June 2010Lighter side of life
I recently did a little tour of many of the McElhanney offices throughout British Columbia and Alberta. The first trip was on Vancouver Island and covered Nanaimo, Courtney and Campbell River. I was travelling with COO John Blair and met him at the ferry terminal in Horseshoe Bay packed and ready to go for our three day road trip. When packing John and I discussed the small possibility that we may be able to get away and play a few holes of golf somewhere during the adventure. That was a pretty easy sell for me so I brought along my golf bag, shoes and prosthesis that I wear for golf. I also brought along gym wear for 3 days in order to do my workouts, and 3 days worth of semi formal attire for the evening Centenary functions that my long time sponsor was celebrating.
What’s my point? I showed up to meet John carrying along a set of golf clubs and a standard (for me anyway) size luggage bag on wheels. Now when I say standard, I’m talking skier standard. John was very kind in his words, but what he really wanted to say was “What did you bring in here?” I suppose when you put in a nearly 10 lb prosthetic, with a few pairs of shoes and clothes for 3 days into a reinforced roller bag weighing 10 lbs empty, it might be a little bit of overkill for a 3 day business trip. Add my golf bag on top of that, and I suppose I looked a little ridiculous walking up to the ferry terminal waiting area. John was quick to point out his tightly packed 20 lb business travel bag that would easily last him more than the allotted 3 days.
I tried to defend myself, but let’s be honest…there isn’t much of a defence.
So I thought I’d at least explain a little bit about my world of travelling. You have heard a lot about the adventures on the hill and my thoughts going through race and training preparation, some of the thrills and spills of everyday life as a ski racer. But what I haven’t explained much is how we manage to move 20-30 people around the world together in unison; quite honestly it’s a full time job in itself.
Let’s take this year’s upcoming summer training camp in Chile for example.
My team mates and I will all meet up for the first time in the Toronto Airport with visions of perfect turns in our heads. But the road to those perfect turns will be….heavy.
There will be about 10 athletes heading to Chile this year; each and every one of us will carry a MINIMUM of FOUR PAIRS OF SKIs. We typically put 4 pairs of skis in one ski bag that weighs somewhere in the neighbourhood of the airline maximum of 70 lbs. More often than not we all approach the check in line with our fingers crossed we get a nice attendant and he/she won’t actually weight our bags. Sit skiers will of course travel with their sit skis, weighing in at about 50lbs, and everyone will have a duffle bag of 50-60 lbs (ski boots are not light). Add on top of all that, two ski technicians carrying tools to be able to do anything in any weather conditions, a physiotherapist with all her medical equipment, a doctor carrying more medical equipment just in case, coaches carrying their ski equipment along with a minimum of 70 gates for training, and throw on top of all that a dryland box weighing in at 50 lbs, two spins bikes for cooling down at the end of the day, some ski poles for good measure and you are everyone behind you in line’s worst enemy. We don’t make any friends at airports.
Whenever we travel we typically rent a U-Haul sized truck and fill it to the brim. We’ve killed the brakes on a number of hill descents, but we do have the packing and unpacking down to an exact science. We can unpack thousands of pounds of equipment and have it ready to go in the most remote of ski locker locations in 30 minutes flat.
More often than not you can hear the mutter under a lot of my team mates’ breaths wishing they had chosen to be swimmers instead.
Some of our team’s adventures, you truly have to see to believe. Travelling light is definitely not in our repertoire. We will get 10 athletes, and 8 staff, from towns all across Canada, each with at least 150 lbs of luggage, through the Toronto Airport, through the 12 hour flight, onto some truck the Chileans call safe, up the 71 switchback turns and 10,000 ft of vertical, into the make shift tuning room made with cages in the underground garage, all in order to slide down a hill as fast as possible. It may sound crazy, it may even be crazy, but it’s the key to our success.
So I may not pack light (I did get my McElhanney travel bag down to a back pack). But at least I come by it honestly. And let’s face it, it could be worse. I could have been an equestrian rider.
Downtime
I’m happy to say I’ve been having a bit of trouble coming up with a topic to discuss this month. Typically throughout the course of a month, somewhere in my travels something pops into my head that spurs on many ideas, and eventually it manifests itself into some coherent piece of writing I like to call my blog.
This past month has been a combination of continuously reliving the events of the past winter, and looking ahead to what I need to do to be successful in the future both in and out of skiing.
