Dinah Alalayan could hardly turn a corner without another memory sticking a landing in her mind.
Gymnastics has its parallel bars, and for Alalayan, the 2024 Lhtako Quesnel BC Winter Games had its own set of parallels. For about 30 years she hadn’t laid eyes on the features of her hometown, but looking back on her childhood was all she could do, through the exploits of her own daughter Mila.
Mila Dos Santos is 11 and was one of the competitors from Zone 4. She competes out of Burnaby.
Back in 1982 when Alalayan was 11, she was one of the competitors in gymnastics but from Zone 8, competing at the BC Winter Games in Trail.
About three years later, just after she finished Grade 8, she and her family moved away from Quesnel and did not return until these Winter Games gave them a reason. Alalayan’s household hauled themselves up, along with cousin Orlando Zalameda who was also an expatriate Quesnel resident from that same time. Zalameda set up some friend visits and a quick tour of the town.
“We went to the Billy Barker Motel where my dad used to work. My mom worked at Shoppers Drug Mart. We did the tour,” Alalayan said. “We saw my old house. It has been really nostalgic, even just walking into this building (pointing to Arena 2) because that’s where I skated.”
She was also an active figure skater.
“It’s really nostalgic for me,” Alalayan said. “Just the fact I went to the Winter Games, and she went to the Winter Games, in the same sport, in the same town I did gymnastics in, and I was the same age when I went to the Winter Games that she is now. It’s really neat how it is a full circle, how the universe just lines things up.”
Dos Santos was just as excited about the trip to Quesnel as she was the opportunity to compete for the judges. And the links between her opportunity and her mother’s past experience was not lost on her.
“It’s very amazing, because I want to carry the legacy on,” Dos Santos said, getting a laugh from Alalayan over being old enough to be referred to as a legacy.
If anything, it is Dos Santos who is the legacy. She won the bronze medal for her work on the uneven bars, placed fourth in the floor routine (missing a second bronze by mere point fractions), and finished a strong 11th overall.
“Most of the competitions I go to are smaller, and the people are more local,” she said. “Some people here I didn’t know, because they are from all over B.C. and I’m used to the Lower Mainland. Now I know more of them better, after a couple of days.”
Dos Santos was active in the trading of pins, as many athletes and coaches are at any BC Games event. She admitted that it was hard to sleep on the mats in the classrooms, as is the BC Games custom, but that was due to some snoring, not the thin pad under her sleeping bag. The indoor camping was quite fun, she grinned.
“She’s not introverted,” Alalayan said. “She does care about the competition, but she’s really into the friends and the experience. This is her first time travelling away from home with her team. They make the athletes travel together on a bus, and stay together in the schools.”
Maybe the genetic familiarity from her mother was passed through in their DNA, making the Quesnel experience that much more comfortable for the youngster.
And to keep the ball of coincidence bouncing, the next BC Winter Games in 2026 will be held in Trail.
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