The cross-country ski venue for the Special Olympics Canada Winter Games will remain in Strathcona County despite the big dump of snow over the weekend.
An unseasonably warm winter and a lack of snow forced the organizers of the Games to make the switch from St. Albert’s Kingswood Park to the Strathcona Wilderness Centre, located 65 kilometres 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 from the trees and had retained more snow.
Dan MacLennan, chair of the Games organizing committee, told the Gazette Monday the set-up and grooming of the course was already underway and it would be too difficult to reverse the decision that was made last Tuesday.
“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 will test out the Strathcona facility. Alberta is represented by 11 skiers at the Games.
The race schedule was also condensed into three days of competition, starting Wednesday morning and ending 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 1K, 2.5K, 5K, 7.5K, 10K, 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.
The seventh annual winter festival for athletes with an intellectual disability officially gets underway with Tuesday’s opening ceremonies at 7 p.m. at Performance Arena.
The closing ceremonies are Saturday at 5 p.m., also at Performance Arena.
The Games will bring together 651 athletes in seven sports. Alberta is sending the third largest team, consisting of 78 athletes, 23 coaches and 11 support staff.
Visit www.stalbert2012.ca for event times and medal presentations.
