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

In previous posts, I talked about how much fun we had in watching the movement of the Olympic Torch arrive in Canada.

Well, I showed you some photos eariler of the painting Fritz was making onstage. Leila and I went to the local branch of RBC yesterday and what do we see?



Nice to see it finished!

Regis

Tags: torch relay

On the second day of the Olympic Torch's time in Canada, we were again set to attend the event in Nanaimo, which turned out to be larger than either of us expected. A last minute call by Leila to PacificSport got us "Performer" passes into the event, and we hung out at the PacificSport booth for a while talking to Drew and Brenda there.

A student, Derrian Sport, from Nanaimo District Secondary School (the high school where Leila teaches) got to carry the torch, and was a rock star for a day, as everyone wanted photos with her! Check out the still remaining smoke burns on the torch. Sadly, each runner had to pay $400 for the privilege of carrying the torch home.


Sorry folks, my iPhone takes terrible pictures at night! That's Drew and Derrian.

Leila and Derrian.

And Derrian on her own.

PacificSport is a pretty cool organization in Olympic terms, as it's tasked with providing resources to upcoming athletes to insure future medal success. More resources= more medals. This has been proven in other countries with great success in my former sport of cycling. Of course, with more funding, one could wish for more, like in the case of the former Australian track team, and witness what great success has come from funding sport through the lottery of Britain.

I like that this is an organization that's oriented toward providing whatever assistance people are willing to give to the athletes, and not simply writing checks! It's a lot more valuable to do it this way instead, in my view, and more comprehensive. I know that if/when I have the chance to work with upcoming athletes through PacificSport, my need for contribution will be quite met from a community standpoint, and I am sure others who contribute will see it similarly. I encourage everyone to participate in this sort of action. People are sorely needed for Olympians to become so, years before the torch runs by and then again years after the medals are handed out and only memories remain.

We were dressed in some of Leila's former 1984 Olympic and '1988 Calgary Olympic Torch Run' regalia. Notice Drew in the background smiling away!

I thought that my 'Performer' tag was perfect, as I was playing the part of someone who had earned those outfits! All I could do was point to Leila when asked about it!

We watched some bands perform, some local child dancers dance,

an artist make some artwork later to be given to the City of Nanaimo:


and Leila signed autographs and we played a little ball with the NIU Volleyball team next to us.

We listened to the Premier, Gordon Campbell, talk about the arrival of the torch, and got to meet him afterwards:

Pamela Leila Rai and Premeir Gordon Campbell:

Sorry again for the iPhone photos!

An old friend of Leila's from swimming times, Stephanie Howes, had a good friend named Lara Dauphinee, who Leila also knew from years back. She's apparently now the Executive Assistant to the Premier himself! What a surprise!
Naturally, we got a photo with my terrible iPhone camera. A long while in Photoshop later (as with all these iPhone photos), here we have them together:

After much schmoozing and catching up, we headed back to try to catch the Olympic Torch Relay arrival.

Local Nanaimo Paralympic hero Michelle (Mikey) Stilwell was carrying it into the stage:




You'll notice the kid standing with his grandfather on the stage, rightmost. The poor kid looked uncomfortable up there, and everyone in the crowd around us started to cheer for him. I think his name was Heinrich I think. We even started talking of him running for office soon! Go Heinrich! He presented an award to the Mayor of Nanaimo with his grandfather.

We met Michelle (Mikey) Stilwell after and got this photo:

Two Olympic medalists from Nanaimo!

Afterwards, there was much glee at the fireworks:

And we went home. Truly a once in a lifetime event!

Tags: Olympic Torch Relay

Leila was kind enough to take me along with her on a couple of swimming/Olympic related events this weekend. I will post Day One and Day Two on separate posts. We managed to catch both local Olympic Torch Relay events, both in Victoria and in Nanaimo, and attended a University of Victoria Olympians reception.



I got the chance to finally meet 3-time Olympian Ron Jacks and his wife Patty Ann, of whom I have heard so many stories.

Ron was Leila's primary coach for many years.

Here is a link to the top two coaches she had in her swimming life, where they are currently coaching. We could only leave a note at Peter Visolyi's office, as he was at another swim meet.

Ron Jacks, Jon Kelly (whose brother Wayne was also an Olympian but didn't attend) & Pamela Leila Rai.

We met many ex-Olympians (mostly swimmers & rowers):


and quite famous Canadian athletes, even some that Leila herself had idolized as a child, like Mary Stewart, below- and one ex-Olympian rower-turned-poltician that was instrumental in bringing the Olympics to Vancouver for 2010- Dean Crawford. (see above)



After the reception, we all went out to see the torch run by,


as it had just that day arrived in Canada from Greece.

With many helicopters overhead, it arrived:


What was funny (to us) was that so few of the first day Torch Relay attendees on the UVic campus knew that a whole raft of former Olympic medalists were standing all around them, including Buffy Williams with her kids,

Mary Stewart,

and of course, Leila herself.


We then went to visit the pool she spent a lot of time in, and, we were told, had a banner of Leila hung up, like a retirement jersey in a stadium.
On the way, we met another gentleman who had run the torch, like Leila, before the 1988 Calgary Games:



The pool was very interesting, and we met quite a lot of people and got some great photos.

When we entered the building, directly on the left is the University of Victoria Hall of Fame:

NOTE: I have to say it was pretty cool to have just met many of these people at the previous reception!

In The Pool

Note the banners behind Leila above.


Leila's friend Marie is also there!

Mark, an old acquaintance of Leila's, and Megan (who had just completed running with the torch herself!) greeted Leila with their group of kids:

Megan's copy of her Olympic torch!

Mark telling the kids that Leila swam in this very pool!

Leila' answers their questions

Then signs autographs:

Amusingly, Leila related a story to me later about how a famous swimmer (Leslie Cliff) had come into their pool when she was about the age of this girl and that she'd gotten her autograph in much the same way.
The young girl's name is Heather McMillan, and also surprisingly Leila had swam with her father years before, and he was there with his daughter on this very day. His name was Ian McMillan, now a dentist, one of three swimming brothers that swam for UBC. Apprently, families that swim together stay together, as his wife was at the OTHER UVic pool with his other daughters!


Later, we drove to see the Parliament Buildings, but that trip was interrupted by the protesters.

The next day, we were in Nanaimo.

Tags: swimming, sports, olympics, Athletics