Seventeen year old Marshall Shupe is competing in the 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, Alberta. He and his family are members of St George, Maple Ridge.
In September 2018, he competed in Short Track at Western Elite Circuit #1 in Calgary where he ranked 2nd in BC. During that race, he broke his Tibia bone. Although he was out for almost three months he continued to train and was able to stay on the team. During his time convalescing he said, “I was glad that I had God and Jesus in my life because it gave me hope when I was down with my injury.”
When his mother was asked about his age when he started skating her answer was “first grade, as soon as he got on a pair of skates he was off”. By age 6 he was in competition at Planet Ice in Maple Ridge. For the better part of 10 years, he was coached by Eden and Julian Green. Currently, he is training at the Calgary Olympic Oval in the Stage 2 Short Track program. As well as his training schedule, he is taking online courses and hopes to graduate with his friends at Maple Ridge Senior Secondary.
Marshall is part of the BC team at the 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, Alberta February 15 - March 3.
On February 19 Marshall's mother, Mae sent an update to the author of this piece, Lauren Seaton
"Hi Lauren, Things are pretty exciting out here in the games. Marshall was doing well in the 1500m qualifiers despite being sick but he disqualified in the 2nd round of races by cutting inside and bumped a skater off their track (the other skater didn't fall but lost speed) and so he isn't continuing in this distance.
But he did do well in his 500m qualifying races and will be going into the final rounds on Wed. After his 1500m Marshall was still pretty happy on how he did because he was just happy to be there considering he had a broken ankle last September.
You can follow Marshall on the following websites. His name is S. Marshall Shupe II"
Well Marshall did go into the 500m Wednesday, February 20 and wound up finishing 10th which made him very happy as he finished in the top 10, a great finish considering he had a broken his ankle in September.
(Many thanks to Lauren Seaton of St. George's for submitting this article and photographs)
IMAGES
- Marshall, with the team during the race in 2018.
- Marshall in Mid January at Western Elite Circuit #3 in Calgary, his first day back in competition on his own.