.72 3.22.49 37.00
10 RICHARD LOGAN 96 1.49.98 1.42.30 3.32.28 34.00
11 JUN OKANO 88 1.36.72 DSQ DSQ 31.00
CORY DUHAIME 91 DSQ 1.38.71 DSQ
DAVID EASTWOOD 84 DNF 1.24.88 DSQ

Then on January 21, Cory's first chance to race a Super G. 28 gates in a long course that winds its way down Raven & Ptarmigan on Whistler. A beautiful day, as we prepare at the start:

The usual race day "hurry up and wait" routine:

About half way down, the course takes a long turn to the right down over a ridge. Cory loses track of the course and unfortunately makes a wrong turn - not disqualified, but it added about 30 seconds to his time. Once again, dad here has a reaction to what he sees:

For this Super G, the racers were allowed two runs (usually only one run for a Super G) and the best time of the two would be used. So this time, Cory does not finish last, as he does his second run in 1:20:81 and beats one racer's best time of 1:21:43.

MEN 19-29
1 FEDERICO MALANOTTI 94 1.03.94 1.05.17 1.03.94 100.00
2 TOM FRANCIS 84 1.06.08 1.05.27 1.05.27 80.00
3 IAN STIRK 218 1.06.72 1.05.76 1.05.76 60.00
4 TOM BROTHERTON 90 1.06.70 1.07.83 1.06.70 55.00
5 DAVID EASTWOOD 87 1.07.71 1.07.23 1.07.23 51.00
6 KOKI OZAWA 89 1.08.67 1.07.81 1.07.81 47.00
7 MARC NYELAND 91 1.10.09 1.08.85 1.08.85 43.00
8 JIM HUGHES 92 1.12.02 1.11.92 1.11.92 40.00
9 CHRIS BROWN 85 1.14.66 1.13.77 1.13.77 37.00
10 EVAN KOSIC 88 1.17.83 1.17.63 1.17.63 34.00
11 CORY DUHAIME 86 1.48.20 1.20.81 1.20.81 31.00
12 RICHARD LOGAN 93 1.21.43 DNF 1.21.43 28.00

His second run:

When viewing the video from the other racers' runs, we saw that Cory wasn't the only one who had difficulty with this course. Several other racers made a wrong turn too, some on their second run through the course.

The pub video:

So back on Grouse Mountain for some training now, a nice day with some good snow up on the Peak run:

And now the big race weekend at Sun Peaks - the Western Canadian Para-Alpine Championships. One day of training and two days of racing, all on a run called OSV, which is the run used by the Austrian Ski Team as their North American training centre. Hey, only what's good enough for the world's best racers is good enough for Cory!

Great snow at the top - with Blue Streak teammate Mark:

Sun Peaks Resort below, with Mount Morissey in the background:

And a training run for Cory on a "stubby" course, which I also had the opportunity to race through a few times with the resultant and rather expected crash or two (but no video of that!):

Then early the next morning, it's time to get ready to race, with BC Provincial Coach Phil in the foreground. Giant Slalom will be the race for today - two runs, combined time:

Blue Streaks at the front of the chairlift line, snow starting to fall:

With the remaining racers behind:

And a very special pre-race visit from Nancy Greene-Raine, Olympic Gold Medalist in 1968 in Grenoble:

And Cory's first run:

And a silver medal presented by Nancy Greene Raine later that night:

The next day, a slalom race, under much brighter conditions. Cory has had little experience in slalom and this course is long and with a number of challenging elements such as hairpins and flushes. But he learned about these at Mount Hood in 2007, so after a good course inspection and some discussion with me at the starting gate, he attacks the course with confidence and earns another silver medal:

And it's a Blue Streak podium sweep with teammates Mark & Jesse. Surprisingly, Cory beat Jesse by over 4 seconds in each run, so it's encouraging news as Cory's opportunity to compete nationally will very much depend on his continuing success against Jesse.

So, in spite of difficult snow conditions so far this year, Cory continues to have the opportunity to learn, improve his skills, and put them to the test in competition. Getting to Whistler a few times and a weekend in Sun Peaks means he's been on snow about a dozen times, not much less than in previous years at the end of January.

Now though, the Winter Olympic Games come to town and access to race courses is very limited. So we'll enjoy the Games - hoping for Canadian podiums in Alpine Skiing of course - including attending the Ladies Super Combined at Whistler on Valentine's Day. And Cory's next big race will be the Special Olympics Regional Qualifier at Silver Star near Vernon in mid-March.

Look for an Olympic update in February. And leave us a messagge, we do love to hear from you.