What a difference a weekend made for cross-country skier Skye Cadell.
A week ago at the BC Teck Track Attack Championships in Kelowna, the 11-year-old was down on herself. She felt physically drained before her races, especially the freestyle sprint, and her performance was a disappointment.
“I didn’t feel great and I didn’t feel fast,” she said.
All it took was a change of scenery to turn Cadell’s emotions 180 degrees.
Racing on her home trails at Otway Nordic Centre in the BC Teck Cross-Country Championships put a smile on the face of the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club member.
After getting to the finish fourth in her U-12-2 girls classic race Friday, Cadell placed seventh in Saturday’s freestyle event.
“It helped a lot that we were racing here, I was ready for my (classic) race and I felt pretty good,” said Cadell.
Cadell is also a competitive biathlete and spends much more time skate-skiing than she does practicing her classic technique, so that made her classic race Friday even more satisfying.
Cadell comes from a skiing family. Her older sisters Iona, 15, and Isla, 13, both race, and Skye has been trying to keep up to them on the practice trails ever since she started skiing. Her Caledonia coach, Simon Lamarche, calls Skye “an aerobic machine.”
“She raced really well at the Track Attack Championships but I think he was disappointed and that’s what’s cool about the sport is that it is exposure therapy to these kinds of things,” said Lamarche. “They’ll all have setbacks and they’ll all be disappointed, but they’re learning the power of having the courage to show up, giving it their best and when they’re disappointed to be able to cope with that and reset and try again. They see that by focusing on the weaknesses and embracing their strengths and being kind to themselves and to others, they can grow and have a more interesting life.”
Cadell is a Grade 6 student at Ecole Lac des Bois and she also swims with the Prince George Barracudas Swim Club. Her family stays active through the warm-weather months going for long hikes and backpacking trips, which keeps the girls in great shape for ski racing. Saturday’s freestyle race gave Skye a chance to put into her race a few things she learned in practice this winter.
“It’s fun trying new and different techniques,” she said. “I one-skated in different areas going uphill and I two-skated in different place than I normally would.”
On Sunday, she teamed up with Anna Callaway and Lillianna Botten on Team Die!!! to finish 11th out of 20 teams in the U-14 girls two km relay.
Race events were cancelled last season because of the pandemic and Lamarche says his young skiers had pent-up energy after a year of not being able to race. He was encouraged to see so any parents get involved in staging the races as volunteers and says it helps to have a strong club of 2,800 members that has built a world-class facility to allow young up-and-coming racers in cross-country and biathlon to develop.
“Going in circles in the bush on two-by-fours isn’t very meaningful on its own and racing is tough,” Lamarche said. “It takes a lot of courage to show up on the line, where everyone is looking at you, everyone is judging you, so it’s about building life skills.
“What’s really cool is to see these kids really grow and gain life skills and do it for the right reason. Physical activity is probably the best mitigation to fight depression and anxiety and you have social connections with other people as a protective factor. It’s something they have to cope with all the stress they have at school and they’re staying healthier.”
The three-day event attracted 395 racers (including 43 from the Caledonia club) and it was a precursor for the Canada Biathlon Championships, to be hosted at Otway starting on Saturday.
Race results can be found here..
