Bragg Creek’s Pelkey siblings were at it again recently, making their mark in the world of competitive water skiing.
This time the family racked up nine gold medals spread among Sofia, Sarah, and Megan at the Canadian Water Ski Championships in Shalom Park, south of Edmonton from Aug. 8 to 13.
Those familiar with the exploits of the oldest member of the family will know Megan has made her mark on the sport already.
Now, having her younger sisters garnering attention for their success is just fine with her.
“It’s really cool – I’m glad to have my sisters alongside me and it’s really nice to see them excel,” she said.
She called the sisterly competition a friendly one, and she tries to help them out with the mental aspects of competition.
“I try to give Sofia some advice sometimes if she’s nervous, and with some of my younger friends, too, I’ll give them advice on the dock if they’re nervous,” Megan said.
In the U17 category, Megan took home four golds in the slalom, tricks, jump, and overall categories.
Sarah (who does not compete in trick or jump) won gold in slalom in the U14 age group.
And the youngest of the Pelkey sisters, 11-year-old Sofia, who competes in the U12 division, won golds in slalom, tricks, jump, and overall.
Megan said her familiarity with the Shalom venue – where she has trained before – probably didn’t hurt her performance.
The four Pelkey girls – Rebecca is 15, and an avid downhill ski racer – are about 18 months apart in age, and their father Bob said when Megan was five or six years old, he never would have imagined he’d be doing an interview recounting the experience of watching three of them take home nine gold medals in one sporting event.
“Never. Pretty awesome. [It’s] pretty amazing, the amount of work they did,” Pelkey said.
“They went out to compete and they got it done, did the job – they really worked hard.”
Between water skiing and downhill skiing in the winter, there’s not much of a break from competitive athletics in the Pelkey household.
“Yeah, you don’t get to blink much,” Pelkey chuckled.
He said the family is looking forward to some quiet time at the lake, where the girls all love to get towed behind the family boat – but not on skis.
“We’re hoping we can get out to the cabin and the kids can have a bit of downtime, no training, just relax,” he said. “Just float around, go tubing . . . be kids a bit,” he laughed.
Megan, who often cites how important her mental preparation is to her success, said doing some tubing with her sisters will be a welcome break from the rigours of year-round training.
“It’s relaxing, taking a little bit of a break, it’ll be nice,” she said.
Megan’s training will start up back in Florida for a few weeks in the fall, before she heads back for her last year of high school at the National Sports School in Calgary. She’s hoping for a scholarship to a U.S. university with a prominent water ski program after that.
She also enjoys teaching downhill skiing to kids in the winter at Nakiska.
Megan said she wanted to give “a shoutout” for the support of sponsors Shuswap Ski and Board, Benpro, Prooftest and Shalom Park.
In the IWWF World Under-17 Water Ski Championships in Santiago, Chile in January, Pelkey earned three medals, and the girls' overall title.
Meanwhile her father – who estimates they put on about 60,000 kilometres a year on the family vehicles travelling to various events – said he wasn’t sure what he’ll do with all his spare time when the girls all eventually leave the nest.
“Maybe I’ll take up skiing – if I’m not too old,” he said with a laugh.
