I laugh as I write this heading because I have no fashion sense at all! But I was fortunate to be apart of this super fun photoshoot in Calgary's Avenue Magazine. Colin Way is a very talented photographer, Carl Abad chose awesome pieces from his store "Worth" on 17th Ave in Calgary and Teslin Ward did beautiful work with make up as well as helped me get ready for a fund raiser later that night "Gold Medal Plates"! Thanks guys it was great working with you! Check out the Feb 2010 issue of Avenue on news stand or online here:

Magazine

Video Segment

World Champion!!! Has a nice ring to it! Yes this was the goal at the beginning of the season, building momentum, attempting to do my absolute best on every track in the world to see if I was capable of success with such diversity. Not only are all the tracks in the world different, but every week is different. Confidence, environment, health, training; it all plays a part in the outcome at the end. And I will be the 1^st to admit that there were weeks this year that I had no reason to be confident. There were weeks that I could have crawled in a hole and hid from the world. But in the end on race day it is what you make of it. When I stand on the line ultimately it is me, my sled (White Lightening) and the track and nothing else matters. Yes I can draw on positivity to help me, but anything negative will have to wait until tomorrow. Sickness, injury, personal problems, it can all wait until tomorrow. This is the life and the mindset of an athlete. It is selfish, but it just is what it is and those who love me unconditionally understand. I am fortunate I have those people in my life who I define as my family. Those people who worry about me daily and get to talk to me via email, texts and the random short phone conversation. My family has been my greatest support and inspiration throughout this journey and its sad that they receive the short end of the stick. Because it’s always my training, my coaches, sponsors, media, my recovery that comes first. But ultimately they have the same goal as I do…. Gold in Whistler…

I don’t have a lot to report on this week. Igls, Austria is a pushers track, if you have a fast start you will have a fast down time. I was worried with being as sick as I have been and not being able to keep up with my dry land training that I would fall behind the other girls at the start. But I was able to maintain a decent push that in the end won me a bronze medal, missing silver by a mere 3/100ths. Being on the podium this race was a bonus, winning the Overall World Cup was the goal. And by no means was it an easy feat! Shelley Rudman was on my tail heading into the world cup finale and she was also the reigning Igls World Cup Champion. I had my work cut out for me. She had great training runs and I was a couple of tenths behind her each run. When I was putting my suit on before the 1^st race run, Shelley came out of her way to give me a big hug and wished for me to have a great race. That has been our year. We have a friendly rivalry. Honestly, I have to give her a ton of credit to the success I’ve had this season. If she weren’t right there ahead of me or behind me pushing me to have my best runs, I wouldn’t have had the success. Once again this race we finished next to each other. I was 3^rd… she was 4^th… After the 1^st run I was sitting in 2^nd and she was 3^rd. I was lined up behind her on the start as we had been all season long. I heard her down time, 2/10ths behind Kerstin Symkowiak, of Germany, and I felt sad. I knew something had gone wrong. It’s not like Shelley to drop back. I slid down the track and even though I fell behind Kerstin as well I was ecstatic with what I had accomplished. World Cup Champion! I would be wearing bib #1 at the Olympic games. In my mind it will be the most pure Olympic experience I can imagine. With all of the battles I’ve had on the Whistler track, crashes, stitches, broken sled and a concussion; the only way I overcame it was to put everything aside and focus on White Lightening, the Whistler track and myself. That will be what I do on Feb 18 & 19, 2010. Put aside the 145km/hr speeds, 12 000 fans trackside, the millions of Canadians expecting a gold medal. For those 4 Olympic race runs I will be completely selfish and it will only be about me, White Lightening and the Whistler track…

Check out some articles about this past race and cheer loud for me at the Olympic games, I will hear you…

Randy Starkman in Toronto Star…

Media Picks for Canadian Flag Bearer…

My Dad’s heartfelt blog on CBC…

Globe and Mail’s coverage

Calgary Heralds

Silver in St. Moritz is sweet victory for me! 4/100ths of a second I finished behind Great Britain’s Shelley Rudman and sometimes that would make you wonder all the “woulda, coulda, shoulda’s” but in my situation, after the week I had I was probably happier than Shelley! I started my week off blind, literally! Our first day of training on the only natural track in the world, it was about -15C. I wanted to see what was going on in the 1^st kink (a little corner) so I was outside ready to go for about 5 minutes watching the 2 sliders before me. The track was cleared for me and I put my hot, sinus-infested noggin in my freezing cold helmet. I didn’t do a big warm up because of my cold and I knew I needed to conserve as much energy this week as possible. I pushed my sled and was sliding through the 2^nd kink and all of a sudden the fog started to set in on my visor! I have a double visor, so this is a rare occurrence.  Yes, I’ve been down the St. Moritz track many times in my career, but it being a natural track built out of snow and ice from the lake, it is a different track every year. Sliding through “Wall” the 1^st long corner on the track thick ice crystals had taken over my vision and I had to be a tourist on my sled. I lied helplessly on my sled, praying to get down the track alive. Typically on race day we reach speeds over 135km/hr, I was trying to stay as calm as I could to not let the panic set in that something bad could happen. I couldn’t even draw on my peripheral vision to guide me. I was completely blinded… As I was rocketing down the track on instinct I was counting corners to at least prepare my body for a certain feeling, and ironically enough I totally forgot about the corner called “Nameless” a quick left hand corner before a series of 4 right hand corners. That was a bit of a shock! Thankfully, I made it to the bottom safely, but my nervous system was taxed as I got off my sled, my quads were quivering uncontrollably! I sat in the bottom house, thanking my lucky stars and chuckling that I took one for the team, I took the “neutral line” the entire way down the track so now we can learn from video how to go fast!

The 2^nd day of training was the same game plan; conserve energy. I had a good preload for training and I felt like I had a nice long stride so I decided I better go with it, practice running as far as possible. I loaded at the unlucky spot of the day where the ice had all chipped away and my sled was sideways as I was getting on. I landed hard on my ribs and then smashed into the rigid St. Moritz short wall. Great! Sprained ribs, just what I need to deal with for the next month! 2^nd run of the day I thought I had better check out the other groove, just incase the same thing happens on race day, so I can learn how to get around the 1^st kink. It was tough because I power skidded all the way through the 1^st corner. 4 runs down the track and normally I am learning a lot, but at this point I was frustrated, feeling like I had wasted 4 runs and I was behind the rest of the field.

Then next two training days weren’t much better, in fact the day before the race I was ranked 11^th. Yes, training is training, but you want to find confidence in your lines to build momentum for race day. You could say I was running on fumes from Kongissee. I could see that Willi was a bit panicked with my training and I had to remind him the race was tomorrow and despite my training I felt I did learn a bit this week and I was EXCITED about the race. Was I lying…hmm… no, I wasn’t excited where I felt like something big was going to happen, but I was excited by the challenge of being beaten down all week and looking like I would be lucky to finish in the top 10. I knew this would be great practice for what is really important the Olympic Games on Feb 18 & 19^th.

Race day I showed up to the track and had a pretty good warm up, despite my illness all week. I wasn’t able to do any dry land training this week, so my nervous system was flat. I drew #3, another con against me at the spectacular Swiss track. Because it is a natural track the ice gets faster later in the draw as more sleds slide down the ice. I knew it would be important for me to be ME… Matt Brown one of our sport psyches joined our team this week and the night before the race he reminded me of my sliding instincts. Despite my training he believed I was still the favorite headed into this race. It was nice to know that someone still believed in me… Standing on the line that was my focus, instincts, plain and simple. I barely moved on my sled all the way to wall, a clean effortless line! I had little mistakes here and there on the track, but when I crossed the finish line my time was 1:10.45, 9/100ths ahead of Shelley Rudman, the reigning St. Moritz champion, yes I was only the 3^rd athlete to go out of 20, but I knew I had a solid run. The remaining athletes made their way down the track and leader board stayed the same. I would round out the 2^nd heat in the leaders position and be the lone slider at the top. I was so relieved I was able to be back in the action!

