Some of the kids who took part in previous Christy Fraser Memorial Invitational gymnastics competitions now have children of their own, who came to take part in the 31st annual edition that ran Feb 16-19 at the Langley Events Centre field house.
Lory Fraser, Christy’s mom, refers to them as the “second generation.”
This year, Lory, who looks for competitors who have the same positivity and strength as her daughter, discovered the mother of one of this year’s award winners was also a former Christy Fraser participant.
“We tried to figure out what year [without success] but it would have to have been 15 to 20 years ago,” Lory told the Langley Advance Times.
Many of those former competitors, now parents of young gymnasts, have told her their stories.
“They come back and I find it really thrilling when they come and tell me, because I always wonder where these kids end up.”
One wrote a paper in high school about the event that turned out to be life-changing, Lory has learned.
“It was all about the meet, what it meant to her, and about Christie. She submitted it and she ended up with a full ride scholarship [to a U.S. university].”
After several days of closely watching competitors, Lory handed out 26 awards to athletes who exhibited the best qualities of her late daughter – supportive, determined and with a positive attitude.
Over the years, the event to honour the memory of Christy, who passed away in August of 1992 after contracting E. Coli, has grown from 170 athletes competing at the Langley Secondary School gymnasium in its first year, to more than 1,000 athletes competing for top honours at the LEC this year.
This year, for the first time in the history of the meet, a U.S, team competed, from Vancouver, Washington, something Lory said required some fine-tuning because U.S. and Canadian gymnastics scoring are different.
“We had to actually apply to Gymnastics Canada to get it approved,”Lory said.
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An Elite Canada gymnastics competition was also hosted by the Langley Gymnastics Foundation at the LEC on Feb. 17- 20, attracting more than 200 top athletes.