By Ethan Ready

Podium Dreams

Prince George celebrates Olympic accomplishments

Feb 26, 2022 | 5:24 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – In a perfect nod to the Winter Olympic spirit, the snow began to fall just as Saturday’s Prince George Olympic Celebration got underway from the Canada Games Plaza.

Meryeta O’Dine, the first-ever Olympic medalist from Prince George, was celebrated for her performance at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The now 25-year-old, who celebrated her birthday on Thursday (Feb. 24), won two bronze medals in snowboard cross at the Beijing Olympics. Her first came in the individual women’s event and her second was in the mixed team event.

The event on Saturday also celebrated fellow Prince George Olympian Sarah Beaudry, who competed in biathlon, as well as Burns Lake’s Emily Dickson. She also competed in biathlon with Beaudry. However, due to their competition schedule, the pair were unable to attend the downtown event.

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O’Dine was welcomed by a few hundred people, who all cheered and applauded the Prince George athlete for her Olympic success. A number of community figures spoke at the event, including Lheidli T’enneh Chief Dolleen Logan, MLA’s Shirley Bond and Mike Morris, MP Todd Doherty, and Mayor Lyn Hall.

O’Dine, sticking to the impact she’s made on young athletes within the community with her story, addressed the crowd with a word of inspiration.

“You can always prove to yourself there’s so much more to reach for. There’s always going to be people who are going to try to slow you down,” she said. “Follow your dreams and work hard, and you an achieve anything that you absolutely want.”

While many local athletes have felt the need to leave Prince George, O’Dine credited Tabor Mountain as a key ingredient in her success since first taking up the sport in the early 2010’s, as well as the support she received through the Canadian Sports School based out of the Northern Sport Centre.

Following speeches, student athletes from the local Canadian Sports School, which Meryeta attended during her high school years, got the opportunity to ask her questions and receive words of inspiration.

“This is crazy. She’s from PG. She’s from Sports School, I’m from Sports School,” said Adrian Scrooby, an aspiring ski cross athlete. “It was just crazy to see someone from PG, she’s out there representing herself on the world stage at the Olympics. It was really cool to see. It gave me a lot of confidence in myself.”

Meryeta will remain in Prince George and soak up the celebrations and spotlight before embarking back onto the World Cup circuit in Europe as she looks to wrap up the 2021-22 season.

The next World Cup event is scheduled to be Reiteralm (Austria) March 10-12.