Because the track is over 1700m long it takes a long time for each slider to get down. It takes us about 54 seconds to get down Whistler’s track and in St. Moritz we are really moving if we go under 1 minute 10 seconds. That is a long time!  As the entire season has been I was standing behind Shelley as we were about to take our 2^nd run and there were loads of British fans cheering for her at the start. I was excited for her and for this race because I knew it we would put up a good fight. Shelley rocketed down the track setting a track record, which is common for the 2^nd heat. I had set the annual track record the 1^st heat and as the heat of the day warmed the track up many sliders had dipped under it on the 2^nd heat. Again, I stood on the start line depending on my instincts. Not over analyzing any of the lines I watched or discussed with my coaches this week. Just be me. Again I had an effortless line to wall and one of the few clean exits of wall. I slid through Snake 1, got into Snake 2 and the height got away on me and I skidded out all the way to Sunny corner! I didn’t give up, I keep navigating my way down the track relying on my sled, White Lightening to help me get to the bottom as fast as I could. I entered Horseshoe a big left 180 degree corner too early and felt my flat line, you need a high line to get speed out of that corner. Again I didn’t give up. I didn’t have as clean of a bottom part of the track, but I still reached 135.8km/hr and when I crossed the finish line Shelley had edged me out of the Gold medal by 4/100ths of a second!!!

I got off my sled and gave Mama K a big hug and I was so happy! Shelley and I celebrated and like I said at the beginning I think I was happier than Shelley! Carla Pavan also showed Canada’s depth with a 5^th place finish. We just arrived to Igls, Austria for the World Cup finale. It’s our last chance to practice racing before the Olympics. The only significance of this race is to determine start numbers at the Olympics, as St. Moritz was the last opportunity for any athletes to qualify for the games. Hope to do Canada proud in Austria!!

Track Record in Konigssee, Germany!!! This is a prestigious accomplishment in the sliding world because the Germans sliders (skeleton, bobsleigh or luge) rule their tracks. They have an amazing sliding program at all levels and are always the athletes to beat. The coolest thing about owning this track record is that it will stand forever!!! No I’m not being conceited, but the bottom part of the Konigssee track is going to be blown up this summer. This was the 2^nd track I ever competed on when I was 16 years old and I won a silver medal at the World cup in 1996. I must say the competition has evolved since then and I may have learned a thing or two in 14 years.

This week started out quickly. I had a short rest at home, which was much needed to make sure I’m in peak form at the Olympic games, but it was a bit of a sacrifice with how fresh and rested I would feel when we landed in Germany. Two 9-hour flights, extreme time change, jet lag, dry land training and throwing myself down the oldest refrigerated track in the world makes for short fuse and tiredness. I’m not going to lie… I’m sure I wasn’t the easiest athlete for my coaches to deal with this week. I was very tired, even though sliding was going well, I expected more from myself and Willi saw a frustrated Mellisa that made him nervous. All week I was taking the “Canadian high” line through Kriesel, a 360 degree right turn, that has dramatic oscillations that take you to the roof, down to the belly and back up to the roof. You will be at the roof on the last pressure in the corner and your timing has to be PERFECT in order to not hit the wall on the left side and in extreme cases you can come out so early and hit the short wall straight on and that is when crazy crashes happen and the ambulance is necessary. Willi scolded me all week that I needed to be a whole sled lower to make sure I get through there safely. Yes this line I was attempting was the “fast” line, but he rather I be consistent and safe… the Olympics are just over 1 month away, this is our priority. He sternly told me in his German accent “this line you take is 50/50”. I would take his advice into consideration and I would attempt to be lower, but I never achieved this “safe” line. Willi and I reviewed video the night before the race. My line out of Kriesel again was high but still needed to be tweaked to get through the “Doodles” which feels like you are going down a waterslide, the ice build up on the labyrinth throws you side to side and without pressure you just have to take what you get at that point. He said if you can do this 2 times in the race tomorrow, I will be happy, but again this is dangerous and it’s 50/50. Talk about a mind f@%k!!! Regardless of all the bad things that could happen with me taking this “50/50” line, I had to stick to my game plan; I can’t change my line in the race! All week I had been pretty consistent, at least the ambulance hadn’t come to my rescue and my times had been fast… stick to my game plan, “Canadian High” line it would be.

All the World cups are important, but ultimately we are testing many things to make sure our preparations are in order for the Olympics. My dry land coach Kelly Forbes and I are using the remaining World Cups to perfect my warm up. So I gave him full reign of my warm up. For some of you who know me this is a big deal, I am a bit of a control freak, but I he got me into the shape I’m in this year, so he must know what he doing. I felt really good in warm up, snappy and fresh. I went into a pre race circuit 15 minutes out from my race and I started to get tired. I didn’t acknowledge it, just stuck to the plan. When I was at the line doing my final jumps I lost all the snappiness I had in my warm up. The Konigssee start is a tricky one. You have about a 2m window of opportunity to create velocity on your load and have a good start time. If you run too short or too long, its over. And the start times usually don’t make sense. Athletes who are fast at every other track in the world won’t necessarily be fast here. I pushed a 5.27, 6/100ths slower than training and 11^th ranked, not where I usually am in the field. I had an awkward load and I chalked my poor time up to that. The Konigssee track is a lot of fun. You start off right way in the “S’s” 4 big swooping corners, Where you try to be as high as possible and allow the pressure and gravity to push you out. There isn’t a straight in between the corners so you are immediately in the next “S”. When you exit “S4” there is a long straight with a dog leg. You have to bump the left wall at the perfect point so it pushes you over to thread the dog leg, then the challenge is to not skid or hit the walls on the way to BK(Before Kriesel corner). To give perspective. My 1^st training run I hit 7 times in this part of the track. Once you start hitting there isn’t much you can do, if you move too much on your sled you will skid, both will kill you time. There is a small corner I call “BK” before kriesel that you can kind of regroup in if necessary. I described the 360 degree Kriesel earlier with the pressures and the importance of the exit to slide clean through the “Doodles”. If you get on opposite sides of the ice built up in the Doodles you will be flipping from bumper to bumper and fishtailing bleeding all of your time away. You slide through corners 14 & 15 preparing for the almighty old finish corner 16. A 180 degree corner that has unbelievable pressure so you will hear most sliders go through dragging their face on the ice and if you don’t time your exit properly you will have a surprise on the exit where you find yourself climbing so high that you just fall when the pressure releases and you smash into the left wall and skid into 17, if your runners are still on the ice that is. 17 Is a recovery corner before you cross the finish line. Back to my run… My “S’s” felt smooth as I swooped to the roof and out into the next “S”, I exited S4 on the right side, luckily I didn’t hit the wall, but it did set me up for a much later hit on the left side than planned and it was tricky getting through the dog leg, but I did it. I was a little bit high in BK, and entered Kriesel controlling the 1^st pressure well. I didn’t control the 2^nd pressure as well as I should have and then I found myself the highest I had ever been on the last pressure, A very quick thought of an angry Willi popped into my mind, because I knew what was coming… the short wall. I did everything in my power to not hit that wall as I was finishing up my “50/50” line but it was too late and I popped the right wall, which tried to flip me over. I knew this was coming so as intimidating as it was I continued to drive as hard as I could into the right wall. This would be my only hope to not flip me over on my back, which would put me at the back of the pack in the race, not to mention the ice burns and possible wrecked equipment. I stayed on my runners, but I was on the wrong side of the doodles and I was getting “bucked” all over the place. Good recovery considering how awful it could have been! I slid the rest of the track as calm as possible and crossed the finish line seeing a #2 on the score board. 49.48, 6/100ths behind the leader, the German Kerstin Symkowiak. I was laughing with Mama K in the outrun. Relieved that I was still in the race with my exit of Kriesel.

