Entering the Canada Winter Games I really didn't know what to expect, but from Day one I knew it was big. On 12 February 2015 I arrived at the Vancouver Airport where I was met with a packed room filled with Blue jackets. This was Team BC. I checked in my luggage a few minutes later and it turned out that I had the heaviest bag (that was my ski bag), but I had the lightest combined weight of luggage. As everyone waited for the planes to arrive, I tried to guess which sport everybody was from since no one had received their accreditation yet. Time dragged on but eventually they started calling sports to start loading the plane. My stomach was doing flips, this was it!- My first ever plane ride on my own, not to mention it was a charter; I could definitely get used to this. Alpine Skiing was called first since they were doing it in alphabetical order so I swung on my backpack and headed to the entrance. On the flight, I slept, played sudoko, slept, and then arrived. Im not saying i’m superstitious but skiing was cancelled on the first day since Purden mountain was in downpour, the date just so happened to be Friday 13. Would this be the conditions for the next week? Luckily it wasn’t and I think everyone was thankful for that! We did however have to then wait for the buses to be available again and that meant waiting for three hours on the hill. To keep warm we went into the day lodge. Once we got back to the hotel, we were soon bustled to the pep rally that was held for Team BC, there we were greeted by cowbells, flags and lots of noise! You could get blue face paint, Team BC tattoos and photos with a selection of props. The Hockey girls also taught us several cheers that was used constantly through out the week. But that wasn’t all the grand excitement for the day still to come were the opening ceremony… How do I begin to explain what the opening ceremony were like? They know how to put on a show! It was just so spectacular and amazing to walk out as an athlete where we were paraded around in the blinding lights with the home crowd. It was such a buzz and be there, I think thats when I really realized what Canada Games was and it was then that the excitement really built up in me. Two days of training were followed by the GS race, that was a whirlwind, and hurray for clear skies! I was fourth to go and once I had gone down the very rhythmical course, the scoreboard showed that I had the fastest time! The hardest part after that was definitely waiting for the rest of the racers to come down. The suspense was building up and fast, but I quickly had to tame it to focus on the second run, which in turn went very well. I loved the atmosphere at the top we were all having fun but we knew when to settle down and focus. We weren't just competitors, we were friends and it was great to get to know everyone a little better. After going all out on my second run and then seeing that my combined time was the fastest came with a lot of mixed feelings the biggest being joy, followed by relief, surprise and excitement. Next were the medal ceremonies, behind me on the podium where the medalists provinces Bronze (Ontario), Silver (Alberta) and Gold (BC). We all got cuttings of trees as well as the shiny new medals that had a very intricate pattern on either side. It was all quite surreal. The athletes lounge was definitely the place to be when you weren’t competing or watching other sports. It was the place where everyone chilled and I was in there more than our hotel room by far. The lounge sparked new friendships within the provinces and was a big spot for pin trading which is a whole other story. On our rest day we spent some time there as well as watching a few other sports. In the morning we watched a ringette game that was BC vs Sask, as my first ringette game I ever watched, it was very fast paced, Sask ended up winning 6-5. After lunch where we also got bombarded with pin trading offers, we headed back to our room where we then planned to have a 20 minute nap before meeting up with the teams sport phycologist. I woke up three hours later still with my hand on my book, I had ended up falling asleep reading… obviously I needed more rest than I knew! Later on we went and watched our third Wheelchair basketball game of the week (we ended up watching about six in total) where BC got slaughtered by Sask, it was a very intense game- a lot more than usual.
After a rest day (which we really needed) we were back to a 5am start, it was race day number two and this time it was Slalom. Purden was quite a bit icier than the first couple of days but luckily it was still a bluebird day and there was no trouble with the visibility. The Slalom that they set had quite a few spots to really look out for, I took the first run a bit cautiously than I had liked and it showed on the scoreboard, I was in second place. But I was going for double gold since I had already done it once, I was going for another. For my second run I left nothing at the start gate, I went all out, yes Slalom isn’t my strong suit nor my favourite out of all five disciplines but I got into my rhythm and just skied. After that run I was still in second but I was still immensely happy about my performance over the week. Thank You Prince George for hosting a highly enjoyable games and welcoming Canada! WE ARE…. BC!!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorBeing a ski racer, one of the many perks is that I get to travel all over, My name is Mel Pemble and this is my blog. Archives
April 2015
Categories |