THUNDER BAY – Hundreds competed, thousands watched and the Ontario Winter Games were a success by just about every measure in the books.
For local athletes, there were medals in a plethora of competitions, including skiing, futsal, biathlon, wrestling, hockey and curling.
For visiting athletes, coaches and parents, there was plenty of hospitality and camaraderie and new friends made, as they cheered and rooted for the youngsters involved in the Games to succeed.
Win or lose, when all was said and done, the hard work and thousands of volunteer hours were worth every second, said Games chair Barry Streib, as competition wrapped up on Monday.
“As you have witnessed, and as you have experienced, these Games have went incredibly well and we’re so happy that our athletes, coaches, officials and all our guests have made comments to us to say thank you so much for all the support you’ve given us,” Streib said.
“That makes us feel good because I guess we did the right thing.”
This year’s event marked the first time in 50 years the Ontario Winter Games were held in Thunder Bay, and the organizing committee drew on that history, inviting former athletes who participated in the 1974 Games to take part in different ways this time around, including lighting the torch.
The success of local athletes was the icing on the cake, Streib said.
“It was very gratifying. It made us feel really good that our local athletes competed and won some medals. I’m very proud of them and I can only say that it’s an emotional experience to be able to see that, witness it and see the joy on their faces when they take a medal home,” he said.
The Games weren’t without hiccups.
Before they even began, a number of sports, including snowboarding and downhill skiing, pulled the plug, citing the cost to get to Thunder Bay and the lack of available flights to make that happen.
While disappointing, the action that did happen was amazing, said organizer Matthew Lawrence.
“We’re really excited that we had 13 sports participating,” he said. “I think we can handle large events again. What’s great about it is we had 13 sports, but we saw the community just rally behind those 13 sports. We look forward to hosting more events in the future.”
An unusually warm winter also didn’t help, but the lack of snow didn’t prove to be an issue, Lawrence added.
“The weather turned out great and we solved a lot of those lack of snow issues with community involvement. We saw lots of groups getting out to help us add snow to the trails where we were missing it,” Lawrence said. “So, in a lot of cases where the weather didn’t help us out, the community did.”