When I got to the top of the track an unimpressed Willi was waiting for me. I told him not to worry Willi, it’s the 50/50 line, I didn’t get it the 1^st run, I will get it the 2^nd run. I’m sure he was sick to his stomach, just wanting me to be lower and safer, but he knows better, I’m stubborn!!

It came time to warm up for my 2^nd run and it dawned on me I forgot to stretch before my 1^st run! To me, that is like going to the line without your helmet and sliding anyways!! I guess with the new warm up Kelly and I both forgot to put dynamic stretching in! I was shocked and embarrassed, but it made me feel a little better about my 11^th ranked start time. It’s simple, all I needed to do was stretch and get the exit of Kriesel and I could potentially win this race. During my warm up I told Kelly I was only off of the track record by 3/100ths in the training the day before. He started to do some calculating in his mind… he said it was possible for me to break the track record on my 2^nd run. I believed him…

I was in the start house putting my suit on and the announcer was going nuts over the loud speaker. Marion Trott the German in 8^th spot had just set a new track record, 49.13! Shelley Rudman and I were looking at each other in disbelief; wow she must have had a stunning run! I went the line behind Shelley, which has been a bit of a routine, Shelley and I have been flip flopping in the World Cup standings. We are pretty much back to back every 2^nd run. I think it is a lot of fun, we both are genuinely cheering for each other and hoping the other has a great run because it will only make us better. Shelley is like my teammate from another nation! Helping me get my bib on and off, letting me use her knife between runs to fix my shoes, watching for each other’s start times to give feedback to each other after our runs. I’m really fortunate to have great relationships like this on tour. I was waiting on the line when Willi called Kelly to take my sled. He was upset at the sweeper at the top of the track, I guess he wasn’t doing his job. I usually like to hold my sled myself, but it wasn’t anywhere near me. Instead of panicking because this was out of routine, I was grateful Willi was looking out for my best interest to make sure the ice and snow would be out of the groove. I barely got my sled in time and the track was cleared. I talked to my sled, like I sometimes do, yes instead of being the crazy cat lady, I potentially could be the crazy sled lady all alone in my life! We named my sled “White Lightening” this summer because Kelly surprised me with a white topper. I loved the name and of course my fellow Albertans and country folks across Canada are familiar with the song by George Jones, “White Lightening”. A little tribute to whiskey and I have to say in my younger days at the Cabarets in Eckville and area Whiskey was my beverage of choice.

White Lightening and I had a much better start time of 5.20, hmm maybe dynamic stretching does work? I felt comfortable in the “S’s” and when I exited S4 I came out on the right side and drifted the to left. This time I hit in the perfect spot and I stayed calm. I knew I was close to the walls as I was going through the dog leg, but I didn’t shy away from the wall, I needed to stay straight.  When I entered BK I was so excited to have made it down the bend away and thought ok, here it goes 50/50, focus on 2^nd pressure. I kept my form through the 1^st pressure as I was approaching the 2^nd pressure I still had my form and I could feel the difference from the 1^st run. I was lower with a less severe angle. I was climbing with my 3^rd pressure and I remember thinking ok, this has to work… trust it drive it to the wall… I felt like I had jets on my sled! Coming from that height and keeping my sled on the right side I squeaked through the doodles without much movement. I kept my body tight for the rest of the run, knowing it didn’t matter what happened from here down. I crossed the finish line and saw a #1 on the scoreboard! I kept my spot and I was so excited that I had the perfect line out of Kriesel!! I was celebrating with Mama K and the announcer was going nuts… I had set a new track record 48.78… the 1^st woman to ever duck under the 49 second mark! I was shocked! I was being pulled into the weigh scale and the cameras were trying to get me in the winner’s circle, but all communication was getting lost in the excitement. Meanwhile Kerstin Symkowiak the German leader was making her way down the track. I couldn’t watch her run because the weighing procedure was taking so long. Finally I got off the scale and Shelley was giggling telling me I had won!

When I finally got up to the top of the track Willi was waiting with a smile on his face and we both started laughing… the 50/50 line worked! I’m sure I took 5 years off of his life. The most satisfying part of the win was nearly every coach from every nation congratulated me on my result, and were excited about my Kriesel line. To hear Martin Rettel(Aut), Olympic Silver medalist and now the American’s coach tell me it was the perfect line and Snorre Pedersen (Nor) coaches the Swiss team tell me my record will stand in the books for the rest of time made the victory the sweetest of my career to date. Another amazing lesson, yes we are always trying to stop the clock quicker each time we go down the track and standing on top of the podium is a great feeling. But the best part of this day was cheering for Shelley and my other fellow competitors and having so many of them excited about me accomplishing the 50/50 line… that will stay with me forever.

Altenberg, Germany… I will probably never ever see again as long as I live!!! As soon as we drove into the town I started puking! At least this year I got to race, well barely I was sick again prior to my 1^st heat and was seriously worried to put my race bib on, because then I’d be locked into my suit and I could possibly have an accident if you know what I mean… Yes this humanizes me, but I’m sure anyone who is reading this knows the sheer terror and panic you go through when you’ve lost control of your body. This is not what I wanted to be experiencing as I’m about to slide down the most dangerous track in the world. Anyhow, I was able to get my 1^st under my belt and to mine and my coaches’ disappointment I was sitting in 8^th place. The conditions were extreme, the humid air was -17C and the ice was -11C and colder closer to the bottom of the track. Extremely hard ice which would create the big potential to skid. And I proved the theory correct as the only place I would be going straight down the track was out of the groove. From corner 1 until the outrun I was skidding sideways down every straight a way and in the high-pressure corners. Imagine doing a hockey stop… yep that was my style and to all of our surprise I was still in 8^th spot.

I readjusted my equipment for the cold weather and readjusted my attitude to become oblivious to my sickness and to remember that there are 2 runs and this race isn’t over yet. Talking with my coach, I knew I had to not skid through the 1^st 2 corners to get the right feeling on my sled. After that point, my confidence would grow and I would be more relaxed ready for the rest of the deadly track. I accomplished that and I felt myself relax as I entered corner 3 a quick right hand corner that spits you out in the most difficult corner in the world… corner 4, it likes to take you really high on the entry and dip low in the middle and then naturally you are high on the end. Not a big deal, but the problem is the entry of corner 5 it is really long and if you are too high on the exit of corner 4 it looks like you are going to hit a big white wall with your head as you enter at a the bad angle and it instantly flips you over. There is no saving it at this point you just have to hang on for you life so you don’t lose your sled. All this comes from the entry of corner 4 so you have some time to think over your mistake as you loop through the corner, you know you will end up on your back. I fortunate only did the scorpion maneuver once this week, which was the last run before the race, thankfully it wasn’t in the race and I came away without any back injuries. I continued down the track and exited corner 9. My timing was off and came out on the wrong angle and power skidded down the straight in the 360-degree kriesel. This corner is insane to watch because you come so close to hitting the roof at 3 different points, but when you are sliding your ultimate goal is to not panic and skid your sled, hitting the roof is the least of your worries when you are trying to be fast. I had a clean exit of kriesel and nice 11, 12 & 13. Entered corner 14 and I missed my 1^st steer, I knew I would have 2 hits in the next straight so my goal was not to skid. I sort of got through there with minimal skidding. Went through corners 15, 16 & 17 and it feels like you are doing continuous left hand circles. You know you are done when you smash the left wall at the finish line. I came up the outrun and I saw my time 60.05, I knew that was a decent time because it would have been 2^nd fastest in the 1^st heat. It turned out to be the 4^th fastest run of the heat, behind all 3 Germans, not bad considering I hate the track, and I was under the weather so I ended up in 6^th spot. I held onto the lead in the World Cup standings, which was my main goal heading into the deadly track.

