Special Olympics BC held a virtual snowshoe race due to COVID and the winners were announced on Mar. 31 in a virtual ceremony.

Special Olympics BC usually provides competition opportunities for local athletes developmental disabilities, every year. Last year, the Special Olympics Snowshoe competition was held in 亚洲天堂 Lake at the Omineca Ski Club on Feb. 1 however, after that event, everything was shut down or modified due to COVID.

鈥淚t is important to provide competition opportunities within each sport for all our athletes, whether that is locally, regionally (亚洲天堂 Lake to Prince Rupert) or on a provincial level. Due to COVID, we needed to be creative to provide that,鈥� said Tina Giesbrecht, the coach with the Special Olympics BC 亚洲天堂 Lake group.

鈥淲hat we did was approach Special Olympics BC about doing a virtual race for our snowshoers. This was open to all the provincial locals running snowshoe programs,鈥� she said.

Snowshoers, not just from 亚洲天堂 Lake, but from Vernon, Quesnel, Prince George, and Smithers, participated by having their athletes complete races in their own town and submit the athlete鈥檚 times to Special Olympics BC.

鈥淭his was difficult for our athletes as they didn鈥檛 have that race excitement they get from competing against other athletes and they did not have spectators to cheer them on. But in true Special Olympics style, the race went on, the athletes had fun, they tried their best and there was a positive culmination to their hard work and practices,鈥� said Giesbrecht.

The two athletes who participated from 亚洲天堂 Lake, Danny Tress and Josh Waters, did their races over two weeks. Some of those races were at the Lakes District Secondary School high school field and some out at the Omineca Ski club. Both, Waters and Tress earned ribbons in the 50m, 100m, 200m, and 400m events (first, second or third).

Earlier in February, the Special Olympics BC 亚洲天堂 Lake group had started practicing for the season. Tress and Waters were both seen doing some hill running, quick starts, sprints and running through the finish line. They also got to try other equipment with volunteer Chris Paulson.

Normally each local group has many more participants but due to COVID restrictions each group was allowed only two or three participants. This year, a total of 12 athletes from the five local groups had participated in the virtual snowshoe race.

Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist

priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net

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