{"id":6894,"date":"2024-03-11T15:22:41","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T18:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=6894"},"modified":"2024-03-11T15:43:36","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T18:43:36","slug":"cold-calgary-weather-couldnt-slow-down-liverpool-snowshoe-athlete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/03\/11\/cold-calgary-weather-couldnt-slow-down-liverpool-snowshoe-athlete\/","title":{"rendered":"Cold Calgary weather couldn’t slow down Liverpool snowshoe athlete"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

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)<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u2019t forget.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very cold but I still did it,\u201d she said in a recent interview.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing. Let\u2019s just say when I got to the end, I cried.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s relay, and Ben Theriau captured silver as a member of the curling team.<\/span><\/p>\n

The athletes from Special Olympics Lunenburg\/Queens were part of Team Nova Scotia\u2019s 45-athlete contingent which won 30 medals overall in Calgary.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was fast. I went like a rock star.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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. <\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI met new friends and I had fun and that\u2019s all that matters.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Delaney\u2019s mother Susan Inglis is the snowshoe team\u2019s assistant coach and Inglis\u2019s partner Earl Mielke is the head coach.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mielke says they held practices at Queens Place Emera Centre and Privateer Park on the Liverpool waterfront.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Delaney is already looking forward to her next competition. That will be the provincial games in Wolfville this summer, where she\u2019ll be running in the 100-, 200- and 400-metre races, and competing in the standing long jump and the shot put.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mielke says they\u2019ll start training in April.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a number of other athletes who won\u2019t go to provincials but enjoy the social part and the athletic part. \u2026 And they\u2019re already asking now, when can we start. Probably April we\u2019ll get back out and start training for the (summer) events.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the meantime, Delaney is doing her part as an ambassador for Special Olympics to get more people involved.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need more athletes. We just need more athletes, so please bring more athletes out to Special Olympics.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And Mielke says they also need coaches. If you\u2019re interested in joining Special Olympics Lunenburg\/Queens, you can reach out to them through their Facebook page<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to an audio version of the story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/earlrebspecolyfreqmar1124.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019t forget. Delaney, 27, won gold in the 100-metre snowshoe event at the Special Olympics Canada Winter Games in Calgary. She also won bronze […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[882,877,1717,1270,1716,39,1715,49,1711,1870,1710,1845,1713,1712,1871],"class_list":["post-6894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-ben-theriau","tag-betty-ann-daury","tag-calgary","tag-earl-mielke","tag-jillian-young","tag-liverpool","tag-michael-moreau","tag-queens-county","tag-rebecca-delaney","tag-snowshoe","tag-special-olympics","tag-special-olympics-canada-winter-games","tag-special-olympics-lunenburg-queens","tag-susan-inglis","tag-team-nova-scotia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6894"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6904,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6894\/revisions\/6904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}