Friday, February 7th, 2025

Larry Sinclair wanted to get people out on snow.

He was passionate about Nordic skiing and dedicated much of his adult life to advancing the sport.

“He always really believed that getting people on snow as early as you can is really beneficial,” said his daughter Kelly Sinclair.

“He always raced but coaching was his big passion. He was just one of those people who wanted to give rather than rely on people. That was the idea with Highlands, he wanted a place where people could just come and ski and learn and it didn’t matter if you were an athlete or if you just wanted to go out and ski or whatever. Getting other people out on snow was more important than anything.”

The Sinclair family, owners of Highlands Nordic near Duntroon, is at the centre of the local cross-country ski community and Larry’s influence reaches throughout the province and the country.

“It really started with my grandpa. They spent so much time skiing when he was younger,” said Kelly.

Larry and his father, Jim Sinclair, started out making trails at Duntroon Highlands golf course in the winter. Eventually the family bought property next door, building Highlands Nordic into a ski destination, training centre and home of the Highlands Trailblazers.

Larry raced as a high school student with the Collingwood Collegiate Institute team and later began racing with the University of Guelph team when he went to school there. When the team was in need of coaches, Larry stepped up.

Kelly said at university, where he studied agriculture, Larry was racing and coaching at the same time.

“He was always a bit of a wannabe farmer, hence all the animals that we have, the turkeys, the cows, the sheep and the pigs. Any empty field, he was always trying to get something in it…He was always trying to use the land that we have,” said Kelly.

“He truly believed that manual labour is an excellent training tool for athletes. Every summer we had somebody living in our basement, training and working for dad.”

Kelly said his trainees could often be found throwing hay bales, stacking wood or cutting trees.

“Those athletes are always coming back,” said Kelly. “We see them often.”

Larry’s enthusiasm for the sport and his kindness earned him many long lasting friendships in the ski community.

Many people consider Highlands Nordic to have a family atmosphere.

Kelly said that sense of community became apparent on Sunday when she left Highlands Nordic to be with her family and many people jumped in to help, keeping the doors open and the day’s events on track.

Larry competed at the provincial and national level. He was a wax technician for the Canadian team at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary. As a coach, in 1989, he led the first Canadian team to the World University Games in Bulgaria. In the 1990s he switched focus from coaching skiers to coaching coaches and became a course conductor.

He is a past recipient of the Heinz Niederhauser Coaching Award and was recently inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame.

Larry died at home in Duntroon on Sunday, Jan. 25, with family, after an illness with colon cancer, at the age of 58.

A private funeral service with family and close friends will take place on Tuesday.

A celebration of life is planned for the spring to include the wider ski community.

Donations can be made in Larry’s name to the Highlands Trailblazers through Cross Country Canada.

Visit www.cccski.com.

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