Local skier qualifies for the BC Winter Games
By The Nelson Daily Sports
More than 1,300 of BC’s best emerging high performance athletes, coaches, and officials are set to be part of this celebration of sport and community from March 23-26 as the BC Winter Games kicks off in Vernon.
The 895 athletes, 300 coaches and 140 officials attending the Games hail from 122 communities across the province and represent 84 constituencies in BC. Competing in 15 different sports, most athletes will be attending their first multi-sport Games.
One of the athletes representing the Kootenay Zone is Paige Purcell of Nelson.
Purcell, who competes for the Red Mountain Racers in Rossland, qualified for the BC Games in alpine skiing.
Purcell is one of eight ski racers from the Kootenay Zone to qualify for Vernon.
The BC Winter Games were originally scheduled to take place in February of 2022 before organizers decided to postpone to 2023 due to several factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic and flooding and wildfires in many parts of the province.
The official name of the event remains the Greater Vernon 2022 BC Winter Games.
Quick Facts:
- Greater Vernon hosted the BC Winter Games in 1992 and 2012, as well as the 1982 BC Summer Games.
- Competitors represent eight geographic zones: Kootenays (Zone 1), Thompson-Okanagan (Zone 2), Fraser Valley (Zone 3), Fraser River (Zone 4), Vancouver-Coastal (Zone 5), Vancouver Island-Central Coast (Zone 6), North West (Zone 7) and Cariboo-North East (Zone 8).
- To date, 40 communities have hosted BC Winter and/or BC Summer Games.
- Greater Vernon 2022 BC Winter Games participants will compete in alpine skiing, archery, artistic gymnastics, badminton, biathlon, cross country skiing (including para), curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, judo, karate, rhythmic gymnastics, ringette, snowboarding, and wheelchair basketball.
- More than 350,000 participants and volunteers have taken part in BC Winter and BC Summer Games over the past 44 years.
