Jason Mills (left) took the Team BC Vipers to a silver medal at the Special Olympics Canada Winter Games and Arianna Phillips (right) placed a personal best. (submitted/Heather Massick)

By Spencer Sterritt

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Nanaimo Special Olympians return from Nationals with medals and personal bests

Mar 4, 2020 | 7:15 AM

NANAIMO — Two Nanaimo athletes made a major splash at the biggest Special Olympics Canada event of the year.

Both Jason Mills and Arianna Phillips were in Thunder Bay for the Special Olympics Canada Winter Games at the end of February..

Mills tended to the floor hockey net for Team BC Vipers, his sixth time in net on the national stage. He said the competition against Ontario, who’d they’d lost to in the 2016 Nationals gold medal game, was a rough ride from the beginning.

“The shots on net they had on me was brutal,” he told NanaimoNewsNOW. “I was getting rebound after rebound.”

Mills kept the game close right up until the end and it looked like they’d head to overtime. Unfortunately Ontario managed to sneak in a goal with only two seconds remaining in the third period to win 4-3.

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“I was more excited to be a gold medalist, but silver’s better than nothing,” Mills said.

The Vipers are made up of players from across Vancouver Island and Powell River.

Mills said after so many years playing in the Special Olympics, the Vipers is more of a family than a team.

“We always have new people coming in every year. We always accept people in as a member. When we were coming back, they felt they fit in more as a family member than a team member.”

Family at the Special Olympics is important for figure skater Arianna Phillips. The international winner was last at nationals in the figure skating competition with her brother. This year, she skated by herself in a complicated routine in the A division.

“On the morning of my final I actually felt like I was going to throw up, that’s how nervous I was,” she said. “As soon as those skates got put on though, those nerves went away and everything turned into fun. I had so much fun on the ice I was almost in tears.”

She placed fifth in the competitive A division, not due to mistakes on the ice but the prowess of other skaters.

Her score card for the performance gave her gold for her jumps, which she said was her favourite part of figure skating.

The routine earned her a personal best and she said the competition helped her be more confident in her on-ice spins.

She’s already hard at work training and playing track and field sports and softball.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit