pre nationals...

To my great enjoyment, the National Championships this year were held in a place I had never been! This to me is always one of the highlights of racing. I have discovered more of Canada from traveling to ski races, than any other way. This new place was the great white north... so I thought. As far north as it is, there are no igloos, or great, vast frozen oceans. it is merrily a place which is a little colder than where I am from, and the sun light is incredible! The huge mountains are far from intimidating, they are not steep as I am used to in whistler, they don't block the view, the just enhance it. The majestic slopes are deceivingly long and large, and the peaks, in the region, are the highest in the country. Yet the huge Panoramas are appreciated with the sun not setting until 8:30 to 9:00. Enough said, I was simply blown away!

I will leave the suspense for photos to come.

until than.

C

CHEESE!

With the Olympic Hangover easing now (i hate using that word because it sounds way too cliché and overused), maybe i'll just make a metaphor to describe how people might feel after Olympic Games.Living through the Games as a spectator is incredible, you live EVERY moment with the athletes, every single high and low impacts you in some way. for me it was even before the games had started. Nodar Kumaritashvili, the Georgian Luger who tragically lost his life at the whistler sliding center on the day of the opening ceremonies was the first moment for me. I never met him, never even saw the accident (my choice) but i felt as though someone i knew had passed. it was the scariest thing to hear about it struck me way to close to home. my thoughts are still with him. Following this extremely sad moment the opening ceremonies were the complete opposite, even being on the same day it was a complete celebration of canada. it made me feel incredibly canadian and extremely joyous. this roller coaster ride of emotions kept going through out the whole games, knowing that some athletes missed the podium, or the gold medal by fractions of seconds and points was tough, and being an athlete i know what that feels like. that moment plays its self over and over in you head for days, nights, even months. you keep telling yourself that if you had that moment back you knew exactly what you had done wrong and that you'd fix it. but thus is the beauty of sport. it is that singular instant in time, that fraction of a second, which makes athletes, athletes. the ability to act without thought, but with full intention, to put everything you have learned and practiced to one goal. Gold.

for every near chance, we, as a country managed to put gold on the podium. this blew my mind. i will allude to my previous post and say that after the rocky start, we proved that we could own the Podium. 14 Golds! incredible. toping this incredible medal haul, on the last day was the mens gold medal performance where as with Bilodeau (the PERFECT HERO), someone, somewhere, wrote the golden moment for Canadian hockey. Canada's Golden Boy, scored the golden goal. Sidney Crosby is one of those athletes. where, when the pressure mounts (overtime, after blowing a to goal lead) they find a way to do what has seemed impossible for so long. score on the best goalie in the tournament!

following this incredibly emotional 16 days (both up and down) came March 1st. and this was as if your heart got broken by the love of your life. it was a low beyond lows. the village was empty, the busses were gone, the police officers at every corner were gone, and the driving restrictions were gone. i almost wanted all the hassle to come back. it was as if any second i'd wake up and everything was back to normal (Olympic busy), but no. it was over. Olympic Hangover? i think in whistler thats just from all the partying. olympic withdrawal is different, you don't feel sick, noxious, or dizzy. you feel as though you were left on the side of the road in the middle of no where with your heart broken.

but as with everybody else. i am just fine! here are a few pictures to keep motivated for four years from now!

the title is cheese, for no related reason other than i had delicious cheese this morning which my mother sent back with me from Ottawa. it was very good!

enjoy the pictures!

C

well, i am back!

It seems that I always try and write short posts so that I don't bore people with novels. But that is too hard when I only put a post every month or so. So, my plan: frequent shorter posts! Thats a promise!

This past month and a half has been a whirlwind adventure of Olympic proportion! Thats right, I said it, the Big 'O' came to town! To keep This post short, I will leave some things out to tell in later posts! First off, to all the Own the Podium critics; how about that medal count? Sure we weren't first overall, but a nation has never in OLYMPIC HISTORY had its anthem played 14 times at a games... Since EVER! Secondly, in the overall count, we were 3rd, two spots below where we wanted to be. But the fact remains thats the goal of every Country, to win! We DID top our best ever medal haul by 2! Now how is that grounds for complaint.

I do have to say, as an athlete who is not yet at that level but is striving to be, the funding for our type of athlete is still dismal. And if the Country ever wants to literally Own the Podium in medals and deepening of athlete pools, we need much more money to be able to perform at the level.

Now my ranting put aside, for me, these games represented exactly what I am striving for. After all the goal of skiing to compete, and perform is to put more Canadians on the Podium!

So to me, these were the most inspirational, moving, and CANADIAN games i have ever witnessed! I was one proud kid during this time. Walking through the Whistler Village and taking part in spontaneous rounds of O'Canada, and different cheers. A truly Canadian, party!

The whirlwind adventure is now partially over, and it is now time to reflect and put that inspiration into my training and racing, though I have already started.

another short one to come soon, with some pictures!

Cheers!

C