I’ve attended a number of events in the past month and met hundreds of curious people who want to know what it was like to ski in the Paralympic Winter Games. The honest answer is I STILL can’t quite put it into words. I have come to the conclusion that it is likely going to take a long time to fully comprehend just what those moments meant. I suspect it will be a day long after my skiing career is over when I can truly reflect and realize the magnitude of everything that has occurred.
Looking ahead, I’m in the process of figuring out how to best juggle skiing and school. I have every intention to compete through the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games. My parents are already starting to save their pennies. Just think what an incredible experience Russia will be. I have 2 years to finish of my BBA degree at Simon Fraser University, and my plan is to have that completed in order to pass from a career in skiing to a career in business when all is said and done.
Finally I want to get my voice out there and do more public speaking. I’ve had some great success with sharing my story over the past 4 years and I want to continue to spread the word about what’s possible after cancer, what it’s like to represent your country at the world highest level, and the story of the Paralympics.
Overcoming cancer at the age of 6 has led to a lot of incredible experiences in my lifetime, far more than I or my family could have ever imagined. I hope that my story can help others overcome obstacles throughout their lifetimes.
As for right now, it’s back to the gym. Sochi will come faster than you know it.
Aftermath
The past six weeks since the end of the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler has continued to be a thrill and has brought some incredible opportunities to share my story.
I had the opportunity to do a keynote speech for the Children’s Wish Foundation Gala dinner in Calgary about three weeks ago. Whenever I do a speech or write a blog it gives me the opportunity to reflect on the past and learn. Shortly before the Wish Foundation dinner I was at home, and I picked up my Paralympic torch from my parents. I had given them the torch because they were going to have a chance to see a lot more people during the games than I was due to my competition schedule. When I picked it up I realized that I carried the torch one day after my mom’s birthday, March 8th, 2010. That happens to be 20 years and 1 day after my original diagnosis with Ewings Sarcoma on March 7th, 1990.
My father said it best, “Never did we imagine that 20 years from that day, we would be standing in Whistler watching you light the cauldron.”
Reflecting back on that day over 20 years ago, brought me a renewed perspective on what a diagnosis like that means to a child and his/her family. Programs like the Children’s Wish Foundation are invaluable in helping those people and it was an honour for me to be able to contribute to such a worthy cause.
Two weeks ago I, along with many of the other Olympian and Paralympians, had the opportunity to go to Ottawa. While Parliament was in session, we walked onto the floor of the House of Commons to a standing ovation from the nation’s MPs. Being in the building was an incredible honour, but being on the floor, and realizing when I turned around that Stephen Harper was the man directly behind me, was another once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget. Meanwhile, while the last group of athletes was walking into the room, the entire House of Commons, unrehearsed and unplanned, broke out into “Oh Canada”. That gave me chills and still does just to think about it.
After the speaker of the house took the time to acknowledge all of the 200 or so athletes in attendance, we walked back out and into another building for a reception with the Prime Minister and the speaker of the house. There each medalist was presented with a flag that was flown on Parliament Hill during the Olympic or Paralympic Winter Games. Stephen Harper gave a completely unrehearsed speech during which he was very emotional about how great it felt for him to have all the athletes in the House of Commons to celebrate the completion and success of the Games.
From there, we had a police escort through the city of Ottawa to the train station, where the train waited for us and held 2 full cars open to accommodate our ride to Montreal.
Ben Mulroney was on the train filming E Talk. After he kicked us out of our seats, we found his make up bag in his old seat and held it hostage until he came over and took a picture with the group. You can’t make these stories up.
We arrived in Montreal to a very welcoming crowd of media and a parade the following day equal to a Stanley Cup Winning Parade. 150,000 people lined the streets that day to celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic games.
It’s amazing to think that 2 months after the end of the Olympic Games, and 1 month after the Paralympic Games, on the other side of our huge country, there were 150,000 people who were still willing to come out to the streets and show their support for the athletes.
The experience since the Games has been, and continues to be, once in a lifetime.
Looking ahead, I took my first training ride with my team mate Morgan Perrin yesterday. The road to the 2011 World Championships in Sestriere, Italy, and the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia has begun.
It’s all over.
Well my countdown has officially ended. The 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are all over and what an experience it was, not only for me, but for everyone in Canada.
My Paralympic experience was an emotional roller coaster. It had incredible highs and lows. There was some uncooperative weather over the 10 days of the Paralympics, which caused delays and eventually a complete reversal of the schedule. For me that meant slalom went from being my last event, with time to work out the butterflies, to first.
I was really excited about slalom in the Paralympics. I finished the overall World Cup season in 7th in the discipline and had been skiing it very well in training right up the day of the event. My warm up went very well and I was calm and knew what I needed to do. Unfortunately that’s where it ended. I skied very poorly in the first run. The course was set quite round up top, and the snow conditions were very poor considering the rain overnight and the warm temperatures over the course of the games, and quite frankly I didn’t adjust well to any of the variables. I got caught up in two sections on the course, one going into the top flats, and again near the finish. I crossed the line in 17th and was devastated.
I don’t know how to put into words how I felt at that point. You could see it. My family and coaches could see it in me, crushed is really the only word that comes close. Nonetheless, I put it all on the line second run, and to add insult to injury I crashed.
I had so many high hopes for slalom, I knew that to have an outside shot at the podium everything had to go right; unfortunately everything went wrong.
Thankfully I had 2 days to recover from slalom, and had downhill to follow. I was really down all that night and the next day, but after many words of encouragement from family, friends, team mates and staff I got things back together and was feeling a lot better by downhill day.
I skied a strong race during the downhill. I made one small error, a slight misjudgment on the speed I was carrying into a section and my timing to start a turn was off, but I rode it out very well and finished in 11th - my best downhill finish in a year and a performance that I was happy with.
The rest of the week on the hill continued to be a roller coaster. Nothing sums that up more than the last day of racing. I felt good going into the Super Combined. I had skied solidly in Super-G the day before and was looking forward to redeeming myself in the second run of slalom. That particular day they decided to reverse the start order, sending the men first, because snow conditions were very hard early in the morning. Again, I crashed, and again, I was crushed. I just didn’t know what to say or do. I went down to my room, got changed, and made my way back to the start to see the second run.
Right after the final racer of the Paralympics had finished, I had a moment that symbolizes how much emotion truly goes into a Games. My coach Brianne skied down to the finish and I saw her for the first time since crashing in her section of the course earlier that day. There was nothing she could do or say, so she just gave me the biggest hug she possibly could. We held on for a long time, and right when we let go, we turned around to watch my team mate and long time friend, Lauren win her 5th gold medal in as many events. We could not have sung Oh Canada any louder than we did that day. Those few minutes are the best snapshot I can give you of the incredible highs and lows that take place over the 2 week span we had in Whistler.
Off the hill the experience of the games could not have been more extraordinary. When I decided after Torino that I needed to move to Whistler, away from my family and friends, to be in the best possible position to prepare for 2010, I did it for the sole reason of skiing, because that is what I wanted to do.
Never did I imagine the effect that that decision would have on not only me, but many people along the way.
I have received hundreds of emails and letters from friends, family, school kids, presidents of companies, and complete strangers saying how much they enjoyed watching me, how much they have cherished following my story and how proud they are just to watch. It profoundly affected people, and I was just doing what I loved to do.
Sure the athletes village was cool and getting free EVERYTHING for 10 days was an amazing perk. My team stayed outside the village and had a private chef (who was incredibly talented) and we were closer than we have ever been as a team. We had first class treatment all the way and there were hundreds of Blue Jacket volunteers who were willing to go that extra mile because we were Team Canada. All of these were amazing experiences and I cannot thank everyone enough.
But the biggest effect that I noticed was on my friends and family. It brought them closer together. My mom was on the verge of tears for a month, my father could not have been more proud, and my brothers had the time of their lives thanks to an amazing program put on by Petro Canada to put 2 family members up in a 5 star hotel for free for the games.
I had nearly 100 friends come up to watch the first weekend of racing. They sat in the grandstands for 5 hours on Saturday, and never saw a thing, except a whole lot of fog. Then they changed the schedule around so that they were not going to be able to watch anything on Sunday either, and the only comments I got from anyone was how amazing it was to be there and how proud they were of me.
When I moved to Whistler, I was willing to concede a few things in order to pursue my dream. I expected to come out of it with little to no money, probably even be in debt. I was willing to sacrifice my schooling and not graduate with my friends. I was willing to end up four years “behind” the world in terms of career and everything else that comes with life. What I gained out of that sacrifice, I will be repaying to the world for the rest of my life.
Thankfully I am not in debt; I met some amazing sponsors along the way, incredible people who offered whatever they could and asked nothing in return but to share my incredible experiences with them. I am privileged to have met all my sponsors and they will remain close to me for the rest of my life. I didn’t graduate with my friends, but the education I have received from skiing has exceeded anything I ever imagined. As for being “behind” in life, when I started this journey I conceded that I would be behind, but looking back on it I’m not sure what I thought I was going to be behind in. I have done nothing but gain from this amazing time. In fact if there is such a thing, I’m much further ahead in life than I would have ever been otherwise.
As I said the last two months has been an emotional roller coaster. Each and every day I remember something new that happened. It is going to take a lot more time to completely reflect on everything that happened and I will forever learn from this experience.
Thank you for following my story all this time. One big chapter is closing, but there are many more chapters to be written. Four years from now it might be written in Russian...
8 Days to go.
On your mark
Well the Olympics have come and gone, and now it is time for the Paralympians to take over Vancouver and Whistler.
In watching the Olympics I learned a lot. It was great to see people that I knew compete on TV and see how they reacted to the pressures of competing at home under the microscope of the world. I learned that the magnitude of the situation will pump you up, so there is no need to try and find that little bit of extra motivation that will make the difference between you and the others; it will simply be there. In fact, I learned that early on you need to calm yourself down because the nature of the situation gives you an extra shot of adrenaline, and I saw a lot of athletes get thrown off their games, or run out of gas near the end of the race because the adrenaline took over too early.
I got a sense of some of the highs and lows that might arise during the course of the events. When you have your friends, family, sponsors, and a nation behind you, the highs of a great race are extremely high, and the lows are agonizingly low. But what I learned from those athletes who competed in multiple events was to work hard at maintaining an even keel, no matter what the outcome of the individual days. It will be a 10 day emotional roller coaster for me and everyone involved, yet I have to be able to stand in the start gate each day, with a clear mind and a precise goal in mind. I hope to keep my emotions steady no matter what the result of the day in order to keep my focus for the next day. There will plenty of celebrating to be had at the end.
I talked to a few athletes about their experience and their only words of advice were to enjoy it and take it all in. I did know this and have been reminded many times to enjoy the moment, because I know from Torino that it happens very quickly and is a once in a lifetime. It was a great reminder and I thank them for that.
I am prepared for the unexpected. Weather was a big story in the Olympic Games, and with the temperatures in Whistler Village at 3 degrees this morning, they are likely to have an effect on my games as well. So we have to be ready for anything, quick changes in schedule, constantly changing snow conditions, stops and starts, followed by more stopping and more starting. There are many different variables that add up to success in my sport and you have to be prepared for all of them. Hopefully we get perfect weather, but that is unlikely and it’s good to be prepared for the worst.
Finally I gained a new appreciation for the power of sport on people and what the competitions mean to Canada. I don’t expect Robson street to fill full of people again when a Paralympian wins gold, but I know that they will have won that medal for more than just themselves, and that there will be people all across the country cheering. It was simply outstanding to see the streets of Vancouver and Whistler over the past two and a half weeks - the outpouring of support was far greater than I think anyone could have imagined. Words cannot describe what it felt like to walk down the streets after Canada won gold. When Biladeau won, a huge monkey was lifted off our nation’s back. When Crosby scored you could hear 35 million people singing our national anthem. The ovation when John Furlong spoke at the closing ceremonies was deafening, and it brought chills to the spine of our entire nation. Never again will Vancouver be the same; the power of sport has changed it forever.
I am ready to go. My dad told me a few days ago that he could see it in my face a week ago. I have been training and preparing for a long time now. I am healthy, I am skiing the best that I ever have, and quite frankly, I’m just ready.
I take all of the things I have learned into 10 days of competition, and I will come out the other end knowing that I have done everything that I could do. I’m looking forward to the journey.
1 Month to go
Grind
There is really only one word I have to describe my 8th World Cup season – grind. I wrote my last blog from just outside our hotel in Innsbruck Austria, an amazing place with stunning views up both sides of the valley to huge mountaintop peaks. We raced on the hill that was used for the 1964 and 1976 Olympics; if you want to see what the hill looked like, and how crazy the skiers were at that time, youtube Franz Klammer’s Gold Medal Run – Innsbruck 1976. It is worth a watch. It certainly gave us a kick to see what the hill looks like then. Needless to say we no longer have hail bails as our safety nets.
What I knew at that time was that it was going to be an incredibly long three weeks, and I was excited and ready to go.
