Awards Take Artistic Bent This Year Winners Will Receive Watercolors, Prints Of Historic Photos

Something old. Something new.

This year’s triathlon awards ceremony will feature a union of athletes and artists. With no pro purse for the second consecutive year, race director Lee Brack has taken a new approach to prizes and scrapped the usual medal awards.

Instead, many top athletes will receive vintage black and white photos of downtown Coeur d’Alene.

In addition, this year’s overall men’s and women’s winners will each take home a watercolor original by nationally known Cataldo artist Carrie Stuart-Parks.

Stuart-Parks said she will feature sailboat images in her paintings. Using soft colors and creating a “misty” look, she plans to combine the abstract with the real.

“It’s a whole bunch of sailboats; you know what you’re looking at but it’s very much a watercolor…very free,” the artist explained. Coeur d’Alene photographer Oscar Steinley has printed about 200 copies of a 1937 photo by the late Leo Oestreicher, a Northwest photographer who lived on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

The prints will go to the top athletes in several race categories. The photo depicts a night scene looking east on Sherman,

Brack sees the prizes as a way to aid the transition from a pro purse race to an age-group race. “The emphasis will be on the age-group athlete. We’ll award them with worthwhile prizes,” he said. “If it works, the word will get out and the numbers will pick up.”

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