Susan Inglis, snowshoeing coach with Special Olympics Lunenburg/Queens, will be heading to Italy this week with these athletes for the 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Turin: Rebecca Delaney, Jillian Young, Chloe Stoddart and Nick Skoreyko. (Rick Conrad photo)

Queens County athletes are once again getting ready to represent Canada on the world stage.

Snowshoers Rebecca Delaney and Jillian Young of Liverpool will be among 91 athletes from across the country going to the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Turin, Italy, from March 8 to 15.

Bridgewater’s Nick Skoreyko will also be competing for a snowshoeing medal. And Chloe Stoddart from Bridgewater will represent Canada in cross-country skiing.

Delaney’s mother Susan Inglis, the snowshoeing coach for Special Olympics Lunenburg/Queens, will be one of the 24 Team Canada coaches going to Italy.

It will be the first world games for all of them.

More than 50 people showed up at an event at Memories Cafe and Eatery in Liverpool on Saturday to wish them well.

Inglis says going to Italy is a significant accomplishment for the athletes and for the coaches.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to get to represent their country,” she said. “And to get to go to Italy, for some of them, like Jillian, … this is her first time going out of the country. And they’re going to get to meet people from all other countries and perform on the world stage and see how they stack up.”

Inglis says she is honoured to have been chosen as one of the coaches for Team Canada.

“It is humbling for sure. As it gets closer, it really hits home that I’m representing my whole county in going to Special Olympics World Games.”

Rebecca Delaney is a multiple medal winner at Special Olympics Canada Games. She’ll be running in the 100 and 200-metre snowshoe event as well as the 4 x 100 relay.

She says she’s looking forward to doing her best in Italy.

“I’m nervous and excited and I’m ready to go. I’ve been training and going to the gym a lot and it’s been non-stop. I think I’ll do good, but if I don’t win, I will do my best.”

Jillian Young has also won medals at national games. When she went to last year’s winter games in Calgary, it was her first time on a plane.

She says she’s pumped to be airborne again and to compete in Italy.

“I’m really proud of getting this far. And we’re going to make Canada rock. Go Canada go!”

Young says she hopes to win a gold medal and to “kick some butt!”

Betty Ann Daury of Liverpool has coached snowshoe and track with Special Olympics Lunenburg/Queens for 43 years.

She was a coach with Team Canada in Nagano, Japan, in 2005. She’ll be cheering on the team from home this time. She says they’re in good hands with Inglis as coach.

Daury said going to a world games is a fitting reward for the athletes, who have committed to regular practices, workouts and hard work to get there. 

“They’ve accepted the fact that if you want to go, if you don’t work hard, then you don’t go. … If you can’t do it here, then you can’t do it there. And you know, we’re so proud of these guys.

“Jillian is an example of how great you can become. She’s come a long way.”

Ben Hatt was among the people at the event at Memories on Saturday to show their support. He grew up with Rebecca and her sister Kate.

“I am really excited to see how she does in Italy. I know she’s gonna win and if she doesn’t win, she’s going to be brave in the attempt. I just think it’s really important to show support for people you love.”

Inglis says the team will be leaving Monday for Toronto for two days to meet with some dignitaries in an official sendoff, including a celebratory Italian dinner. Then they fly to Italy to get ready for the week of competition in Sestriere.

“It is a pretty big deal. From little old Liverpool, we’ve got Sarah Mitton who’s a pretty amazing Olympic athlete and then we’ve got our Special Olympians who are going to representing Queens County on the world stage. And I hope that everybody tunes in.”

Snowshoeing gets underway at the games on March 11. For more information, you can follow the Special Olympics Lunenburg/Queens Facebook page. 

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Earl Mielke, a coach with Special Olympics Lunenburg/Queens, and his stepdaughter Rebecca Delaney recently returned from the national winter games in Calgary, where Delaney won a gold and a bronze medal. (Rick Conrad photo)

It may have been so cold that the first day had to be rescheduled, but for Liverpool athlete Rebecca Delaney, competing in her first national winter games was an experience she won’t forget.

Delaney, 27, won gold in the 100-metre snowshoe event at the Special Olympics Canada Winter Games in Calgary. She also won bronze in the 4 x 100 snowshoe relay. 