My strongest event has always been slalom and I was excited to have 4 of them in the first 7 days. I skied very well in the first race and finished in 7th place. I was excited for two reasons. One, I knew if I just skied the way I was capable of I should be able to finish amongst the top 7 guys and two I started off the season consistently and finishing races (I finished all of my first 6 races) for the first time in my World Cup career.
I had some other strong results as well in slalom finishing 8th and 10th. I did not finish the final slalom in Austria, but it was a great race overall. I was really pushing the limit on the last pitch and unfortunately got hooked on a gate with about 4 turns to go and was unable to recover. All things considered there were strong results and it gave me a lot of confidence early on in a season for the first time ever.
Having said all that, as skiers we always see areas for improvement and we are constantly trying to push it to that next level. My skiing is at the stage right now where if I can push it one more level, and make that final breakthrough, I will be on the podium. I can taste it and there are moments when it is so close it is agonizing. But I’m not there yet, and each day throughout the first 7 days of racing I wanted to break that door down.
When you are that close to something great it is motivating to continue to push because you know you are right there and it is only a matter of one or two turns that will be the difference between you and the top spot. When you are that close and don’t quite make it, it can also be frustrating beyond measure.
I skied well the final week in Europe. We had two Downhills and two Super-G’s in Sestriere Italy, the home of the 2006 Olympic and Paralympic Alpine events. I finished 12th or 13th more or less each day. Solid results for me in speed events, but again, I was really two turns away from the top contenders. Two mediocre turns that needed to become two great turns.
I continued to try and push it each day and make those two more great turns I needed. But it seemed that when I did in fact make two better turns in areas I felt were important, I would lose it somewhere else that I hadn’t really thought about.
It was an incredible grind, 13 races in 15 days can’t really be summed up any other way. It was exhausting. I never got to have any sort of conversations with my coaches, ever, in three weeks. The great debriefs that I had with team mates in Colorado after every run, never happened because we never saw each other, even if we were in the same rooms.
Early on I was passionate about my skiing - excited for slalom and to show how I could perform. By the end of race 15, I crossed the finish line, left the finish coral and my sports psychologist was standing there; the only thing I said was, “Can we go home now?”
I’ve been home for 7 days now, the jet lag is finally gone and I am finally having time to reflect on the trip. All in all I raced the World Cup season much like I trained all summer long. I thought I was close in slalom, and I was, and I thought I still needed to make one more jump to be amongst the top in the other events, which also turned out to be true.
So now what? Well I have one more big training camp during the Olympics and I’m excited for the opportunity. Usually during our seasons we have little to no time for a training camp and it is very difficult to make improvements during races. I know where I need to improve in all areas to have a chance in March and I am looking forward to the last pull.
As for the passion to ski? Well it didn’t really go away, I was just so out of breath and so exhausted from the three weeks that at that exact moment the only thing I could think about was home. With the Olympic ceremonies less than 2 weeks away now and the build up that you can see around the Vancouver/Whistler area, it is very easy to get back in the gym and continue the hard work. I have spoken to a lot of friends lately and they are all ready to go, which brings me a lot of excitement.
The passion will be a huge source of energy for the next two months. A Paralympic ski race is won or lost in the preparation that happens long before you enter the start gate, I’m excited that I’ve done most of the hard work (still one month to go of course) and that it is time to enjoy the fruits of our labour. I said way back when that when I stood in the start gate I wanted to have a clear mind. Now with one month to go I am excited to say that I am well on my way. When it’s time to start I’ll be ready.
The next two months surely will be long, exciting and once in a lifetime - time to enjoy all the hard work that has been put into this journey and see where that puts me.
1 month to go
2 months to go
A good start – Finally
December always brings the first races of the season. This year I was in Colorado - Copper Mountain and Winter Park to be specific. There was a series of 5 NorAm races in 5 days with a very strong field in my category. The Australian team was there and were skiing well, a Kiwi (New Zealander) who spends his winters in Winter Park was also there and of course the US and Canadian Teams. All in all I had 12 really strong competitors in my field, including 8 World Cup medalists.
Now if you have been following my story for a while, you probably know that historically I haven’t got off to a very good start. In fact, that is a drastic understatement; throughout the 7 previous seasons of my career I’ve started horribly.
My explanation for this is pretty simple. The beginning of the season is always an anxious time when we are trying to prove what progress we’ve made throughout the summer, and I have always entered the season thinking that if I could just ski the way I envision myself skiing I could do well. So I would take unnecessary risks and really get away from what I had actually been training. I always tried to up my game for the race, and now that I look back on it, I was trying so hard, but really had no game plan to follow.
