Each time 16-year-old Yorke Parkin took the podium in Turin, Italy, for a gold medal last March, he unzipped his jacket and patted two badges sewn inside.

One was for Devyn Gale, a fellow ski racer, swimmer and firefighter who died in 2023 responding to a fire near Revelstoke. The other honoured Aleesha Kaler, a friend and fellow Special Olympics athlete who Yorke loved playing bocce and curling with. She died in Revelstoke last year at 29.

At his home in Big Eddy on Wednesday, April 2, exhibiting his three look-alike gold medals from the Special Olympics World Winter Games, Yorke can still point out the tooth indent on the one he earned (and a bit in celebration) for his giant slalom race.

"My strong suit is slalom," he told Black Press Media.

Yorke sailed out of his three Special Olympics events with flying colours, beating the runners-up in his slalom, giant slalom and super giant slalom by five seconds, 2.5 seconds and less than half a second, respectively. Even forgetting to tie up his boots before his super-G run couldn't stop his triumph.

He said his Team Canada coach, Saige Beaumont, was thrilled about his performance, while his mother, Bex Reid-Parkin, was pleased his family got so much quality time with Yorke on the event grounds.

"It was really exciting because we got to celebrate (together)," she said, which was especially important for Yorke's sister Monica, who'd flown in from London, U.K.

With Bex and seven other relatives in attendance all sporting "Team Yorke" T-shirts, Yorke secretly sported his own "I'm Yorke" tee underneath his ski gear. Days before the games kicked off, he met with more than 100 other Canadian winter athletes in Toronto before collectively boarding a plane for Turin. Only a few in the Team Canada cohort were as young as him. When they finally reached the Italian Alps, they were in for a pleasant surprise.

"The very first day we were there, it snowed like 20 centimetres," he said, describing how it kept the ski racing course conditions constantly changing. "It's more like Canadian snow."

Along with competing in his three alpine skiing events, Yorke was elected to be Team Canada's flagbearer at the closing ceremony. It was quite the honour for his Special Olympics debut, though he reflected that the ceremony organizers did a poor job staging and filming the flagbearers' appearances.

"It was this huge surprise - and we couldn't see it," Bex said.

Yet in all his competitor events, Yorke came out on top.

"I was the fastest," he affirmed, adding that "it was stiff competition" across the board. Each division fits only four to eight athletes, of the dozens vying for a spot.

"If you mess up your division (run), you could get put in a lower competition," he explained, emphasizing the importance of achieving the fastest qualifying time. "I always wanted to have the fastest time because I wanted to go down the soonest."

During the many hours spent waiting patiently between events, "sometimes we would just sit in this tent and have hot chocolate," Yorke fondly recalled.

Making the advanced skier category, Yorke is among the youngest Team Canada athletes to ever achieve this qualifier at the Special Olympics World Winter Games. Even more remarkably, he was the first among all this year's Canadian athletes competing, even the substantially older ones, to earn gold at the Winter Games.

"We were just hoping he would be in the top five," Bex admitted.

"I thought I wouldn't win at all," said Yorke, who'd thought to himself arriving in Italy that he'd see bad results.

As he thrived in his events, he quickly became a role model between races for other athletes, both Canadian and international.

Due to his racing experience, "pretty much my job is an athlete who's also a coach because people look up to me," he said.

This went as far as him fixing skis for a fellow Canadian competitor, whose family found Bex in the crowds to acknowledge Yorke's helping hand.

"I love that he's getting medals, but it's really great to see him helping out," she remarked. "It feels pretty great when other families are coming to find you to thank you for your son."

By no means was preparing for the games a ski in the park for Yorke. His three medals marked the culmination of four years of training, which included a stint back on the slopes of his mother's native New Zealand, and a fast-tracked recovery from a concussion he sustained at Christmas, less than three months before Italy.

Overcoming brain injury ahead of a sport event is never a small feat, but due to Yorke's Noonan syndrome diagnosis from a young age, "it just takes him a lot longer to recover from things," Bex emphasized. She noted he's often covered in bruises to this day.

Yorke shared that he also nearly quit ski racing multiple times as a kid, especially when his favourite coach left town. Even to this day, he joked that his training regime tends to go something like "wake up, complain about skiing, go skiing, go home and complain about skiing." In truth, he's dedicated himself to four days per week at Revelstoke Mountain Resort and two to three days per week at the gym, along with weekly sessions of club fit, curling, swimming and, until a year ago, dance (his favourite style being hip hop).

Despite Noonan syndrome impeding young Yorke from walking until age two, and running until age four, "dance really helped him get (more stable) in his body," Bex said.

Yorke also thinks about the efforts that other Special Olympics athletes put in every four years, and the challenges impeding them. He said it would make a big difference for many athletes' success if their programming started earlier in their childhood, rather than in their teens or 20s.

Of the 2025 Team Canada cohort, "some of them hadn't even started skiing until my age, so that is why I think I do so well, because I started so much earlier," explained Yorke, who first tried skiing at age six.

He'd also like to fill a gap in Special Olympics programming by starting a dedicated ski racing team in Revelstoke, which would require a certain number of participants but could follow the same schedule as the Revelstoke Ski Team that Yorke trains with. He's even considering coaching the Nancy Greene ski program next year, so he can help other young athletes reach their full competitive potential.

However, there's something bigger on his list: "Changing the stigma around what it means to be in the Special Olympics."

Bex explained that athletes can feel negatively judged for participating in the games, based on some people's preconceived notion of what disability should look like for eligible athletes, which can deter other potential Special Olympians. Yorke made it clear that not all disabilities are visible, even offering himself as an example. Would a passerby notice he struggles with Noonan syndrome as an athlete, and deem him eligible?

"I know (other) people in Revelstoke that would qualify, but it's just that stigma," Bex said.

Anyone who believes they belong in the Special Olympics, she added, should belong.

Community members may join a celebratory barbecue for Yorke and Special Olympics Revelstoke fundraiser from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 12, at the 1st Impressions Hair Salon parking lot off First Street East.