I arrived home to Airdrie Saturday night without my bags, for the 3^rd time this year! Frustrating!!! I’m looking forward to seeing my family and getting some well deserved rest over the next 10 days before for I fly back to Germany for the final 3 World Cup races of the season.

I wish everyone happy holidays and look for my next update after Konigssee, Germany World cup the 2^nd week of January 2010.

Silver in Winterberg! The last couple of years I’ve had decent results in Winterberg, but I’m sort of ashamed to say it will never be my favorite track. It is a bit of a crap shoot when it comes to the weather and your race draw. It is really hard to feel any of the pressures on the track until its too late and you are smashing a wall. Lots of times we will slide down this track with a clean run and slow times and then have an out of control run and have fast times. I sometimes wonder if a little gnome busted out from the trees and is triggering the finish eye!

The 1^st day we arrived in Winterberg aka “Rainyberg” turnout out to be a bit of a tease. The sun was shining and the valley where the track lies looked spectacular! Of course the next day couldn’t be the same and the rain started. It was so bad one day that our training was cancelled and we headed into to the World Cup race 1 run short.

You can never compare training times at this track, you just have to figure out what works best for you and not let anything frustrate you. So heading into race day I didn’t really know who the one to beat would be. Of course it is a German track and you always have to watch the Germans, but other than that it was going to be an entertaining race. I woke up to not rain at 6am, but snow… great… I drew #7 in the draw, and Marion Trott from Germany drew #1. So we all assumed the German track crew would stop sweeping after Marion went down and let it turn into a battle in the snow. To my surprise and many others, the World Cup leader, Shelley Rudman GBR, quickly overtook Marion. The snow was really wet when I put my sled down in the groove, but I wasn’t going to let it mess with my game plan. I knew I had to push as far as I could and then take 2 more steps with all the snow in the groove. I came off the block and got a bit away from my sled but not too bad, just thinking push farther, push farther. Then I’m not exactly sure what happened, if I got off balanced or if I ran too far but all of a sudden I fell on my sled. My load killed my velocity, so I knew I had to quickly get over it so I could focus on each of the 15 corners ahead of me. I luckily got through curve 0, yes a corner 0, it was an addition to the track a couple of years ago. It can sometimes throw a curve ball at you and you will skid and ping pong all the way to 1. My trouble spot this week was corner 4. I had my plan and watched many sliders on video through there and felt confident I would put it together on race day. Wrong… as I was exiting I smashed the left wall so hard then it sent me to the right. Big hits on a flat track like this can’t happen; you might as well get off right there. I chose to stay on and tackle the rest of the course. The remainder of my run wasn’t too bad and I crossed the finish line in 1^st. I was surprised! With the trouble I had on my load and corner 4 I thought I would be 7^th out of 7.

From what my coaches have told me the snow started to lighten in the next couple of sliders and the track was getting quicker. The 2^nd German Kerstin Szymkowiak came down the track about 4/10ths ahead of me. Other sliders took advantage of the clean ice and by the time the 1^st heat was done I was sitting in 5^th. Now that is nothing to complain about, trust me, but I was the 1^st one to agree with fellow sliders that the 1^st heat should be thrown out. It just wasn’t fair. Great competitors like Katie Uhleander that have won on this track, was in 16^th and Shelley Rudman GBR world cup leader was in 8^th, not what you are expecting. But the jury ruled that the race would go on and I had a lot of catching up to do.

2^nd heat started and I had 2 things on my mind. Push NORMAL!! And fix corner 4. My start felt pretty good 5.53 a personal best in the conditions, not bad and I think it was 4^th ranked. I got through corner 0 again, always satisfying. Entry of corner 4… tried a new line, nope didn’t work, but I had a slight hit on the left side instead of trying to expand the track. The rest of the run was pretty smooth and I crossed the finish line with Mama K signaling 1^st. I would finish no worse than 5^th. But I planned on making my way onto the podium. Svetlana Trenova from Russia, one of the best pushers in the world pushed a 5.43 1/10^th better than me, and we were separated by 7/100ths. She had a pretty good run, but she fell behind me. Donna Creighton GBR was sitting in Bronze and another amazing push athlete pushed a 5.41. She definitely took advantage of her ice the 1^st run, but it was the same case on her 2^nd run with an 11^th ranked run, she fell behind me, to 6^th spot. Michelle Kelly CAN, pushed a 5.66 and same situation as Donna she had a 12^th ranked run and I moved into the Silver medal position. Kerstin Szymkowiak GER on her home track pushed a 5.47, great push and she had over 1/2second lead. I didn’t expect to gain any ground on her. She had clean ice her 1^st and 2^nd run on her home track, something really bad would have to happen for her not to win Gold and I’d never wish that be the case. I watched Kerstin make her way down the Winterberg track flawlessly and cross the finish line in 1^st place. But hey to me, my Silver medal was just as good as gold.

So off to Altenberg in a couple of days, last World cup stop before Christmas. Keep cheering loud for the Canadians we need all the energy you can give us being on the road for 6 weeks already is tiring!

Bronze!! I just can’t seem to step it up here on the 2006 Olympic track in Cesana, Italy. Honestly I have nothing to complain about, but as athletes we are always striving for perfection and when we don’t accomplish it, we are critical of our performances. First and foremost I have a wicked team!! Jon Montgomery winning Gold, Jeff Pain winning Bronze and Michael Douglas finishing in his best World Cup result 4^th!! Amy Gough having a solid performance with 7^th Place and securing her 3^rd place Overall World Ranking. It was a great day for Canada.

We were fortunate to get to Italy early and have 3 extra days of training on the track, which obviously paid off. I had some great training, that didn’t transfer to race day. My problem spot all week was corner 2! Yes, corner 2! I would come off the corner and skid all the way into 3, then my sled would catch on the entry of corner 3 and get whipped into a downward skid and if it were a big disaster then I’d get whipped into an upward skid! Nightmare!! I got through there towards the end of our training week and didn’t think it was going to be an issue on race day… Wrong… My 1^st run on race day… after a mediocre push I was focusing on corner 2, matching my steers with the pressures and it wasn’t enough… as I came off the corner I did a hockey stop all the way to the entry of corner 3. All of my speed gained on my start had been bled out. The rest of my run was pretty decent, including corner 14, where I swore I would get redemption this time around from the Olympics. I saw Kerstin when I was coming up the outrun and after 7 sleds she signaled I was sitting in 3^rd. Not where I wanted to be, but I after my mistake in corner 2 I would take it. On the truck ride up Amy shared her advice to help me out in corner 2 and gave me her best wishes to get it on the next run.

