THUNDER BAY – After a week of competition, Thunder Bay began saying goodbye to athletes in town for the Special Olympics Canada Winter Games on Sunday, after their conclusion the previous day.
Hundreds of athletes, coaches, and family streamed into the Thunder Bay airport Sunday morning, some proudly wearing medals around their necks, as they prepared to return home.
Local organizing committee chair Barry Streib said he had mixed feelings as he saw the athletes off. Local organizers and volunteers felt a tremendous amount of pride seeing the joy of the athletes and strong community support throughout nearly a week of events that ran quite smoothly, Streib said. But it was bittersweet to say goodbye for all involved, he said.
The games concluded with an athletes dance at the Valhalla Inn ballroom Saturday night that included an informal closing ceremony.
“After the ceremony we had to extinguish the cauldron, and it was a sad moment,” Streib described. “It was palpable – all of us that have been involved in organizing, and all the volunteers, had that little moment of, ‘aw, jeez, it’s over.’”
Streib says the nearly 1,000 athletes who participated had a great experience in Thunder Bay, and volunteers were receiving hugs and high fives Saturday as the event wrapped up.
That sentiment was echoed by departing athletes Sunday morning.
“My whole experience here in Thunder Bay has been really good,” said floor hockey player Robert Shedrick. “I had a blast – the people are friendly, the food is excellent, the accommodation [was] phenomenal.”
For Shedrick, who was attending his second national games for the Quebec team, the highlight of the week was probably getting to know his fellow competitors from across the country.
Another moment that stuck out was when he was honoured as a star of the final game, where Quebec picked up a silver medal in a hard-fought match against Ontario.
“I didn’t expect it,” he said. “It really touched me a lot – I had tears in my eyes.”
Five-pin bowler Erin Pippy, from Charlottetown, P.E.I., said her team trained hard in the months leading up to the games, as well as doing quite a bit of fundraising to cover the costs of the trip. But it was all worth it when they got to Thunder Bay, she says.
Pippy was honoured to serve as a flag-bearer for her province, but agrees the camaraderie between athletes is the best part about the event. She enjoyed meeting new people and reconnecting with some she’d seen in the past.
For Streib and his team, seeing hundreds of athletes go home with those kinds of positive memories means mission accomplished. He said witnessing the smiles on the athletes’ faces Saturday night makes for a memory of his own that will stick with him.
“That ballroom at the Valhalla was just packed,” he said. “I’ve never seen that many people there – and they were having a great time.”
