Olympic rower David Calder said Prince George athletes are likely to experience mixed emotions about having the 2015 Canada Winter Games in their backyard.
"Having a hometown games is bittersweet because you don't get to travel and you don't get that sense of being really distant from your family and of what's familiar to you," said the 2008 Olympic silver medallist. "But on the flip side, having the comforts of home and the people that really care about you and not pining for your parents or somebody who is significant to you, those things will end up really supporting the athlete."
Before he achieved Olympic fame, Calder experienced his first multi-sport competition in 1993 at the Canada Summer Games in Kamloops.
"I had a huge smile on my face the whole time," said Calder, who began rowing after watching the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. "It was big and really significant."
Calder was 14 years old when he competed in the Canada Summer Games on an under-21 team where his boat won gold for Team B.C. in men's eights and bronze in men's fours.
"I was rowing with all these adults who had a lot more experience than I did," said Calder. "But the biggest thing was the multi-sport experience. It's one thing to go to a rowing regatta or to a soccer tournament but it's another thing completely to room with different athletes."
Calder said athletes who have the chance to compete in the Summer or Winter Games for Canada are ahead of many of their competitors from around the world.
"These are all the minor details that when you get to the Olympics are actually the same things that you deal with," said Calder, adding his Canada Games experience was the first time he competed at a televised event. "A lot of the time the Olympics are the first time athletes experience it and so if you can get that experience at the Canada Games then you're one step ahead of the Romanians and the Russians who might not have a multi-sport competition like that at home."
