No matter where he was this weekend during the Orillia 2020 Ontario Winter Games, Jed Levene saw a common sight: energy and excitement.
It was seen during sledge hockey, ringette, curling, wushu, fencing and the other 22 sports being played.
“It’s been even better than I expected,” Levene, chair of the games organizing committee, said of this year’s event. “The energy at every venue has been really high. The athletes have been great. Everyone came together to pull this off.”
While it was "an ominous start to the games,” with a bomb threat Friday leading to the evacuation of Casino Rama, where some athletes were staying, "we haven’t had any major challenges,” Levene said.
“It’s been minor details. We’ve been pretty fortunate.”
Levene praised the hundreds of volunteers, including those on the games organizing committee, for their efforts to make sure everything went smoothly. At any given time, there were 10 to 20 people at the Orillia Waterfront Centre — games headquarters — ready to answer calls and help out when needed.
“The event doesn’t happen without that support,” he said, adding his “biggest highlight has been seeing the engagement of the volunteers.”
Right up there with that highlight is the positive experience the athletes had while in the area.
“It’s great that we’ve been able to provide a platform for these young athletes to shine,” Levene said.
While he was busy in his role as chair, he did get to see some of the action. He checked out the squash competition in Barrie and was impressed with one of the athletes in particular.
“That 12-year-old kid would wipe the floor with me,” said Levene, who plays squash.
Helping to fuel the growing athletes were local restaurants that provided food — between 7,000 and 10,000 meals each day.
“For our food partners, this wasn’t a boilerplate day at the office,” he said.
Stepping into the role of games organizing committee chair was a learning experience for Levene.
“The biggest lesson I learned is when you’re running an event of this magnitude, you can’t expect everything to go perfectly. It’s how you deal with the issues that matters,” he said, lauding the volunteers at headquarters for responding to problems quickly and professionally.
The games began with opening ceremonies Thursday and wrapped up Sunday. More than 3,000 athletes were in the region to participate, including several events at venues in Barrie. Competition details, including results, can be found here.
