Four Bow Valley Special Olympics athletes won a grand total of 11 medals at the B.C. Winter Games in Vernon on Feb. 21 to 24.
The foursome were a part of Team Alberta's cross country ski team, which had athletes from the Bow Valley, Calgary and Edmonton programs. The four Bow Valley athletes brought home an amazing six gold, three silver and two bronze and Team Alberta, which was made up of 10 athletes, brought home a total of 26 medals with 11 gold, eight silver and seven bronze.
"It was hugely successful for our team. I think all of our athletes were fairly happy with their performances ... we did well, especially with the situation of having our event that was suppose to be held in Calgary get cancelled as part of the Special Olympic Winter Games in Alberta due to lack of snow," said Team Alberta cross country head coach Shawn Jesse.
"Of course B.C. was gracious enough to let us train with them and we did well, even in the context of having all the B.C. and Yukon athletes participating as well."
Jesse said the move to Vernon caused a few challenges, but not anything related to the team's performance.
"We had a few challenges but they were more logistical in the sense that we were prepared to compete in Calgary and timing was a factor," Jesse said. "But to have the opportunity for a lot of our athletes to ski at such a premier area like Sovereign Lake (Nordic Club) where we had great conditions to ski on there and turned out to be much better conditions than what we would have had in Calgary."
Brock Jesse and Elouise Stewart from Cochrane represented the town well, bringing home a total of six medals. Jesse won gold in 7.5K freestyle, silver in 5K freestyle and bronze while Stewart won three gold's in 5K freestyle, 7.5K classic and 10K classic. Shane Stewart from Canmore won gold in 7.5K classic, silver in 5K classic and Bronze in 10K classic while Calgarian Colin Hale won gold at the 500m classic and silver in the 2.5K classic to round out the Bow Valley group.
Jesse said Brock and Elouise have put in a ton of work in order to come back with medals from the Games and it showed in the results.
"Elouise has been with the Special Olympics program and competing at a high level for a very long time and showing she's still got the passion to compete. She did very well and in my opinion was very strong in the majority of her races ... she's still a high-achieving Special Olympics athlete and is still enjoying the sport," Jesse said of Stewart.
"Brock is more of an up and comer ... this is only his second cycle of Special Olympics. He had a good Games and he would have liked his times to be a bit faster, but he medalled in spite of that. Overall. it was a great Games for both Cochrane athletes."
Jesse said Brock and Elouise are both on the upper end of competitiveness in the Special Olympics circuit due to the fact they are the type of athletes who train all year round. During the summer that training includes trail running.
"They spend a lot of time at the Canmore Nordic Centre in the winter, we're out there every Saturday plus training days during the week and there's supplemental training with weights and cardio," he said.
Due to his good work with Team Alberta, Jesse has also been named head coach for Team Alberta cross country ski team that will be going to the Special Olympics National Winter Games in Thunder Bay, Ontario in 2020.
"It actually looks really good with our athletes. Quotas come down from Special Olympics Canada so we think and are hoping that there will be a place for most of our athletes on that team," Jesse said.
"For me, it was a great opportunity to get a chance to coach some of the athletes that have been working year round and even more athletes from across the province ... it's a great opportunity for me."
