Bragg Creek alpine racer Rebecca Pelkey is home from the 2023 Canada Winter Games after a whirlwind week in Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, where she earned silvers in the Slalom and Super G, along with a seventh-place finish in the Giant Slalom.
The Canada Winter Games ran from Feb. 18 to March 5, featuring 3,600 of Canada's top junior (U20) athletes across a variety of sports.
Held every four years, the Games are a multi-sport event that is akin to a national Olympic Games and seeks to replicate that atmosphere, with an opening and closing ceremonies.
The 15-year-old Bragg Creek alpine skier said she wasn’t intimidated by the ‘Olympic-like’ atmosphere at all. In fact, she said she was rather relaxed when she slid her ski tips up to the starting gate for her first event, the Super G.
Unlike other competitions that feature a number of qualifying runs, or best of multiple timed runs, this one was one-and-done.
Skiers only got one shot in the race, so ‘leaving it all out there’ can be a nerve-wracking mindset for less experienced competitors.
Not so for Pelkey.
“The atmosphere was way more calm than other races I’ve been to,” she said. “It’s way more organized, it was way less stressful for me, even though it’s a big competition.”
Her results would seem to bear that out, with two podium placements and another top-eight finish.
“It was just really fun,” she said.
The other aspect of going down the hill just once is that the skiers who race later – depending on snow conditions – may have to cope with ruts left by preceding racers. This wasn’t a problem for Pelkey in the Super G, as her name was drawn first.
“The snow was really icy, which I like, because it doesn’t get as rutty in the course, and I was the first skier to go, so I probably had the best snow conditions,” she said.
She also tried the ski cross event for the first time, but was eliminated in the second round. Ski cross is a downhill race event where four skiers compete simultaneously to reach the end of a course first. Competitors navigate sharp turns, big jumps, and narrowly avoid each other at high speeds in a race to the finish line. The jumps and drops on the course, combined with the nature of racing against three other skiers, result in an event that often sees skiers on the brink of a crash.
In spite of the fact it was a timed racing event, ski-cross is often considered a type of freestyle skiing.
Pelkey sounded like ski-cross may not be a big item on her training agenda going forward, but she enjoyed the experience nonetheless.
“It’s actually really fun, it’s just . . . I’m not the greatest at it,” she admitted.
“I don’t really like the fact you have to ski on a track with three other people, it’s kinda scary.”
In addition to her success on the slopes, Pelkey said she enjoyed the experience in the athletes’ village, where she met competitors in various sports from across the country, and exchanged pins.
It’s a lot of social interaction for someone who is an online student for most of the year – something most elite athletes have to do. Pelkey said she misses the social aspect of high school, but if she wants to compete at the level she does currently, there isn’t much choice.
On the horizon for Pelkey is a race at Nakiska, and then if she qualifies, a bigger event at Whistler, B.C. which will include international competitors.
Also on her upcoming schedule is a race called the Bozocup Kindercup at Mt. Norquay on April 8 and 9.
Further away on the horizon, Pelkey hopes to be going to an international ski training school in New Zealand this summer.
