Brianna Harris is a 19yr old NS snowshoe athlete from Truro Nova Scotia. Brianna was selected to Team Nova Scotia, based on her performance at the 2015 Special Olympics Nova Scotia Provincial competition in Halifax in July 2015. At the time of her selection to Team Nova Scotia, Brianna was fairly new to the sport of Snow Shoe and would complete her events in the 2nd or 3rd division of the qualifying heats.
Upon her selection to Team NS, Brianna committed to the Special Olympics Oath – “Let me win, but if I can not win, let me be brave in the attempt.” Local-coach, Maura Hunter recognized the potential in Brianna that was paired with the determination of an athlete who wanted to do her best. Hunter, who has been previously selected to train International caliber athletes committed to working with Brianna as her training coach to help fine-tune her skills. In partnership with Brianna’s head coach, Carla Dumaresque, the three worked to help Brianna obtain results nobody expected.
Brianna arrived at nationals not knowing how she would fair against the competition from across Canada. How would all the training measure against those within her division? The results surprised everyone from her Head Coach to all the spectators in the crowd. With the anticipation growing, Brianna took to the start line for her first race – the 400 M. As the start of the race was signaled, it was obvious Brianna was going to set the pace for the other competitors. As they rounded the corner to the finish line, the close marked her in at an amazing 30 seconds faster than her submitted time from one year ago. The 200M would see repeat the results leaving everyone watching, including herself in complete amazement.
As the day came to an end, Brianna proudly held up her two gold medals with a smile that does one thing – make everyone who sees it do the same. Smile. Tomorrow she will take to the course for her final event the 100M where we expect that she will do the same thing – amaze us all.