I’m very happy to report that I had a very strong start this season. In 5 races I finished 5th twice, 6th once and capped it off with a 3rd place finish on the last day. It was an outstanding feeling to see my hard work showing good results. I skied very solidly each and every day, and pushed the limit a little more each and every run throughout the week.
I had a 5th place result in Giant Slalom which is historically my weakest event. I finished behind 3 out of 4 previous World Cup winners.
I posted the fourth fastest time in the second run of Slalom after a terrible 10th place finish in the first run. While I wanted more out of slalom that day, I was really happy with how I dealt with the first run disappointment. In the first run I was excited to show what I could do because slalom is my best event. I knew from the previous day’s results that I had a chance at the podium and I entered the day extremely confident, but without any sort of game plan. Needless to say when I felt the nerves in the start I didn’t deal with them very well and culminating with that was a big mistake right before the flats at the bottom and I didn’t get the result I was looking for. But, I was able to realize what I had done wrong, and, most importantly able to regroup in the lodge, and I went out and did the second run much more like I had been training the week before. After a great second run I vaulted up the leader board to a much more respectable 5th place finishing position.
I went into the last day of racing in Colorado feeling great about how things had been going. I had built from each and every day and was finally starting to ski the way I had been skiing in training, which is a lot harder to do on race day than you might think.
The final day was Super Combined - one run of Super G and one run of Slalom.
I skied most of the Super G run very well, all but about 6 turns in the tough, steep, fast, middle section of the course. I had trouble really linking my turns in the section and chiselled off a lot of time in those few turns. I knew it while it was happening but for whatever reason wasn’t able to let it flow. After that I was determined to make it up on the bottom section of the course and really charged the final section. I finished 6th in the run, but was aware that if I could have been a little smoother in the middle I would have been much closer to the podium and possibly even on it.
Nonetheless I had a second run, and knew I could make up spots in slalom. This time around I had a good game plan and stuck with it.
Finally I skied a run like I had been training. It was probably one of my best slalom race runs in my career and it put me in the third place for the day.
I’m very happy with my start and even happier that I was able to get better each and every day. I finally turned the tides and was able to start off a season with a lot of positives.
After a great Christmas at home and a little fun, I’m back in the gym this
week, for the final push to the World Cup season. I’m very excited – more importantly I have a game plan, and I’m sticking to it.
3 months to go
The sprints within a Marathon
Race season is about to start and the focus of the world is starting to shift towards Vancouver, Whistler and the Canadian athletes. I will be heading down to Colorado in a few days, where we will compete in a series of NorAm races at Copper Mountain and Winter Park. There are going to be some great skiers there and it is going to be my first test to see where I currently stack up.
I’ll be training for about a week before we kick off the race season. Then I’ll compete in 5 races in 5 days, a tough task as each race day is both physically and mentally taxing.
January is even more intense. My team mates and I travel to Europe and race more or less everyday for a span of 3 weeks. Then we come home, rest for a few days, head off to a training camp before making our way to World Cup Finals in Aspen, and then to Whistler for the Paralympic Winter Games.
What’s the point? Well each and every day we all try to get up and put forth our best possible performance. It’s really easy to get excited about performing early in the season; I’ve just come off a great off season and really have been skiing well in training.
I’m pumped to see how I stack up against some of my greatest competition. It is always a bit difficult in training to really know where I stand because there is only my team mate Morgan and myself who compete in the same class. We use timing nearly every day through October and November, and we obviously know who won each given run, but we have no idea where that might put us in a World Cup field. We both feel like we are currently skiing well, but the true test doesn’t come until that first race. That feeling of not knowing creates some nerves and anxiety and we are so eager to finally get an understanding of how that off season training has paid off.
Knowing the anxiety that I face, and the energy of the first race of the season there is one thing that I do have to remain conscious of ; while each race is a sprint where it is all out for 90 seconds or less, the season is a marathon and we need to pace ourselves as we go.
As I said it is very easy to be pumped up for the first race of the season. It’s easy to get too pumped up actually. Once we get into the heart of the season it becomes increasingly difficult to get ourselves ready to race each and every day. One day can seem to blend into the next and it’s easy to get lost in the grand scheme of things.
