4 athletes from Comox Valley to compete in ski and snowboard events at Pyeongchang Olympics

Vancouver Island will be well-represented on the world stage at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics with four members of the Canadian ski and snowboard team hailing from the island.

Athletes like Spencer O'Brien, who was raised in Alert Bay and Courtenay, got her start on local mountains.

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O'Brien learned to ride on on Mt. Cain and Mt. Washington, and is now a gold medal contender in women's snowboarding. She willcompetein the slopestyle and big air events in South Korea.

She is joined by CarleBrenneman, Cassie Sharpe and TealHarlein ski andsnowboardevents in South Korea this month. They all come from the ComoxValley.

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"I just hope that my story can show them that it doesn't matter if you come from a tiny island that doesn't have a mountain, that you can do whatever you want," she said.

Community support from volunteers and parents has helped give opportunities for younger athletes to reach a competitive level through clubs and local coaches.

Mike Manara, director of sports for Mt. Washington Alpine Resort, says he's seeing the number kids enrolling in their snow school climb.

"I don't know if there's something in the water in Cumberland but I'll tell you there's a lot of kids coming out and taking lessons," said Manara, who has over 400 kids in their seasonal weekend programs alone.

Beginners to big-shots

The resort has focuseditsattention on strengthening terrain for beginners and hasdeveloped programming in the last decade to make skiing and snowboarding more accessible for everyone.

"Before we knew it, it kind of snowballed on us, in a good way, and we've got almost 30,000 people now that come through the school on any given year," he said.

The resort even offered free lessons in December to encourage people to try out the sport.

"They could learn to ski or snowboard for free for the first couple weeks of the season and then gave them some follow up opportunities to come back and get involved."

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With files from All Points West