Okotoks figure skater, Dave Sargent and his skating partner Kelly Clements won the silver medal at the Winter World Masters Games in Austria last week.
The 2020 Winter World Masters Games were held in Innsbruck, Austria with the ice-dancing duo competing in three events taking the home the silver medal in the free dance. With only a year and a half of practice together, Sargent and Clements have had a lot of success so far. It’s the third competition for the pair after winning gold and silver medals at a competition in Lake Placid, New York back in October.
Sargent who’s turning 60 this year, keeps in top physical condition by training several times a week at the Wildrose Figure Skating Club in Calgary. He skated for many years but took a break after having some difficulty with his hips and knees. Sargent laced up the skates again back in 2018 after a call from a coaching friend encouraging him to join up with Clements.
The pair started practicing together and learned some new ice dancing routines. Sargent says he and Clements worked really hard to achieve their success. “We skated four times a week together and we did very well getting our unison and getting our tracking together.” He says they had some help with the choreography. “We had Bernie Ford help us put our free dance together and that’s where we medalled at the silver level and we also did quite well in Lake Placid achieving a gold.”
He says he’s really proud of his achievement and this makes a really nice 60th birthday present. Sargent’s daughter Talia is their Coach and traveled with them to Innsbruck. She also coaches at the Okotoks Figure Skating Club,
The Winter World Masters Games, like the Olympics, run every four years and is recognized by the International Olympic Committee for motivating adult athletes of all ages from all over the world with a minimum age as the only entry criterion. The event was attended by 563 figure skaters spanning ages from 28 years old up to 83 years old.
More than 3,100 athletes from 58 countries participated in the games in twelve different sports, including skiing, figure skating, speed skating, hockey and curling.