2^nd run, I didn’t run far enough and had a slower push than my 1^st one when the majority of the field was speeding up. I took Amy’s line through corner 2 and I was super smooth to corner 3!! I was so excited I slightly missed my steer in corner 5 and I had to work really hard but subtly in the “Torro” section of the track, a series of right-hand corners that gives you speed if you can get through there clean. My run was going well and I got too picky into corner 14…again… I hit the right wall just before the entry and it sent me late into the dreaded loopy corner. I kept my cool, trying to not have a repeat of skidding my sled in the corner like I did 4 years ago at the Olympics. No skidding, I felt confident that I could fix this mess on the exit. But as I was looking for the exit I realized I was much higher than I expected and there was no fixing it. I got launched out of the corner and I held on tightly expecting the feeling to be ice burning my back. But… as Jeff told me after the race, I got lucky… I got launched straight, not at an upward angle that would automatically flip me on my back. I tried to keep form the rest of the run and hope I didn’t loose any spots. I crossed the finish line and unlike my Olympic experience, there was a #1 on the clock. I held my spot, thankfully and I would make my 3^rd consecutive podium appearance this season.

I stood in the leaders box and watched Marion Trott, the German make a spotless run and keep her 2^nd place spot. I stepped out of the winners circle and watched Shelly Rudman, reigning Olympic Silver Medallist come down the track and earn the new Cesana track record, claim the Gold medal and over take me in the World Cup standings by a mere 2 points! That was my biggest disappointment of the day. But there are still 5 races to battle out for the leaders’ jersey and I know it will be a good fight!

We spent 14 hours in a van yesterday to make our way to Winterberg, Germany. A track that is unpredictable due to the rainy weather. So I hope I make the most of my training so race day is in automatic mode. Cheer us on as we do our best to represent Canada with integrity and pride!

YAHOO!!! Gold medal in Lake Placid! I can tell you no one would have predicted me standing on top of the podium today as my training was showing it was going to be a bit of a struggle for me to be top 6. But honestly I woke up this morning and I thought, “why not me?” That was my attitude all day long, keeping my mind quiet and focusing on each step literally as I was preparing for the 2^nd World Cup race this Olympic season. The weather was extremely different from the week of training. It was raining, whereas all week it had been sunny and warm. But the temperature of the ice wasn’t drastically different, but the humidity factor was very different and we were going close to 2 seconds slower than we had in training. The Lake Placid track is an abrupt track that makes you feel like you are in a washing machine for 1 minute then you suffer from shaken baby syndrome for the rest of the day. Its not a high speed track (today 113km/h), but the transitions are so quick that your head easily get slammed in corners and your hips are getting banged off your saddle so lots of bruises and aches and pains.

As I said my training runs didn’t go as well as I would have liked heading into race day. I would still be working on details race day and ideally you just want to repeat what you’ve discovered in training. I was having problems in corner 14, a critical part of the track that spits you into the chicane, an uneven strait with kinks, and you have to thread the needle heading into the lower part of the track that is mostly uphill. Mistakes in this area are deadly because you will kill all of your speed heading towards the finish line.

I started my 1^st run and I knew as soon as I hit my sled I didn’t put enough power into my newly weighted sled. I was too light in Park City so we decided to add weight to my sled and now my sled weighs 33.5kg, quite a bit heavier than some of the other girls’ sleds, which are under 29kg. Requires a lot of power off of the block and the absolute worst part is carrying the darn thing! My steps were slow and too long off the block, but I did my best to keep propelling myself down the start ramp. My coach told me the groove was heading straight, so I would need to coax my sled slightly to the left to get the entry I wanted. I loaded on my sled and started to aim for an early entry to corner 1 when all of a sudden my sled veered left drastically and I hit the wall! Not too surprising because I was having problems with corner 1 all week, but I was disappointed because that hit is hard to overcome. As I was sliding down the track I was taking each curve as it was coming to me and it didn’t take me long to realize the track was quite a bit slower than training and I would need to adjust all of my steers accordingly, the timing of steers and the amount of force. That is something that I think is so unique to Skeleton. We are constantly watching the weather to decide what equipment to use and how to prepare it. Then we have 6 training runs down the track hoping we are prepared to our best ability, but race day weather can completely change your game plan. The track felt so much smoother than it had in training, so kudos to the hard work of the track crew, which has earned them some beer of their liking as a thank you from me. I was so happy to come out of corner 7 and not hit my head! It gave me the confidence to hold my form and stick to my game plan of “reacting” to whatever was given to me. I went through the dreaded corner 12, where I crushed myself every run last year at World Championships, and I was mint!! What a wonderful feeling finally!!! I entered corner 14 and I automatically went back to aggressive driving, big mistake… I got great height, but then put a counter steer on the exit of the corner too hard and drove myself into the left wall. That hit is a brutal hit! Because you are dropping out of a corner at 113km/hr then immediately heading uphill, you have a weightlessness sensation, which can cause you to lose your head. I lost my head slightly and didn’t realize I was headed for the left wall. Watching the video you can see the impact of the hit and the ice fly off the wall. It took some restrain, but I keep my composure and finished off my run. When I came up the outrun I most definitely didn’t think I would be in the lead with a hit like that in the chicane, but I was and my speed on the exit of 14 dictated that I was driving the top part of the track really well.

I expected reigning World Champion, Marion Trott from Germany, to take over the lead because she dominated training this week. But to my surprise I held onto the lead. The 2^nd heat started and I would be waiting at the top of the track departing last out of the top 20 women. I had a little celebration all by myself in the start house when my teammate Amy Gough went down the track and held her spot. She was sitting in 7^th so I knew she claimed the all so sweet last Olympic qualifier! Great job Amy! And I later learned she moved up to 6^th spot! I felt better from my warm up earlier, a little snappier and woke up. I knew I had to put a lot more into my push off the block to improve on my 10^th place start of 5.52. Our chiropractor Dr. Greg Uchasz said he expected me to push 6/100ths faster so a 5.46. I was standing on the block feeling really calm. Track was cleared and rocked my sled back and I knew I had a little more to work with for my start. I loaded on my sled and got the entry of corner 1, I was really excited. I felt smooth all the way down the track. I had a slight skid out of 12, but I stayed relaxed through it. Corner 14, I had to lighten up my steers to not hit the left wall. I came out much better, but didn’t hold my counter long enough and drifted to the right had a slight tap. So I guided my sled to the left to take the hit to set me up for corner 17. Again, I held my form ‘til I crossed the finish line and slid up the outrun. I was in the dark of my result because there isn’t a clock in the out run, so I was waited for our team leader, Kirsten Haroon aka “Mama K” to let me know the good or bad news. Fortunately she had good news for me I held my spot with another 1^st place run and pushed a 5.46 (6^th)! The 1^st person I saw as I walking up the outrun was Amy Gough, and I couldn’t more proud of her and her result from today.

It was a sweet victory in Lake Placid, NY, but its time to move on now and prepare for the 2006 Olympic track in Cesana, Italy. It’s less than 2 weeks until we compete there so stay tuned and cheer loud for the Canadians!

Check out the video from the race and some articles

http://www.fibt.com/index.php?id=221

http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/Hollingsworth+bumps+podium/2248787/story.html

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/worldcupwatch/sport=sn/newsid=20237.html - canadas+hollingsworth+slides+gold

http://www.thestar.com/sports/olympics/article/728932--hollingsworth-shakes-rattles-and-rolls-to-victory

Check out the Toronto Star Article by Randy Starkman

http://www.thestar.com/sports/olympics/article/726618--hollingsworth-unassuming-olympian

WOW! I have to say I am very proud of where I come from! Eckville and all of Central Alberta has been good to me over the last 15 years and I’m honored to have our community to be chosen to be a part of the CTV’s opening for the Olympics.  A big thank you to everyone who came out to be a part of the production and an even bigger thank you to everyone who believes in me and is apart of my dream of competing for a Gold medal in Whistler in February. Check out this video article of the filming.

