The cross-country ski venue for the Special Olympics Canada Winter Games will remain in Strathcona County despite last weekend’s big dump of snow.
An unseasonably warm winter and a lack of snow forced the organizers of the Games to make the switch last Tuesday from St. Albert’s Kingswood Park to the Strathcona Wilderness Centre, located 40 miles east of Edmonton near Elk Island National Park.
The Strathcona trails were in better shape than the Kingswood Park trails through Riverlot 56 because they were sheltered by the trees and had retained more snow.
Dan MacLennan, chair of the Games Organizing Committee, told the Gazette on Monday the set up and grooming of the Strathcona course was already underway and it would be too difficult to reverse last week’s decision.
“Everything was too far along for us to have been able to do that,” MacLennan said.
On Tuesday, 87 skiers from 10 provinces and the Yukon tested out the Strathcona facility. Alberta is represented by 11 skiers at the Games.
The race schedule was also condensed into three days of competition. It started this morning and ends with the last of the medal presentations at 11 a.m. Friday.
Fifteen events, ranging in distance from 100 metres to 10 kilometres in classic and free technique, plus relays, were also reduced to seven events after the venue change. Skiers will now race for medals in the one km, 2.5 km, 5 km, 7.5 km, 10 km, 100m and 500m events.
The new venue also forced organizers to tinker with the Games’ budget of 1.55 million. Transportation had to be arranged for the volunteers to get to the Strathcona site and the bus route from the athletes’ village at the Mayfield Inn & Suites and the Ramada Conference Centre also had to be revamped for the skiers.
St. Albert is the host city for the seventh annual winter festival for athletes with an intellectual disability. The last winter Games were in Quebec City in 2008.
The Games will showcase 651 athletes in seven sports. Alberta is sending the third largest team, consisting of 78 athletes, 23 coaches and 11 support staff.
The slogan of the Games – Just as Bold. Here for Gold – conveys the fact the attitudes and goals of Special Olympic athletes are the same as those of Olympic athletes.
Several gold medallists at the Games will represent Canada at the 2013 worlds in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
More than 750 volunteers will help make the Games a success.
“It’s going to be nothing but fun and work from this point on,” MacLennan said.
The closing ceremonies are Saturday at 5 p.m. at Performance Arena.
Visit www.stalbert2012.ca for the sports schedules and medal presentation times.
