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Sliding sports are taking centre stage as the summer comes to a close. Whistler kids are clamoring to get onto the ice after a series of luge camps held in June, July and August, and beginning next weekend, a set of bobsleigh and skeleton camps will recruit athletes older than 16 for the provincial competitive program.
The goal is to build up a program that will be able to make use of the swanky new Whistler Sliding Centre well beyond the 2010 Games, according to Nicole Simon, a former national team athlete and coach who now wears three hats to promote interest in the sliding sports around the new facility.
Simon is program coordinator for the Canadian Luge Association and the B.C. Luge Association, as well as the technical director for the B.C. Bobsled and Skeleton Association, and she wants to get bums in sleds.
“Up until the Games, I want to get every kid in the Sea to Sky corridor on a sled. That’s my goal,” Simon said. To that end, she’s working to develop programs with the West Vancouver and Howe Sound district school boards, and running numerous recruitment camps.
The summer luge camps targeted kids ages 10 to 14, giving them a taste of the fast-moving sport through sessions off the Olympic track. Simon introduced aspiring sliders in Whistler, Pemberton and Squamish to the nuances of the sport, starting with the equipment uniquely designed for shaving thousandths of a second off times and ending with the students hurtling down hills on wheeled luge sleds.
“Once they get going, they love it,” Simon said, though she admitted that “the first run’s always scary.”
The Whistler camps attracted 14 kids in June, 10 in July and 15 to a session scheduled for last Sunday (Aug. 24) that was moved to today (Aug. 28) at 2 p.m. because of rain. Simon said she was pleased with the popularity of the Whistler camps, and a few young Pembertonians have taken the plunge as well. However, one session scheduled for Squamish had to be cancelled because of low attendance.
But Simon said the participation in all the camps has been enthusiastic, and she was happy enough with the numbers considering there was no budget for advertising. She said the participants in similar camps last summer were so keen that word of mouth has spread quickly.
B.C. Luge is trying to build a domestic program here, Simon said, and it’s hoped that at least some of those young athletes will stick with the sport to make good use of the beautiful, expensive new facility in their own backyard by participating in races and development camps.
The kids “love the speed and that the sport is so unique,” Simon said. Parents of the young athletes in this summer’s sessions have already been emailing her to ask when the kids can get on the ice, she added, so she’s hoping to schedule an on-ice training day for the summer camp participants in November or December.
But first, Simon is turning her attention to those other sliding sports: she’ll be leading bobsleigh and skeleton camps in Whistler, Pemberton and Squamish next weekend. These sessions are designed to draw athletes over the age of 16 to the sports and assess their potential fitness for the competitive program.
The goal of the camps is simply “to get people who are seriously interested in the sports to get into (them),” Simon said.
The sessions are free of charge, and no athletic experience is required, though “powerful people” are particularly appealing for entry into the program, Simon said.
Participants will be tested through exercises such as timed sprints of 30 and 60 metres, leg hops, a 20-metre sled pull and vertical jumps. To register or ask for more information, write to Simon at nsimon@luge.ca.
The Whistler camp is planned on Saturday, Sept. 6, at 9 a.m. at Meadow Park Sports Centre; the Pemberton session will run Sunday, Sept. 7, at 9 a.m. at Signal Hill Elementary School; the Squamish camp will take place Friday, Sept. 5, at 3 p.m. at Brennan Park Recreation Centre.
Those who find the sliding sports appealing but can’t really picture themselves hurtling down the tracks can also get involved behind the scenes. The B.C. Luge Association is looking to fill multiple executive positions, including the presidency, and nominations are now open. Nominations can be submitted in writing to the sliding centre at 4910 Glacier Lane or made from the floor at the annual general meeting.
The meeting will be held Saturday, Sept. 13, at the sliding centre’s men’s start house from 1 to 3 p.m.