Stay tuned for our 2^nd World Cup race this coming Friday in Lake Placid, NY!

Well what a big build up for a non-dramatic ending! We just finished our 1^st World cup race of the Olympic season in Park City, Utah today and it all came to a halt due to snow. Thankfully I finally received my missing bag Tuesday night, which resulted in me having to scrounge up old training gear from home and had it sent to Park city. Learned my lesson though, my mouth guard and orthotics will now be a part of my carry on luggage! Of course everyone was excited and nervous to get the season underway and the 1^st run jitters got the best of most of the field, I included. I didn’t plan my warm up accordingly, which seemed to be my theme this week and was rushed getting into my race suit and getting all of my pre-routine done prior to getting to the starting line. As I was about to walk out the door, my wonderful teammate Amy Gough announced she had forgotten her bib… I panicked thinking of all the scenarios of how I could help her. My plan would be to do my run and get a truck at the bottom rush me to the top so I could give her my bib and hope that no one would notice that she was wearing the wrong number. If she went to the line without a bib, she would be disqualified. It seemed like an eternity had passed, as she was ripping apart her bag in search for the missing bib, when finally she yelled out she found her bib. It had been flung on the floor away from her gear. I went from panicked, to relief to full body achiness.

I had been sliding well all week and felt fairly confident going into the 1^st World Cup race. I was standing at the line waiting for the track to be cleared, proudly sporting my “TEAM SARAH” sticker on my sled, meaning Together Everyone Achieves More and I felt ready to go. I got my sled out in front of me really well, but instead of hitting the ice efficiently and quickly I went to really long strides, which caused my shoulders to get in front of my hand and lose some momentum. And then I did my classic move, which was to load on my sled too early and pushed a 5.14. I had a great top part of the track; I came off of corner 5 and got stuck in the middle but handled 6 well considering. I had a pretty good rhythm to the labyrinth but I started to get higher and higher as I navigated myself through the quick turns. Again, I saved it well going into corner 11, being too picky with my entry and moving around too much on my sled. Corner 11 can sometimes be the crusher if you don’t do it right, but again I had a smooth exit and nice entrance into corner 12. Corner 13…Willi and I had talked a lot about corner 13 last night and he wanted me to be more patient, I was steering too early in the corner and making myself late in 14. So I made my attempt on being patient and all of a sudden I started to climb. There wasn’t much I could do about it and went dead late into corner 14. Up to the roof, down to the short wall and I was driving so hard to try to even out the oscillations. I fortunately came out down the middle and up the hill to corner 15 and crossed the finish line. I saw my time 51.37 and ranked 1^st.  It didn’t mean much, as I was competitor #4, so lots of talent still to come and I wasn’t out in front by much, so I most definitely wasn’t safe with my run.

I got to the top of the track and watched Anja Huber the German pull into the lead with a 51.22 and 5.04 push. I quickly got changed and rushed out to the track to cheer Amy on, as she was about to make her run. She had a great start 5.16 and then pulled into 2^nd place 1/100^th ahead of me with a 51.36! She was ecstatic, much better run than any of her training had gone and the perfect time to do it.

We warmed up for our 2^nd run and this time I made sure I had enough time to get ready. The snow started to come down hard, so hard that it was triggering the timing eyes. So to my disappointment the race was cancelled. But all things considering having Amy and myself on the podium made it a great start to a very exciting season! Not to mention I’ve qualified for the Olympic games. Still lots of work ahead to guarantee a spot on the team, but I will be one of the contenders for Canada.

I will heading to Lake Placid on Saturday and ranked number 3 in the World, I will be working hard to move up in the standings to make sure we qualify the maximum number of spots for Canada at the Olympic games. Congrats to Jon Montgomery and Jeff Pain, they too are qualified for the Olympics. Amy Gough needs one more top 8 in the next 3 races, which I know she can pull it off in Lake Placid! Mike Douglas is on his way to qualifying as well, so lots of excitement to come from MY team as we get on with the World Cup tour.

Check out this interview with Randy Starkman from the Toronto Star that we did last June. http://www.thestar.com/videozone/725151

Hollingsworth captures silver at World Cup skeleton race
Click here to read article

Skeleton racer Hollingsworth overcomes fear of crashing in Whistler
Click here to read article

Canadian Champion back to back to…. Back?

I find this title somewhat humorous, but I spend a lot of time alone and may not know the meaning of funny is to the normal person. I started sliding when I was 15 years old, 3months later I won the Canadian Championships in Jan 1996. It took me until Jan 2008 to repeat it! Our schedule last season didn’t allow for a Canadian Championships so our federation decided to host the 2008/09 Canadian Championships this past Saturday and the 2009/10 Canadian Championships this past Sunday. Instead of holding the title for an entire season the winner would be crowned for one whole day!

After an intense camp in Whistler it was somewhat refreshing coming back to Calgary. This is the track where we all took our skeleton schools. This is the track where we all had breakthroughs at one level or another. And when it comes down to it, this is our home track.

It was the 1^st day of training and I would be the 1^st athlete off the top besides the 2 forerunners. I had learned my lesson from last year about not taking the Calgary track seriously after starting our season in Whistler. You would think the 25km/hr speed difference between the two tracks would automatically mean Calgary was a cakewalk and we would be falling asleep on our sleds before we entered the kresiel turn at a 120km/hr. If I remember correctly, last season my 1^st trip down the Calgary track, my face got slammed in the ice in kresiel and I panicked before making sparks fly on the short wall as I launched out of the corner. So just because I was travelling 143km/hr in Whistler I wasn’t going to let my guard down on the Calgary track. I was standing at the block waiting for my turn and I heard the 1^st forerunner Steve Ovis on the radio to the tower, “the ice is great, super smooth and the outrun is smoking fast!” I was shocked! As our development team, poor rookies, spent the afternoon scraping ice trying to help our track crew get it ready for our sliding session. Our coaches had told us that we would be sliding, but it would be really slow ice. I had a few butterflies of excitement in my stomach ready to go fast. I pushed my sled to the length of a marathon, Calgary has a much longer, flatter start than Whistler, so it feels like you are running forever, and I loaded on my sled. As I was going through corners 2-3 my entire sled was shaking. I entered corner 4 and the shaking got more intense. I started to question whether I had forgotten to take my runner guards off or tighten all of my bolts. I made the quick transition from 6-7 and I got the living day lights scared out of me… my sled felt like it was jumping off of the ice but the pressure was taking me right up to the roof! I couldn’t see anything because my eyeballs were rattling around so much in my head. This was unbelievable! The noise and how long it was taking me to get to the bottom it seemed to take an eternity! As I crossed the finish line I remembered what I had heard over the radio about the blistering fast outrun and I started to brake really hard. My sled started to sink into the ice instead of gliding overtop of it. I crept past the 1^st dock and saw Steve Ovis standing there and then I realized he hadn’t been on the track in 3 years! Of course it felt smooth to him his adrenaline had him floating on clouds!! And he probably hadn’t been sliding when we since added the top dock at the end of the out run! Needless to say I had to walk a long ways to the top, we love you Steve! Thanks for all your hard work this week it was great to have you back slidingJ

With the rough conditions I had to make a decision that wouldn’t necessarily benefit me for the 2 remaining selection races and Canadian Championships, but looking ahead into my health for the upcoming season. I know what it like to slide with an injured brain and bluntly it sucks and makes you suck all the way down the track. With the schedule of our races being held back-to-back Saturday and Sunday, I didn’t think it was in my best interest to slide all 3 training days and then go directly into 2 race days. So I took my chances and only took 4 runs total on the bumpy track and hoped my 15 years of experience would carry me into a spot on the World cup team.

