Floor hockey is one of eight sports in the Special Olympic BC Winter Games that will be coming to Kamloops next year (Image Credit: Special Olympics BC)

By Chad Klassen

SPECIAL OLYMPICS

Special Olympics BC preparing for first in-person event at 2023 Kamloops Winter Games

Feb 1, 2022 | 2:17 PM

KAMLOOPS — Josh Trudell can’t wait for next February. The floor hockey player from Kamloops will get to compete at home.

“I’ll get to see friends and family here and they can come and watch me [as] I represent my hometown in the [Special] Olympics. It’ll be a lot of fund,” said Trudell.

We know Trudell will compete in the Winter Games, which runs Feb. 2-4. What we don’t know at this point is whether family and friends will be able to watch.

“We can’t say to a family ‘book your trip now’ because we don’t know they will be able to get close enough to actually see what’s going on,” said Special Olympic BC Vice-President of Sport Lois McNary. “We don’t know what our Opening Ceremonies will look like. We’ve had huge Opening Ceremonies, both here at TCC and the Sandman Centre the last time. What will that look like?”

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The 2023 Winter Games will be the first in-person event put on by Special Olympics BC since the pandemic. Organizers are having to put the competition together differently, most notably the accommodation for athletes.

“In the past, we’ve always had a wonderful relationship with the schools and we’ve had our athletes sleep on the floors, bring their own gear. We can’t do that during COVID,” said McNary. “So we’re working with the hotels in the community to have coaches and athletes housed in hotels, which is very different.”

Trudell doesn’t have to worry about staying at a hotel, but it wouldn’t matter to him anyway. Even if family and friends can’t watch, he just wants to compete.

Also a basketball player, the 2023 competition will be his third Winter Games. He’s thankful for every opportunity provided by Special Olympics BC.

“Special O’s been a huge part of my life for the past six years now. It’s kind of part of what shaped me as a person. It pushed me out of my comfort zone. It gives me more courage and more strength to do more things,” he said. “People with intellectual disabilities wouldn’t have chances like this if wasn’t for Special Olympics. There’s a lot of incredible athletes out there with awesome athletic abilities that without Special Olympics wouldn’t be able to show what they can do.”

Trudell hopes to be able to carry on with Special Olympics into his old age.

“I’ll be playing until I’m 55, 56 is the goal,” he said. “Sports has been a love of mine since I was a very young age, so this is very important and special to me. I’ll be doing it for a long time, for the rest of my life pretty much.”