Keeping up with our friend Drew at the Nanaimo PacificSport, we were invited to the announcement of the PacificSport Sport Achievement Awards, to be awarded February 6th at the Coast Bastion Inn. This function was held at the Coast Bastion Inn and was a nice wine & cheese mixer for everyone. Both Leila and I mingled with prominent business figures, the manager of the Coast Bastion Inn, members of the PacificSport board, and the press.

I am slowly being introduced to the fact that Leila is semi-famous around these parts! I mean she's even under notable Indo-Canadian athletes in Wikipedia!

One of the attendees and member of the PacificSport board is a fellow local Olympian Susan Schellinck (Reid) who was coincidentally in the sport of field hockey, like Leila's father was- his name was Harinder Rai, but he was known as Pundit Rai. I am always pleased when Leila has a fellow Olympian to share experiences with, and doubly so when they share a connection with Leila's dad through sport. It was nice that she was able to share the experience of having an award given out in his name this last month at the India-Canada field hockey game. Her mom and nieces (both fo whom play field hockey also) were able to attend and present the award.

Since we are pleased to offer our services at no cost to these upcoming athletes in conjuction with PacificSport, it was nice to meet some of them, as well witness the work of the community which is forming around them to help out. Trevor Nagy and Andrea Lee were both there and spoke briefly about their involvement with PacificSport, both very grateful and humble.

We enjoyed in particular our talk with Andrea Lee, an upcoming cross-country skier, and we hope she will take some inspiration from us regarding what we discussed. She has apparently been skiing since age 3! She was so nice and very concerned with the younger athletes- like she used to be- in her ski club as well as working on her own training.

Also involved with PacificSport is Yvonne Visser- former 1992 Olympian in the Biathlon turned Olympic-level masseuse. She was a 2010 Olympic Torch Relay participant, and she lent her torch to PacificSport for the evening. We all enjoyed taking photos with the torch, and Leila expressed to me that she regretted being 'invisible' during the time when she may have been able to participate in the Olympic Torch Relay in this area. We DID find out (thanks Susan!) they had positions available, but far away in Alberta and travel must be paid by the Olympians themselves.

I even got to hold the torch this time!

All in all, a wonderful time for us, and we both look forward to working with some of the local athletes who are working their way up through the ranks of elite sport. We hope to provide them with a way to recover better, gain some balance physically and mentally, and educate them about the aspects of training, recovery and sportsmanship that aren't always available to elite athletes.

Thanks,
Regis

Tags: sports, yoga, Asanas, Community, youth, Athlete development