Triggers… this is something I am just learning about. Working with my sport psyches’ and reading the odd article I have been learning about ‘triggers’ in our environment that create a sympathetic response. I showed up to the track on Saturday and I felt nervous. Maybe it was because I didn’t maximize my training runs; maybe it was because it was a selection race. My thoughts are it was because going back to the beginning of my career and Calgary being my home track and having so many successes and so many failures. 15 years of trials and tribulations can you imagine the range of emotions I’ve experienced at this venue? So I acknowledged my feelings and engrossed myself with each step I was taking during my warm up.

5.46 start time! 5/100ths better than my personal best, which I set 4 years ago at the 1st world cup I had ever won. Came down the track with a 58.52, the ice was almost 2 seconds faster than it had been in training! I had instant gratification for our track workers and their hard work. I was warming up for my 2^nd run and Kelly told me he expected no less than 5/100ths off of my next start time. I was skeptical, but I had a bit of a wobble as I was getting on my sled, so maybe he was right. I pushed my sled and I was noticing little mistakes I was making, but not much I could do about it as I was trying my tail off to go as fast as I could. I had a fairly good run, little rusty mistakes here and there, but again, I couldn’t expect much more with only taking 4 training runs. I got to the dock and chatted with a few reporters before heading back to the top. I saw my family as soon as I got of the truck and that is always a treat at the end of the race even if it’s for a minute. My Dad gave me a big hug and congratulated me on my win. He was talking a bit and then mentioned I had great starts. I asked him what my 2^nd start was, 5.41… I was stunned! He pulled out his Rimbey auction mart chart that he had clearly labeled all of the girls start times and down times. I couldn’t help but to have a beamer smile, I had just pushed 1/10^th under my previous personal best, which I hadn’t come close to in 4 years. To top it off I won the Canadian Championships for the 3^rd time…well for a day at least.

Selection race #3 & 2009/10 Canadian Championships. I had actually forgotten it was Canadian Championships this weekend because I was so focused on the selection process. Even though this was a completely new race, I decided to treat it like a 4 heat race, like the Olympics. Of course we are always tired or as Dr Greg Uchacz told me before my race, my body was in complete shut down. Nothing was firing properly. He said it isn’t uncommon to push your body to the limits and achieve personal bests and the next day to be completely exhausted and to have your muscles not fire. I told him he better fix them because I was going to push another personal best today and the number is going to be in the 30s! So Greg agreed and he had all cylinders firing by the time I was headed to the start line. 5.41… tied my personal best had a pretty good run down the track with a perfect exit of kreisel, that was a 1^st time experience for me and came across the line 57.70. A personal best for me! I was again amazed at the hard work our track crew put in to give us this awesome ice!

When I got to the top I talked to Kelly and asked him what do I have to do to push in the 30s? He kept it simple, keep everything the same, except when you are at the line I want you to do 2 jumps. I have a set pre routine that I go through to get my nervous system fired up and everything is timed to the second of when each particular exercise takes place. I was a bit hesitant when he mentioned 2 jumps unsure if my knees could handle that impact, but I didn’t question Kelly. I felt amazing when I was warming up, I caught myself wondering what my 30m sprint time might be at this moment and then scolded myself reminding myself I was a skeleton athlete not a track star! Oh but think of the warm locations I’d get to travel to!!! Anyhow, everything was right on time with my warm up and I was super excited to give it everything I had on my final push. I walked out to the line and jumped once, came down to the ground to explode for my 2^nd jump and “POP”!!!! Instant pain in my knee… I could feel it swell up and I could also feel my confidence deflate as all I could think about was the pain in my knee and what was this really going to mean? I didn’t say a word to Kelly at the block about it, I pretended nothing had happened and decided to give it my best effort. I put my sled down, rocked back and pushed my sled out in front of my and it felt like I had a knife stabbing in and out of my knee my entire push. I had a sloppy load and tried to stay as relaxed and present in my run as possible, but couldn’t help but to be slightly freaking out about my knee.

I got to the bottom and heard I pushed a 5.42. I was disappointed. I instantly got snagged for drug testing and sled control, so the long evening was about to begin. Greg got me some ice for my knee as soon as I got to the top and Kelly asked what happened. I explained to him when I did the 2^nd jump it popped. He then said “ya the jumps weren’t supposed to be consecutive”… Now I was really disappointed. I had a bum knee and I ruined my opportunity to push in the 30s. My cousin Ryan Davenport told me before my 2^nd run that only 1 woman in history had ever pushed in the 30s and that was the great Canadian Lindsay Alcock. I wanted to be the 2^nd and I knew I was capable of it. I guess now wasn’t the time…

The good news? I hung onto the Canadian title for more than a day and I will get to keep it all year long. The even better news is that I have secured a spot on the World Cup team. The official team/media announcement will be Wednesday Oct 28^th, downtown Calgary at City Hall. So now we are off to Ottawa for wind tunnel testing then to Park City, Utah for the 1^st World Cup race of the Olympic season.

Congrats to all of my teammates! It was a great battle and I’m super excited to venture off into this journey with such amazing people!

I know it has been so long since I’ve reported on anything going on in my skeleton world, so I apologize. It was a whirlwind of a summer with very cool experiences from introducing Bryan Adams at the Junos in Vancouver to enjoying a recovery camp in Kauai. The best part of my summer was spending any chance I got with my family and the worse would have to be our grueling stair workouts!

Yes it was an intense summer of training, but it has paid off well with the beginning of our sliding season, which started in Whistler. We just spent 3 weeks on the fastest track in the world and half of our selection process has been completed. I would have to say it was a successful camp for me, considering I was the only one on my entire team that insisted on going from corner 3 on our 1^st day while everyone else was going from the top. I didn’t leave the Whistler track on my terms last March and it was a long summer thinking about my crashes, broken sled, concussion and stitches, so I had to go with what I was comfortable with. I was standing on the dock from corner 3 with my coach Nathan Cicoria and I was terrified. Not nervous, absolutely petrified! I told Nathan how I felt and he asked if I wanted to sit this run out. No way, I had to go now otherwise I would torment myself even more. So they cleared the track for me and away I went. You’d think that it would be easy to go from corner 3, but I was out of control, skidding in the corners like a windshield wiper! All I could think about was, I am going to die if I go from the top! I got to the bottom and waited for my teammates to go from the top. I was pretty quiet, listening to their adrenaline filled stories about their 1^st runs. I asked Jeff Pain what corner 4, 6 & 16 were like from the top. He said it was really nice. I asked him what I was really wondering, “Am I going to die if I go from the top?” Jeff and Jon Montgomery both scolded me and told me I had to go from the top my next run. I was seriously considering spending the day at corner 3. But I got on the truck with them and decided I had to do it or I’d be tormented til the next day when I’d get another opportunity. When I was sitting at the top everyone was buzzing with excitement about their runs and I was sitting there, again wondering if I was going to die out of corner 16. Amy Gough came up to me and rubbed my shoulder and said, “I know what you are going through right now and it’ll be ok”. I felt a lot better, but the unknown was still ahead. I was standing on the block holding my sled waiting for my turn and I gave the track worker a grimacing look of, “do I really have to do this?” and of course he had no clue what I was going through at that time and he just smiled at me as the track was cleared for me. I felt numb… I put my sled down on the ice trying to dismiss the horrific visuals I had going through my mind of hitting the roof in corner 16 then crashing out of the finish. I pushed my sled down the hill and loaded and instantly I felt calm… I sunk into my sled and felt so relaxed and in control. It was AMAZING! I predicted my 1^st run from the top to be a wild ride, with my head up high and fighting all of the pressure and speed and it was anything but! I got to the bottom, safely and somewhat speedy I think. I was so grateful to experience that “zen” like feeling, especially on my 1^st run of the year.

