The Special Olympics Canada Winter Games has been kind to athletes from Yellowknife in the past. Just ask Cynthia Simmons.
This time, Josh Boudreau got the chance to experience what it's like to represent the NWT at the big show and he did it in some style.
Boudreau is back home, the proud new owner of two gold medals and a silver he won in speedskating over the course of the 2020 edition of the event in Thunder Bay, Ont., last week. His gold triumphs came in the 777-metre and 1,000-metre races in the men's 16-21 age category while the silver came in the 333-metre race. He nearly made it a medal sweep of all his races but finished fourth in the 500-metre.
photo courtesy of Special Olympics Canada
Boudreau said he even surprised himself with how well he did.
“I didn't think I would win three medals,” he said during a stopover in Toronto on Sunday. “The hardest one was the 1,000-metre because me and a skater from B.C. were close together but I passed him near the end.”
Boudreau travelled to Thunder Bay with his coach, Jeanne Yurris, who said her young skater surpassed even her expectations.
“Every competition is all about getting personal bests,” she said. “We get to leave a couple of times per year for competitions and we get to see some different situations and Josh adapted really well to this one.”
There is no shortage of practice time for Boudreau as he gets to skate with the Special Olympics NWT crew but he's also a full member of the Yk Speed Skating Club's competitive group. That means he's on the ice four times a week working on various distances.
Yurris said Boudreau fares better in the longer-distance races, as evidenced by his two golds in the two longer races.
“He has great endurance,” she said. “We did a bit of prep work before coming and he has lots of experience with racing so he knows how to plan and get ready. He'll bounce ideas off of me, I'll give it the green light and he just goes out and executes it. He's really good at thinking on his feet and he's quick to recognize a situation.”
Being that he was the only athlete from the NWT to make the trip, that meant Boudreau got the chance to march into the opening ceremony on Feb. 25 carrying the NWT flag.
“I was proud to represent my territory,” he said. “I was a one-man team and marching in was great.”
There was also the chance to trade pins, something Boudreau said he really enjoyed, and he brought home some other souvenirs.
“The coach from Saskatchewan gave me a hat and I got a shirt from one of the people from Nova Scotia,” he said.
Yurris said having Boudreau be independent at the Games was one of the goals for him.
“It's about making those connections with other athletes and other people,” she said. “He met the athletes from Saskatchewan and Alberta and they all ended up hanging out with each other and did a bit of training together.”
A performance like this normally gets an athlete an invite to the Special Olympics World Winter Games and that's scheduled to happen in 2021. Where it happens is still up in the air right now as Sweden, the original host country, backed out due to a lack of money.
Yurris said it's now a matter of the waiting game.
“Special Olympics International is trying to find a new location and there's an announcement coming sometime this month,” she said. “It's on our minds because the athletes always want to go and do their best so we're just waiting to see what happens.”
Boudreau, though, is happy to be home and he plans on blinging out when he returns to training.
“I'm showing everyone at practice my medals,” he said.