The idea of creating an Alberta Master Games for those 30-plus has hit home with Albertans, including those from the Cochrane area.

Upwards of 1,000 people are expected to participate in the inaugural games being held Aug. 22 to 25 in Rocky Mountain House and Clearwater County. That includes at least 12 people from Cochrane and many others from Morley, Bragg Creek, Cremona and Rocky View County who will be participating in a range of sports, including pickleball, golf, curling, cycling, hockey and trail run. 

Events include archery, canoeing/kayaking, cycling, curling, darts, golf, hockey, Indigenous games (tomahawk, tug of war, leg wrestling, flour bag competition), pickleball, slo-pitch, triathlon, trail run and para trail run.

The games were created to fill a gap left by other organized games in the province. There are plenty of opportunities to enjoy competing for younger and older athletes but when it comes to those in the 30-plus demographic age group there's a huge void.

The response has exceeded expectations, says Don Wilson, director of Alberta games and marketing for Alberta Sports Connection. By the Aug. 1 registration deadline, participants had registered from 98 Alberta communities.

"Honestly, we thought if we could get 600 that would be pretty successful. We're ecstatic with a thousand people."

"What we wanted to do was to bring forward an event that would be inclusive to more Albertans, so we basically dropped it to the age of 30 and up," explains Wilson.

They also made it an open registration for all but darts to make the games more inclusive while helping provincial associations promote their organizations.

"Those that just wanted to participate as long as they could participate had an opportunity to register for the games. So we'll have quite a diverse range of talent of the participants."

"This type of event we felt would give the parents an opportunity to have an enthusiast's athletic opportunity and hopefully, the whole family would come and enjoy the weekend."

Tom Cochrane closes out the outdoor concert series. To further that aim, a three-day outdoor concert series complements the games. Blackie and the Rodeo Kings are headlining the Thursday night opening ceremony, Sass Jordan and the Russell deCarle Band share the headline Friday and Canadian Music Hall of Famer Tom Cochrane brings it home Saturday.

The master games don't replace the regular summer and winter games of Alberta 55 Plus Sports, he says. Nor does it impact the 55+ Canada summer and winter games.