Western Canada Summer Games a perfect 10
If you don’t count the inconvenience of some wind and rain, the 10 days of competition at the 2019 Western Canada Summer Games in Swift Current scored a perfect 10.
Swift Current pulled off a Games experience that drew rave reviews from participants and fans, signalling the fifth time Saskatchewan has hosted the Games and the first time in two decades since Prince Albert hosted in 1999.
“It really took an entire corner of the province to make this as successful as it is. Without all those people we definitely would not be celebrating the success,” explained Games Co-chair Melissa Shaw.
Team Saskatchewan Chef de Mission Mark Bracken said in the midst of the Games that Swift Current was providing an outstanding Games experiences for everyone involved.
“Whether I talk to parents from Saskatchewan, or whether I talk to coaches or Mission staff from other provinces, the positive feedback from this community hosting this event has been tremendous. The venues are outstanding. The volunteers have been incredible as far as flexible and friendly,” Bracken said.
“The Athletes’ Village, the Food Services, the Transportation, it just seems like Swift Current is a community that’s big enough to offer the good sport venues and the adequate hotels and restaurants and services for a Games of this size, but they’re small enough that everybody in town knows what’s going on.”
Bracken added that the Games excitement spread throughout the community, with Games logos on business windows, and businesses offering specials and contests for Games visitors.
“If you had a Games like this in a community that was 10 times this large, most of the people and the businesses would not even know what’s going on. So I just think as the host province as selecting Swift Current to host these Games is just proving to be just a great match.”
Darin Banadayga, who serves as the Government of SK Liaison and Western Canada Games Council Chair, noted that the 11 previous Western Canada Summer Games have been hosted in lots of different sizes of communities. They ranged in size from Calgary in 1983, Abbotsford in 1995, and a joint hosting effort by Selkirk, Stonewall, Gimli and Beausejour, Manitoba in 2003.
Swift Current was an ideal host because of the more complex requirements and venue standards as the Games need to meet national standards for competition.
“Swift Current did an awesome job of that. They knew what needed to get up to different standards, so there was a lot of work done by the City and by the host society to make sure that all the different venues had those national standards,” Banadayga said.
“The capacity of the community to host this many people over that number of days, that was never in question.”
He added there were adequate hotel rooms and camping opportunities nearby for family spectators, and it was easy to get around the City and region to access venues.
Swift Current had an unsuccessful bid to the Saskatchewan Games Council for the 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games, but a city led effort went into pursuit of these Games, and the ensuring success Swift Current had in hosting a games for athletes from neighbouring Alberta and Manitoba, along with competitors from Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut.
“I think for everyone here it should be a feeling of pride. The Western Canada Summer Games and the Saskatchewan Games they have a lot of similarities but they also have a lot of differences. And that we were able to do a Western Canada Summer Games with a higher standard of facilities and a higher expectation of the host society, says a lot of how hard we were willing to work to put into be successful,” Shaw said.
And while final financial numbers are not available, the Games did attract larger than expected crowds.
“Our first look is that our ticket sales and our attendance have exceeded our expectations,” Shaw said. “On our busiest day of sales, which was August 15, we sold 675 day passes. And that doesn’t include the Games passes and phase passes that were sold above that. Or any of the VIPS who were floating in and out of venues.”
“All of our venues had full crowds, were loud, were packed. People were looking for seats. So from an organizers perspective, we couldn’t have asked to see more people. It’s just such a fantastic turn out in support of these athletes.”
Games Co-chair Mark Benesh added that when Swift Current targets their next event to host, they have proven beyond a doubt that they can tackle an equally ambitious endeavour.
“We definitely can host other circumstances. I think we’ve proven that we have the volunteer base, the venues, the organizational structure. There’s no reason why Swift Current can’t host other large events,” Benesh said.
”Even when we said 2000 volunteers, that’s a big number. But we got there. Everything worked out. But it has to be within that realm because I don’t know if the Southwest could have been stretched that much more in trying to put on the kind of Games and the experience we wanted.” he added.
Both Benesh and Shaw have extensive Games experiences as athletes and coaches, but serving as Games Co-chairs was a totally different experience.
“I can definitely say being an athlete was the easiest. I just showed up. People fed me. Took care of me. Told me how great I was doing. As a coach it was work. I slept in dorms. I had to chase kids. But I loved coaching,” Benesh said. “This part, we were the ones trying to take care of everybody else. So it was kind of a different angle and far more encompassing.”
“I learned a lot,” Shaw added. I’ve done the athlete, coach and mission staff and now this role. And I’m very happy to say that I’m going to go back to mission staff someday, hopefully some day soon. And I’ll have a whole new appreciation for what that all looks like, and a whole new respect for what a host society takes on. Truly it’s an undertaking and it is remarkable to be a part of it.”
Both said they had special memories of their experiences during the Games.
“As I walked through hallways, especially in the Athletes’ Village, how good volunteers were to these athletes, how they cared, asked them how they did, cheered them on, encouraged them in every possible way. To me that was probably the most rewarding thing I got out of the Games because the people kind of adopted these kids temporary and were there to support and guide,” Benesh said.
And while Manitoba has not announced a host community for the Games slated for their province in 2023, Swift Current hopes to pass on some important lessons from the 10 day competition which was just held.
“I would encourage them to hire the best staff possible, because there’s some people with outstanding Games skill sets out there. And I would be patient and chase and don’t let your best people in your community say no to the various areas that you’re chasing them for. Because we had some outstanding people that made the Games what they were. We get some credit but it’s all their work and all the subsequent work on their subcommittees,” Benesh said.
Organizers also benefited from the recommendations from their own committee team members in the lead up to the Games.
“We’ve been in Games, but we don’t know everything about Games. And we asked them to tell us how to put on the best possible Games. And every time they gave us a suggestion we tried to listen to it, accept it, because they were trying to help us and implement that so that we did provide the kind of experience we hoped we would.”
Swift Current also showed a fair bit of ingenuity in adapting to the weather conditions, specifically when rain impacted the newly developed Highland Coulee Trails. When heavy rains cancelled a scheduled race on Monday, August 12, the course remained out of commission for the final day of racing on Tuesday, August 13.
“But that night we had an extraordinary crew of volunteers, and also parents from some of the teams that all pitched in. They made some adaptations to the course, and they worked really hard. They re-directed some areas and they were able to make something that was workable the next day. And so they all got to compete on a slightly adjusted course, but they got to do their competition (on August 13) and they were very thrilled with that,” noted Games Manager Denise Barbier.
Chef de Mission Mark Bracken noted this effort helped produce one of Team Saskatchewan’s more memorable performances.
Toni B’yauling from Saskatoon was fifth in the road race, and sixth in the time trial, but he powered his way to a bronze medal in an exciting Mountain Bike race.
“He gained about 18 seconds in the final lap on the Manitoba cyclist. Coming off the high corner he tried to pass him, and I think if he would have got hime there he would have won the race. But he couldn’t get by. And then the turn coming home and the sprint to the finish he tried to cut inside, it wasn’t there. So he went outside. And then it was just up on the pedals in a sprint to the finish. And they were pretty much neck and neck until about 10 yards from the finish line and our guy clipped the pedal of the Manitoba guy and he actually wiped out. But he was 10 yards from the finish line so he picked up his bike and he ran it across for the bronze. But what an exciting finish for him.”