Inspired by the success of Canada’s Own the Podium program, and with the opportunity on the horizon to build toward and beyond the 2014 Special Olympics Canada Summer Games, Special Olympics BC has developed a 10-year plan designed to give athletes and coaches a richer experience in a high-performance sport environment, growing together with more tools and techniques to help them be at their best.

Working with world-class sport experts Cathy Priestner Allinger and the Allinger Consulting International team, SOBC has created a vision in which athletes and coaches will have access to a high-performance program that provides sport science and sport medicine expertise in a way never before thought possible within the world of Special Olympics in Canada.

To date, SOBC has made significant progress in ensuring all SOBC athletes can participate and develop through sport. The next step is furthering the development of an enriched high-performance sport environment for athletes who show a sincere desire to compete and a passion to achieve all they can. Importantly, it’s also very much about providing coaches access to the same environment and tools and supporting them in bringing the lessons home to their local athletes and programs for the betterment of all.

Now is the ideal time to implement this vision because of the opportunities we have with the Special Olympics Canada Games set to be hosted in our province for the first time in 20 years, and the remarkable support that Cathy Priestner Allinger and her team are willing to provide. Cathy is a member of the SOBC Board of Directors and Chair of the 2014 Special Olympics Canada Summer Games Organizing Committee. She is also a noted figure in the Olympic and international sport consultancy scene, having worked in key roles with the Organizing Committees for the 2010, 2006, and 2002 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and gained renown for co-authoring (with husband Todd) the Own the Podium program that bore such fruitful results for Canadian athletes at the 2010 Games, including 26 Olympic medals. Currently, Cathy, Todd and their Allinger Consulting team are working with the Russian Olympic Committee to step up their programs and prepare their athletes for the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi.

Meanwhile, they are also choosing to make time to support SOBC athletes and coaches through this exciting new high-performance program.

The program and the vision will be embodied through a number of new initiatives and opportunities for athletes and coaches alike, building their capacity and ours so high-performance techniques and resources can eventually be available around the province.

The debut initiative was a high-performance aquatics development camp held December 1 and 2 at the UBC Aquatics Centre. Twenty-three swimmers from SOBC programs around the province selected based on their times in Regional Qualifiers, were invited to join 13 SOBC coaches from throughout B.C. and the Allinger Consulting experts for an intensive camp focused on swimming skill development, nutrition, and key fitness and stretching techniques.

“We want you to be the best athletes you can be, and we can help you with that and your coaches can help you with that,” Cathy told the athletes in their Sunday nutrition session, adding, “It’s super important that you’re all really committed to getting better.”

SOBC – Kamloops athlete Dallas Gilchrist demonstrated that spirit as he returned home saying he was so excited to get back into the pool to employ and share the new techniques he learned. Like all of the athletes, he was tired after the long hours in the pool and dryland training throughout the camp – but he was still very keen. Dallas said afterwards that he couldn’t wait to work on the new dive and turn techniques he had learned and wanted to share them with his fellow athletes.

Other high-performance initiatives that have launched recently or start soon include:

• SOBC plans to stage a similar athletics camp in January as well as a repeat aquatics camp in spring in order to revisit the December instruction and measure the improvements;
• The SOBC – Langley basketball team has begun training with the Trinity Western University basketball team once a week to further their skills and expand the resources available to them, and the plan is to expand this to both Surrey and Vancouver A-level teams in January;
• SOBC plans to have high-performance training sessions at the SOBC – Campbell River snowshoeing event and at the new Snow Sports Festival in West Kelowna for both coaches and athletes; and
• SOBC will work with speed skating coaches and athletes this winter.

Through this high-performance project, SOBC is aiming not just to train the athletes, but more so to train the coaches who will be equipped to carry these teachings back into their programs to assist hundreds of athletes, beyond those who directly participate in the high-performance events.

With this high-performance project, SOBC athletes will come to see themselves as high-performance athletes do: as elite athletes dedicated to and capable of achieving greatness through their diligent training and top-quality techniques. And everyone will cheer them on!