The 2011 Canada Games, held in Halifax, NS, recently came to an end on February 27.

For the the competitors, though, training goes on.

Alexandra Starker, 16, Matt Mario, 17, Brydon Coombe, 16, and Rob Greig, 17, all had a taste of the Canada Games in February, and continue to train and hone their skills on the ski slopes with the Panorama Ski Team.

“I was really excited, lots of people came out to watch,” said Starker of the skiing competitions at the Canada Games, which Mario later described as a “mini-Olympics”.

Starker was the winner of two gold medals at the games; one in slalom, and one in GX.

“It’s always nice to win,” said Starker. “Going into the race, I thought about maybe winning the slalom, but I wasn’t sure about the GX. I just took it as it came.”

“We’d heard a lot about the competitors from out east that we don’t get to race,” said Greig. “It was a really close competition.”

“I came into it thinking there’d be tough competition,” said Mario about the races. “I knew I would have to work harder than I ever have.”

“It felt really special compared to what we normally do,” said Greig of the national events’ competitions. “But it was really hectic. We were up early, really busy all day, and went to sleep late.”

“There was never really a time when we weren’t doing something,” adds Coombe.

Despite their busy schedule with training and races, the skiers managed to make the best of their first-time visit to Nova Scotia, and take in and experience what the east coast had to offer when they were able.

“We had a great view from the hotel,” said Coombe.