The strategy: pace yourself out of the blocks so that you have enough for the big kick at the finish. I’m not saying that I’m going to take it easy for the first set of races, what I’m saying is I have to be aware of the amount of energy I am using each and every day so I don’t overdue it early. You can’t win an Olympic marathon if you walk the first 10 km, but you can lose it if you sprint.
Colorado is going to be a great test, and I plan to put down several solid performances and see how I stand at the end of the day. But how I ski in December doesn’t guarantee anything in March and that will always be in the back of my mind.
3 months to go.
4 months to go
Health
Lately the questions I’ve been asked the most are: “Are you healthy?” And, “How will you stay healthy until games time?”
I remember a few years ago, when Daniel Igali (Olympic gold medalist in wrestling from the 2000 Games in Sydney) was about to enter a competition, he was asked if he was 100% healthy. His reply was, “If any athlete tells you he’s 100% healthy he’s lying to you”.
I think in skiing, like in any sport, there are always bumps and bruises, and aches and pains that come with the territory. When you choose a profession where your job is to hurl yourself down an icy slope at over 100 km/h you can’t help but feel the pain every once in a while. Even if you have a perfect training camp, the rigors of pounding your body day in and day out take its toll, and you come out of the camp a little achy.
I guess the only way to truly be 100% healthy is to not train, and we all know the outcome of that.
Yes, I am healthy – this would be your cue to knock on wood – minus a cold I got when on the road and the bumps and bruises that come with a long training camp in Sass Fee Switzerland over the past 2 weeks.
“How do you stay healthy until games time?”
Whenever I ask athletes from other sports if they have ever skied, their reply is typically – I’m not allowed to. Why? Because skiing is one of those sports that are “high risk” and they sign contracts saying they won’t ski in order to stay healthy for their sport. By contrast skiers don’t sign contracts saying they won’t go curling on their off days – I actually had that conversation with 2002 Olympic bronze medalist curler Georgina Wheatcroft a few weeks ago - no offence to the curlers out there, and no offence to Georgina at all, an Olympic bronze medal is an incredible accomplishment no matter how you slice it.
There are inherent risks in our sport. Some are from the everyday pounding of the knees, hips and backs. Slalom skiers make so many turns in a day, and hit so many pieces of 47mm plastic that the body can’t help but be a bit out of shape when the day is over. Downhill skiers face tremendous forces from the incredibly high speeds, terrain changes, and landings.
There really is no event that is “easier on the body” than any other; they all have their risks and you take a licking no matter what.
Couple all that with the fact that you travelled half way around the world to get to a training location, in planes, trains and cars that are breeding grounds for colds and flus, and you have a health nightmare.
Notice how I’m avoiding the question… My media training is coming into play nicely right now. Have you ever noticed how hockey players answer whatever question they are asked with the same answer? “We were able to get the puck in deep, outfought them on the boards and that guy in net really played great today” – don’t think that is an accident; they’ve been trained just as I have.
But, I’m not that cruel; I am going to give you an answer. How do I stay healthy until games time?
I will make sure I take all the necessary precautions, all of which are pretty simple. Just like the best way to avoid the H1N1 is to wash our hands, the best way to avoid getting sick on the road – wash our hands.
It may seem boring and simple but it really is the only answer, we don’t have a miracle trick to stay healthy.
On the ski hill, we have to train, and we have to continually push ourselves to be better as the season goes on. We have to take chances and we can’t take it easy, because our competition won’t, and we’re fooling ourselves if we think we can ski less and beat the best in the world.
What we can do is pick our spots for training, and adjust our schedules, as best as possible for the rigors of the season. When the weather is bad or the snow is soft and the risks of injury are higher, we might decide to make that our rest day, or gear down and work on our technical skill that day as opposed to going all out. When our bodies are in pain, we take every precaution to ensure it doesn’t get worse. We have a physiotherapist, doctors and trainers to help us make those decisions.
We do our best to stay fit and strong throughout the long season, because being in the best possible shape helps with avoiding those nagging injuries. We eat as best we can in order to give our bodies the best fuel for competition, training and recovery. Finally when we do get a chance to rest, it is very important to take it and allow our bodies to recover and regenerate.
The truth, injury is always possible in skiing. We do everything we can to prevent it, but it can still happen and there is nothing we can do about it. We understand the risks when we step out on the ski hill, and we accept them.
I will have to ski in pain at some point this season; hopefully it’s just not when the games are under way. But we prepare for that possibility just as we prepare for every other. There is no way to guarantee staying 100% healthy from now until March – it is just part of the game.