Another year is fini and this time its the fabled 2010 that has arrived. After the Olympics were announced so many years ago "2010" always just referred to our home olympics. It is really hard to think about it as an actually year versus an event! I was very lucky to come through the ski racing system just as it was getting injected with funding from Olympic Programs such as Legacies Now. Without these games many young athletes like myself would probably not still be competing due to the high cost of becoming an elite athlete! So even if I don't get to compete in the 2010 olympic games they are a huge part of how I became an athlete. They provided the funding, the motivation and the programs needed to get to where I am today. I am eternally grateful! So now that 2010 has actually arrived it feels quite bizarre. I guess it is time to start planning new long term goals and thinking about the rest of 2010!
Before I start that though I guess I should give a little update on the past few days. ON the 28th of December we once again boarded planes and travelled over to Quebec. We drove to a place called Val St. Come about 2 hrs from Montreal. It is about 40 mins from Tremblant. But I still have really no idea where it actually is! It was incredibly remote for a ski race. There was no cell reception ( a VERY important asset to people who are CONSTANTLY away from family and friends) and it cost $20 for internet-so that was not happening either! I did two days of training on the race hill. On my third run on the second day I felt a sharp pain in my lower back and stopped skiing for the day early. 5:30 AM the next morning myself and my coach Tim drove an hour to St. Jerome to visit a physio. It turned out that I had slipped a disk at L5. No wonder I was so sore! At first they didn't want me to ski the races in Val St. Come in case I might re-injure my back which could take me out for 2-3 more weeks. However these races were incredibly important so instead I was told to take lots of pain killers and anti-inflammitories (all legal) and was shown how to tape my back.
In the middle of all this was New Years! It was a fairly mundane event. However it should be mentioned that we usually don't get to celebrate it anyway so it wasn't disappointing to not celebrate it. We bought a bottle of wine, chocolate turtles and marshmallows and played a game of Uno ( a card game) with the Alberta Team girls. THis was finished by 10 at which time we watched a little of the Canada-USA junior hockey game. Bored of that we watched part of Pirates of the Carribbean 3. We realized we missed the toll of 12 half way through the movie so we turned it off and went to bed! Very exciting yes?
I got through my races though I was a little disappointed with my results. I came 8th the first day and 5th the second. But I guess I should be grateful that I could ski at all considering the alternative! On the second run the second day I got shot into the backseat and twisted my back slightly. Anyway now my back is fairly sore again. Today I am taking a day off. Tomorrow we start our GS races in Mont. Ste. Anne and the rest of my team is out right now training some GS. I definitely wish I was out there training right now but I think the health of my back is number 1 right now. I am hoping to race tomorrow but I am also trying to make sure that I am making the right decision to keep me healthy for the rest of the year!
On another note over the past month we have lost 6 Canadian Team Athletes to injury. John Kucera suffered a compound tib-fib break in Lake Louise. While we were in Panorama there was a four day streak were we lost JP Roy, Francois Bourque, Larisa Yurkiw and Kelly Vanderbeek to ACL (and other ligament) injuries. Yesterday we lost Anna Goodman to another ACL injury. I don't think there has ever been so many injuries within such a short amount of time! It is really sad as all 6 athletes were medal contenders for this Olympics. Having been in the position of being the injured athlete I know how disappointing it is to have to take a season off. However I can't even fathom the extra hardship of missing out on the Olympics. Sending my best to all those athletes and hoping for a fast healing process for each of them!
Elli
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