Two Revelstoke women were part of a bronze medal winning dragon boat team at the B.C. Seniors Games held last weekend in Richmond, B.C.

“When we came third I couldn’t believe it,” said Ginger Shoji, 59. “We were really elated and really exhausted.”

Shoji and fellow Revelstokian Barb Little were both members of the Shuswap Silver Dragons that raced at the games.

Shoji, a cancer survivor, had her first encounter with dragon boat racing when she was receiving cancer treatments in Kelowna. As she was walking along the lake shore, a team that was practising waved their paddles at her, acknowledging her baldness and the struggle she was going through.

The sport is popular amongst cancer survivors because it helps with recovery and strengthening after the lymph nodes are removed.

Several years later, in 2002, she was contacted by the Salmon Arm team through a survivors support group and joined them, making the trip to Salmon Arm twice a week to practice.

In the fall of 2005 Shoji started up a Revelstoke team, called the Dam Survivors, and with the help of the community, she had a team and a brand new boat in the water by May 2006.

“The reason we started it in Revelstoke is because we thought it would be a great thing to get anybody that has cancer out from isolation and back into life,” said Shoji. “It basically gives you back your life. It’s just incredible. It’s a stress buster, it’s so beautiful up on the water, you get a really good workout and exercise is really important for your mental health.

“Plus the fact there are 20 other people paddling with you and you really feel the power of everyone coming together.”

A dragon boat team consists of 20 paddlers, a steersman, who helps guide the boat, and a drummer, which gives the race a tribal feeling.

Little, a third-generation Revelstokian, started dragon boat racing three years ago.

She loved the feeling of getting out on Lake Revelstoke and practicing with the team.

“It became more of an escape from your everyday stress of the job, being out on the lake,” she said. “When we started to race I got hooked into it. I guess I’m pretty competitive.”

For the Seniors Games, Shoji and Little joined the Sicamous Silver Dragons. Before going to Richmond they practiced with the team six times under the guidance of coach Reg Janzen.

“He would say, ‘Alright ladies, we’re not going down there to fool around and piddle-paddle. We’re going down to win some medals. Just remember, it’s just a bunch of old ladies so we won’t have any trouble,’” said Little with a laugh.

Shoji described the atmosphere at the games as both friendly and competitive. Teams set up in tents along the course and would shout friendly taunts at each other while warming up.

“It’s as competitive as 60-year-olds are at a sport they’re mostly new at,” said Little.

Battling both the tides and the current on the Fraser River, The Silver Dragons won their first two races, which put them directly into the finals. There they finished third, giving them the bronze medal.

“It was pretty emotional,” said Little. “The team, we all didn’t really know each other, but we gelled in those four days down there and then winning and knowing we’d paid attention to our coach and just gave it our all.

“Everyone just gave it their all. I didn’t have anything left in me that last race.”

Both women hope to take part in the 2010 games in Comox, B.C. “”I can’t wait until next year,” said Little. “It’s a blast.”