Proud to be Canadians Young Winnipeggers make their mark

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Phil Hossack / Winnipeg Free Press Derek Oryniak (left) and Adam Brooks are proud owners of bronze medals they won at the Youth Olympic Games.

Adam Brooks and Derek Oryniak had the time of their lives.

They enjoyed the opening and closing ceremonies with 30,000 people watching. They also loved winning bronze medals in their sports and representing Canada and Winnipeg at the first ever Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria.

Brooks, 15, was a member of Canada's national youth hockey team while the 17-year-old Oryniak was the second on Canada's mixed curling team.

The two athletes, who ended up rooming together at the event, were greeted at the James Richardson International airport on Tuesday by family.

The mixed curling team beat Sweden 6-4 last Wednesday in the third-place game while the Canadian hockey team beat the U.S. 7-5 last Saturday in its third-place match.

"(Winning bronze) meant a lot because I know, for hockey, it's expected to win a medal when you're playing for Team Canada hockey," said Adam, 15, who is a member of the Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey League's Winnipeg Thrashers. "We wanted to win gold but we lost in the semis (Finland) so we had to play for bronze. We were happy with that outcome, happy we got a medal and left on a win."

Momentum

In the bronze-medal game with Canada clinging to a 3-2 lead in the second period, Brooks scored a key goal to swing the momentum. Brooks finished the tournament second in goal-scoring on Team Canada with five goals in six games.

Canada's mixed curling team, meanwhile, also included skip Thomas Scoffin of Whitehorse, Yukon, third Corryn Brown of Kamloops, B.C., and lead Emily Gray of O'Leary, P.E.I.

"It was incredible, I was really honoured to be picked because there's so many great curlers in Canada, and I was really proud to wear that Maple Leaf on the ice," said Oryniak..

Brooks said he'll never forget skating out on the ice wearing Canada's colours.

"Putting the Team Canada jersey on for the first time, it just felt magical. When you're growing up, you dream of that and getting the chance to do that in front of family, friends, the different athletes, it was really amazing," said Brooks.

Hockey Canada made the selections for the 17-player roster including one player from each of the 13 branches but two from each of B.C., Alberta, Quebec and Ontario.

There were nine forwards, six defencemen and two goaltenders named to the team.

"It was an amazing experience. We made so many new friends, we've already got about 50 Facebook requests from friends," Oryniak said. "I hope later in my life I will be able to travel and visit some of them again."

The inaugural 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games on Jan. 13-22 included about 1,100 athletes aged 14-19 from 64 countries participating in 15 sports.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 25, 2012 $sourceSection0