The Icebreaker Track Meet usually means fending off colder weather, but even in this year’s unseasonable warmth, the real ice was broken between people of different kinds.
Each year the event pits teams against one another in a collection of sports events, but all brought together from the Correlieu Secondary School track and field squad and the Quesnel Special Olympics program. It is a fully integrated two-day blitz with all athletes competing in all categories, competing together regardless of age, gender, sport specialty, or cognitive background.
“This event is pretty unique in the track and field world - unique for high school track and field and unique for Special Olympics as well, to do this type of inclusive event. Other communities don’t do it in this type of format,” said Rick Prosk, a retired teacher with more than 20 years’ experience with the Quesnel Special Olympics movement. He humbly insists the creation of the icebreaker event was a team effort, but everyone else on the organizing team says it was all his invention, and they were eager to help.
The two who have primarily brought the icebreaker meet to life from the Correlieu ranks are Becky Whitehouse and Janet Barker. This year is the fourth iteration of it, but with a couple of years off during the pandemic.
No other community does it this way, as far as any of them knows, and high school sports don’t follow this format in any case.
The difference is, in conventional high school track an athlete will typically specialize in an event with perhaps some other events that are generally in their same genre.
For example, a 100-metre sprint specialist might also be good at the 200-metre sprint and perhaps in a relay, but probably not the pole vault. Or a hammer thrower might also be adept at the shot put, but probably not the long jump.
In Special Olympics, however, it is more like the decathlon where all the athletes compete in all the events.
There are some Special Olympics categories in provincial events like the BC Summer Games, but those are only for athletes from the program, said Prosk, whereas the icebreaker track meet is fully blended right on the field of battle.
Some of the results are wildly different, but often there are surprising athletic challenges between the various competitors, and always there is the spirit of mutual encouragement no matter who the fellow athletes might be. The high-fives, pats on the back, and “good job” messages flow freely.
The way Special Olympics operates, with a cyclical and tiered system of qualifying, not every athlete gets to go for the gold every year. So, said Prosk, “for a lot of SO athletes, this track meet is their big event of the year.” For others, regardless of the training stream they are in, this is a chance to get in some training reps.
Teacher and track coach Whitehouse said it was “a great way to bring people together from different backgrounds, and maybe that will make everyone think about how we all have differences, so let’s just enjoy being together.”
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