I’m not sure if anyone noticed, but I have been rather quiet on my blog and Twitter lately. It has been quite the month.  I am still not sure what to think of it all, because to be honest, it hasn’t had a chance to sink in.

Last year, when I first heard we were to have Olympic trials, I was nervous. I thought about the sprint race and how the likelihood of a crash or broken pole could happen.  Then, I heard a few months later that we would have two sprint trials races in a row. This gave me some comfort. Over the course of the training season, I focused the majority of my training to classic sprinting to be in good shape for the trials and of course, the Olympics. I became very focused and confident in my ability to easily qualify and be ready for a top result at the Olympics. The nervousness went away. I was racing well in the early season in Yellowstone and Silver Star and I was ready for Olympic trials.

December came and so did the trial’s races. It turned out to be the most unlucky, crazy weekend I could have ever imagined. If I had been injured or not in good enough physical form to win, that would be one thing. The problem was not my shape; it was what I like to call “a series of unfortunate events.” Here is the story of my weekend for those who did not see it.

Day One:

Qualifier: I was leading up the final climb according to the splits. As I descended the big downhill, I crashed and did a flip. Still qualified, but was 21st. Meaning in the event of a tiebreak for selections, I was in a terrible spot.

Heats: The remainder of the day was fine. Skied to 3rd place. Stefan skied a strong final and took the win.

Day Two:

Qualifier: The top seeded skiers cleared out a snow-filled track for the later starters making the first starters very slow in the qualifier, including myself. Not a good start.

Heats: Felt strong and confident in the heats. I was on a mission. In the A final 200m out of the gate, I was behind Jess Cockney when he went down taking me with him. We both broke our poles and were out of contention for a win. Drew skied strong all day and took it.  Nice work Drew.

Normally, I would not write an article like this. I realize that these events are all part of racing and I don’t blame anyone but myself for the results this weekend. It was difficult for me to accept that these events cost me a spot on the Olympic Team.  The holidays have been a great distraction and I have been shifting my focus to the Canmore World Cup and the NorAms this month.

I would like to say that, other than my racing, the weekend was an unbelievable display of the talent and depth we have in Canadian sprinting. You had to work hard to get to the finish line first.  I think the men who are selected are going to be serious contenders in Vancouver.

As for me, I had a great training season and I raced strong in November/December. Now, it’s time to get back out there and win some races. But if I crash again, I’m done…k, that’s a joke

Thanks for reading

SC

This entry was posted on Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 12:24 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.