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Inside the Olympic experience; a Virden perspective

An overwhelming feeling of gratitude and love: Paige Lawrence
Olympic experience
Virden-based pairs skating duo of Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi with Coach Patty Hole of Virden.

With commercials for the 2018 Winter Games appearing often on TV, Virden’s Patty Hole is taken back to her own Olympics experiences.

Hole coached the then Virden-based pairs skating duo of Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. Even years later, the experience is still surreal for Hole.

“You sat next to someone from every different country”

“Oh right, I actually went to the Olympics. … You still pinch yourself thinking it actually happened and it’s been four years,” she said of her thoughts when seeing commercials for the Winter Games in PyeongChang.

Memories

Part of the symbolism of the five interlaced Olympic rings is unity. The unity at the Olympics is likely Hole’s biggest memory of her Olympic experience, which included being at the opening ceremonies in Russia.

 “Everyone got along,” Hole said. “When you were there, you sat next to someone from every different country and everyone got along.”

Lawrence, who is from Kennedy, Sask., said the Olympics were easily the best time of her life. She said two things really stand out for her.

“The first is the camaraderie I found with all of my Canadian teammates,” Lawrence said. “It was like showing up to some strange place and stumbling across long lost family. I spent the entire time I was in Sochi meeting as many people as I could and those friendships I made are still precious to me to this day.”

Her second memory, which she said is most dear to her, is the feelings she experience when she competed. Lawrence said she was filled with joy during the short program.

“I was just so happy to be on the ice, competing in that environment and I allowed myself to fully enjoy the moment.”

As for the long program, Lawrence said it was by far the most humbling experience of her life. She said she competed with an overwhelming feeling of gratitude and love.

“I have never experienced anything like it ... but in the most undistracting way, I was conscious of what that moment meant to me and I felt the presence of everyone who had helped me to get to that moment. I felt gratitude exuding from my heart and if I stop to think about that memory now, my heart still seems to grow 10 times bigger with the love I experienced. It sounds surreal because it was surreal.”

The duo placed 14th overall at the Olympics. In addition to skating their two programs, they cheered their Canadian teammates on to silver medals in the debut of the team event.

Afterwards

Following the Olympics, the four-time national bronze medalists placed 12th at the 2014 World Championships in Saitama, Japan. In May of that year, Swiegers opted to take a year off of competitive skating. It ended his nine-year partnership with Lawrence and work with Hole.

Hole is still very much active in the sport. She is coaching with Skate Virden and is very excited about the club’s recent success with eight skaters that live or train in Virden earning berths into the Manitoba Winter Games in Thompson. Hole continues to run her Cutting Edge Skating School in the summer and tries to grow the sport by helping other clubs in various ways. She has enjoyed this season, her first, as the Virden Oil Capitals hockey team’s power skating instructor.

Since Lawrence left competitive skating, she has been coaching. However, her main focus now is pursuing her graduate certificate in executive coaching. She currently works via Facetime with some of Hole’s skaters.

“I am planning to start my own business afterwards, helping business professionals and athletes to fine tune their mental game in order to create the results they are striving for. I believe that every person working for their dream deserves to have their own ‘Olympic moment’ and I am excited to use my education and experience to help others achieve greatness.”

Lawrence is engaged to Richmond Champion. Last December he was the reserve world champion bareback rider at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.

After taking a year off of skating, Swiegers, who was born in South Africa but grew up partly in Kipling, Sask., trained in Calgary and competed in pairs with Hayleigh Bell. In 2016, both of those skaters announced their retirements. When reached by text before the 2018 Winter Olympics, Swiegers said he had no comments at this time, but wished this reporter all the best. His LinkedIn profile lists him as a motivational speaker.

Appreciation

Lawrence emphasized that it was an honour to train in Virden because of its small town environment.

“The people of Virden accepted us and supported our dream in so many ways that I can’t even begin to list them all… From those who provided us ice time and worked around our schedule when we needed to change or add more ice; to a kind word of encouragement from individuals who played noon shinny after our ice time; to all of the people who used the walking track and (whether they knew it or not) provided us an audience to perform for every day; to the amazing skating club and all its members who bent over backwards to help us in any way they could; to the amazing community members who came out to our send-off party to the Olympics; to every single person who watched us compete; and to every other person that I’ve missed- thank you.”

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