“It was very cold but I still did it,” she said in a recent interview. 

“It was amazing. Let’s just say when I got to the end, I cried.”

Delaney was one of four Queens County athletes competing at the games, which were held Feb. 27 to March 2. Jillian Young was on Delaney’s relay team that snagged the bronze. Young also won silver in the 100-metre event. Michael Moreau won silver in the 4 x 100 men’s relay, and Ben Theriau captured silver as a member of the curling team.

The athletes from Special Olympics Lunenburg/Queens were part of Team Nova Scotia’s 45-athlete contingent which won 30 medals overall in Calgary.

Delaney has racked up medals in national summer games and provincial competitions before. But it was her first time kicking up the snow at a national event.

Her time was so good in the 100-metre event that she was bumped up to another division in the 200-metre race, where she competed with the fastest snowshoers in Canada. She finished fifth in that race.

“That was fast. I went like a rock star.”

Team Nova Scotia was supposed to go for a visit to Banff National Park after the events were over. But the weather grounded their bus. So, instead, they took in an AHL game.

While Delaney is proud of how she did on the snowshoe track, she says the game and the closing dance were highlights. She says going to Calgary was about more than winning. 

“I met new friends and I had fun and that’s all that matters.”

Delaney’s mother Susan Inglis is the snowshoe team’s assistant coach and Inglis’s partner Earl Mielke is the head coach.

Betty Ann Daury is the other snowshoe coach, who put the Queens athletes through their paces as much as three days a week leading up the games.

Mielke says they held practices at Queens Place Emera Centre and Privateer Park on the Liverpool waterfront.

“There were days when it was colder in the park than it was at nationals. And the wind coming across down the Mersey River, I wanted to get in the truck, I wanted to go hide. But they kept going and Betty Ann pushed them. And that really got them ready for Games.”

Delaney is already looking forward to her next competition. That will be the provincial games in Wolfville this summer, where she’ll be running in the 100-, 200- and 400-metre races, and competing in the standing long jump and the shot put.

Mielke says they’ll start training in April.

“We have a number of other athletes who won’t go to provincials but enjoy the social part and the athletic part. … And they’re already asking now, when can we start. Probably April we’ll get back out and start training for the (summer) events.”

In the meantime, Delaney is doing her part as an ambassador for Special Olympics to get more people involved.

“We need more athletes. We just need more athletes, so please bring more athletes out to Special Olympics.”

And Mielke says they also need coaches. If you’re interested in joining Special Olympics Lunenburg/Queens, you can reach out to them through their Facebook page. 

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Inaugural Olympic Wall inductees. Photo Ed Halverson

Seven of Queens most prominent sports figures were honoured Tuesday.

An Olympic Wall was unveiled at Queens Place to recognize residents who have represented Canada at the highest level of amateur sport.

The seven inaugural inductees included two coaches Betty Ann Daury and Owen Hamlin, and five athletes: Jamie Belong, Jenna Martin, Sarah Mitton, Alexander Shankel, and Ben Theriau.

Jenna Martin, a 400-meter sprinter at the 2012 Olympic games who now lives with her husband and children in Washington state, reflected on coming back to her roots.

“There’s nothing like being from a small town because they love you through thick and thin,” said Martin. “They’re with you, every time they see you it’s a celebration. It brings the community together. So, it’s really, really special and it gave me the opportunity to come home and visit my family.”

Martin says coming from a small community doesn’t have to be barrier to reaching your goals.

Shot putter, Sarah Mitton, who competed in her first Olympics in Tokyo Japan in 2020 agrees with Martin.

She says it’s consistently putting in the hard work that can lift someone from their local field to the world’s biggest stage.

“I actually got to throw at the Brooklyn Park again yesterday. There’s no circle, there’s no toe board, it’s graffiti on the ground. It’s really humbling to come back from all these large meets where everything is set out so perfectly, and to be able to come back to the community that you grew up in and just realize how little it actually takes and we how much more we can build on that,” said Mitton.

Both Olympians were honoured to have their images displayed on the wall where anyone arriving at Queens Place can see.

They hope they can be an example to the next round of athletes and coaches coming up in Queens that you can make your dreams come true.

As several people noted after the ceremony, there’s plenty of space on the walls for more portraits.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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