Dedication and plenty of hard work paid off in a big way for Cory Duhaime at the recent Special Olympics Canada Winter Games in Thunder Bay, Ont.
The alpine skier from Tsawwassen captured three gold medals — winning the M2 Advanced Giant Slalom, Advanced Slalom and Advanced Super G events. The performance puts Duhaime in consideration to represent Canada at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Sweden next February.
Duhaime’s passion for skiing was initiated on a trip to Cypress Mountain when he was attending Beach Grove Elementary School. He showed a natural flair for speed and joined the Special Olympics shortly after.
Four years later he finished first in a trio of Novice level races at a regional qualifier. It was then off to the BC Special Olympics Winter Games a year later where he progressed to the top Advanced level and capture a trio of bronze medals.
The performance provided Duhaime with the motivation to establish higher goals — including being the best in his province and ultimately representing his country at the World Games. His parents Michael and Jenni went beyond being his biggest fans. Michael took up the sport to eventually provide a supporting role in training.
In addition to his weekly skiing program with Special Olympics at Cypress, Duhaime joined the twice-weekly race program with Vancouver Adaptive Snow Sports at Grouse Mountain. There were also different training opportunities at Whistler, Sun Peaks, Silver Star and trips to Oregon and Colorado. It all added up to three gold medals at the 2011 BC Games.
That qualified him for his first nationals in Jasper in 2012, where he won three bronze medals in the Advanced Division. At the 2016 National Games in Newfoundland it was three silvers — setting the stage for his golden performance in Thunder Bay.
Leading up to his trip back east, he trained 12 days in Banff with a new race program through Rocky Mountain Adaptive, as well as attending BC Adaptive’s four-day race camp at Sun Peaks. That was in addition to his regular BC Special Olympic sessions at Cypress.
Duhaime has also taken his athletic ability to participate in Special Olympics basketball, softball and soccer programs.
When he is not busy on the slopes, he is working full-time at Save On Foods in Tsawwassen.
