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Para-Alpine skier Morgan named to Team Alberta

BOW VALLEY – Just do it. Not only a well-known slogan, but also the advice from 15-year-old Canmore para-skier Anya Morgan, who was recently announced as a member of Team Alberta Para for the 2019 Canada Winter Games.
Anya WEB
Bow Valley local and Team Alberta para representative Anya Morgan at a race at Lake Louise last year. SUBMITTED

BOW VALLEY – Just do it.

Not only a well-known slogan, but also the advice from 15-year-old Canmore para-skier Anya Morgan, who was recently announced as a member of Team Alberta Para for the 2019 Canada Winter Games.

“It’s really awesome, like coming out of qualifiers I wasn’t feeling the best, so it’s really good to have validation of my skiing ability and have that as something to feel really good about,” Morgan said.

Living with cerebral palsy, the Bow Valley local has been practicing the sport for the last decade, but this is the first year Morgan made the decision to try out for Team Alberta Para.

“Having the invitation from [coach Jamie McCulloch] was really pivotal,” Morgan said full of emotion. “I often struggle with my own image of how I ski – I don’t feel like the best skier I can be and Jamie just asked me and just knowing he believed in me enough to ask me to do this thing was a really big push for me to become part of [Team Alberta].”

As a Team Alberta Para-Alpine coach, McCulloch said he is proud of all the athletes he coaches through Rocky Mountain Adaptive, a Bow Valley-based not-for-profit charity with the mission to enable individuals with physical, intellectual, cognitive or developmental challenges to participate, learn and excel in sports and recreation activities in the Canadian Rockies.

“We are all individuals, we all have our own strengths and improvements and our athletes have to work just as hard if not harder to get where they are today,” said McCulloch, who is also executive director for Rocky Mountain Adaptive.

“And I can’t stress enough what an amazing human being Anya is – she is just freaking incredible and she deserves every single success she creates for herself.”

The proud coach was excited on Tuesday as the 2019 Winter Games confirmed the Alberta para athletes competing, with five other Rocky Mountain Adaptive athletes chosen, resulting in the Canmore-based not-for-profit providing 80 per cent of Team Alberta and 50 per cent of the total Canadian field of the provincial para alpine team for the national games.

The other five qualifiers hail from all across the province, including Calgary and Edmonton.

“We are obviously immensely proud of everyone,” McCulloch said.

So are the Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Academy student’s friends and family, as Morgan continues to prepare for the national race in Nakiska on Feb. 26-27.

“They believed in me so much, which I am really thankful for,” Morgan said humbly.

And the teen’s advice to others – believe in yourself too.

“Just go out and play the sport, just go and ski the course,” Morgan said with a laugh.

“It can be really easy to overthink these things and get inside your head but really – just do it.”

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