March 25

It is good to be home again.  I already miss the atmosphere of the Paralympics, the Whistler Olympic Park, the wonderful people and the fantastic skiing in the Callaghan Valley.   It is quite something to be on well groomed trails with over a metre of base and then two hours later to be in Vancouver surrounded by green grass and the fragrance of blossoms.

All good things come to an end eventually, and being a feorrunner at the Paralympics has been the experience of a life time.   Ultimately the Olympics and Paralympics is about the athletes, but more importantly it is about what they represent.  In many respects an Olympian is no different than a  Paralympian;  both have dedicated a tremendous amount of effort, time and energy to reach the highest level of their sport, making many sacrifices along the way.  We can all learn from both the Olympians and Paralympians that with commitment, dedication and sacrifice we can achieve many things in life whether it be athletics or something else.   

Returning full circle to one of our earlier initiatives of this season, the introduction and promotion of Cross Country Canada’s Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model in all of our programs, or as I prefer to see it “Sport for Life, the Olympics and Paralympics provide a good lesson.  We may see the Training to Train, Learing to Compete,  Competing to Compete and Competing to Win stages of the LTAD as being the exclusive realm of the most gifted and talented athletes, but the Paralympics clearly have demonstrated that despite adversity and challenge we can all find ways to achieve goals that few might have thought were possible.  Somehow these athletes have found a way. and not allowed what might seem to some to be insurmountable barriers , from stopping them from reaching the highest level.  There is a lesson in this for all of us.

Congratulations to all the athletes that have dedicated their lives to reaching this level of competition.