Training continued to go well thoughout the week, both on and off the track and I pushed a personal best of 5.02…tidbit push record is 4.97, so I was very pleased.  But most of all I was happy I was getting down the track safely and feeling like I had things under control. Our development team (devos) was sliding in Whistler and they had a selection race on one of our days off and all of them were sliding personal bests on extremely fast ice. All of a sudden I got anxious. The fastest I had gone on the track was 54.75 & 140.7km/hr unofficially last March and I was crashing pretty much every run. I had been sliding similar to those times this camp. The devos had their race and a young slider Micheala Widmer slid a 54.73. Ice was fast and the possibility of me getting into the 53’s was becoming a reality. No woman had gone this fast before, what would corner 16 be like travelling at that speed? I worried myself sick all day waiting to slide and of course it was a hard push day. I couldn’t shake the feeling of “its my day to die” and so I was hesitating on everything I was doing from sprinting in my warm up to calling the control tower 1 minute before they cleared the track for me to make sure the barricade was moved. There’s more to that paranoid story! A bobsled was going from corner 3 right before me so they had to swing the barricade over. If it isn’t put back in place, yep… I smack head first into a concrete wall at 80km/hr. So you can understand why I was nervous. I made the tower give verbal confirmation over the entire PA system at the track that the barricade was moved and I stood beside the track worker at the top listening intently for the conversation between the guys moving the barricade and the tower, just as a back up to my back up plan. Anyhow, I pushed my sled and dove on. I was pleased to go past corner 3 with the barricade in place. I could tell once I was in corner 4 the ice was rippin’ fast. I stayed as relaxed as possible and I was having a decent run, I was a bit behind in my steers with the fast ice, but reacting to what was being given to me. I came into corner 15 and my sled got away from me and yep you guessed it, late into corner 16 which meant my next spot would be the roof on the entry. Right away I thought, oh I wasn’t going to die by hitting a barricade, I’m going to die on the exit of 16, seems fitting enough…I panicked and had 2 feet on the ice and I could feel my sled violently riding the oscillations I knew with the height I was getting on the last pressure it was going to be a hard hit so I braced myself as I bee-lined for the right wall on the exit of the corner, WHAM!!! I saw stars and my hips rattled off of my saddle so hard they were throbbing. I got to the dock and took a second to get off of my sled. Tuff Latour, head bobsleigh coach, was there and thankfully and carried my sled off the ice because I was having a hard time walking with the hit I took. I looked at the clock and it said 54.11…. Wow I had just gone 6/10ths faster than I have ever gone on this track with my mind going insane and a rough ride AND… I survived… My anxiety lifted a bit as I prepared for my 2^nd run and it helped on the way down I finally broke the 54 mark with a 53.95. The next day with a technical push I had my fastest time of the camp 53.81 & reached 143km/hr! I think this enabled to put my anxiety to rest and get excited about going fast.

RACE DAY! Of course we couldn’t have the conditions that we were sliding in for the entire camp that would be too perfect! Saturday morning it was pouring rain, not unusual for Whistler in the fall, but we had lucked out with awesome weather, blue sky & sunshine so this would be a bit of a crapshoot with ice conditions and I had no idea what kind of drama was ahead of me. Warming up I felt great, strong & zippy. I had start #1, which I enjoy, that way I focus on what I’m doing and not on other’s times. I was standing at the block when they cleared the track for me so I put my sled down and exploded off the block and before I knew it my sled jetted out from underneath me to the right side of the track. I got stopped before the timing eye and I heard my coach Kelly say “you have lots of time” so I turn my sled around somewhat rattled, not knowing if I broke the timing eye or not. Picked my sled up and saw our 30 second countdown clock at 5. I had 5 seconds to get my sled across the eye or else I would be disqualified! I didn’t even go all the way back to the block I just started pushing my sled . My hands were back wards on my saddle and I was running and changed them then went into a 1 handed start and ran as far and as fast as I could. I had to remind myself to stay calm in every corner and it wasn’t really working. I flopped out of corners 4, 6, 7, 11, went late into corner 16 again hit so hard on the exit my sled came up into my face. I could feel my face get hot, but I was thankful I was still on my sled. I saw my time on the clock 54.14 I had some relief. At least I got across the timing eye before my clock ran out. When I exited the track I asked what my push time was and it was a 5.07, I chuckled! After all that went wrong I still had a decent time. Then I heard over the PA system, “Hold at Start” Michelle Kelly was the next athlete to come down and I knew right away, she too had pushed out of the groove, but they decided to fix it. Then I heard over the radio, “Get Mellisa Hollingsworth back to the start as soon as possible she has to do another run” I was stunned. My late entry to 16 took me into thin ice near the roof and my runners were badly scratched. I got to the top and asked the jury if I had the option of keeping my 1^st run. The bad news, I missed the countdown clock by 25/100ths of a second! I would have to do 3 runs total and the 2 that would count would be on runners that ran over concrete. The good news, I wasn’t disqualified because the groove wasn’t prepared properly in the first place. Within 10 minutes I was standing at the line again, not recovered from my 1^st trip down the track and somewhat hesitant on the start because I had pushed out. I was laughing to myself because of course this is happening… I’ve been through almost everything else this year, lets practice this type of drama too just incase it happens at another race or even the Olympics. I pushed a 5.00 and had a down time of 54.30. Then my 3^rd run of the day I was slightly off balance and loaded on my sled too early and had a start time of 5.06 and 55.51 down time. I was ending day 1 in 1^st place despite the drama and the whole while I thought I handled the situation pretty well, didn’t allow my emotions to get in the way of the task at hand.

Day 2: This selection race was set up to simulate the Olympics so 4 heats combined time over 2 days. Sunday morning it was pouring even more than Saturday. I kept wondering what the groove would be like with even more rain washing the ice away. But I had to drop it and focus on my warm up. I was 1^st off again and we were warned to use caution with the groove it was shallow. And I felt like I was hesitating on my start, but I stayed in the groove and felt a sense of relief when I loaded on my sled and I was going straight. My run was smooth, but I could tell the rain wasn’t helping the ice conditions and I could see where the ice had melted in corners on my way down. I crossed the finish line with a 54.88 and a 5.02 start. I was shocked I pushed that time with the slow conditions and my hesitation. When I got to the top of the track I was checking the order of the 4^th heat and I noticed at the top of the sheet 2 things. Track Record: Mellisa Hollingsworth 54.30, Start Record: Anja Huber 4.97… I knew it was a long shot in the conditions, but I decided to focus only on the start. I knew I was capable of going sub-5 on the start so I asked my coach Kelly for help. He laughed at me and told me “Not today, not in these conditions”. I was angry, I said I don’t care about this next run, I want to give myself the absolute best opportunity to own that start record. As some of you know, I’ve never been labeled a “push monster” and I’ve never even been in a sniff of owning a start record. So Kelly decided to change my warm up and let me chase after it. Another thing about me is that I need to be really calm to slide well and it always affects my starts, because I’m never as fired up as I need to be to push well. Sliding is my priority. I thought this is good practice for the Olympics. What if I’m standing at the top of the track for the 4^th heat at the Olympic games as the last competitor to go down the hill? I naturally will be full of anxious adrenaline and I’m going to have to learn how to slide this way. So I was standing at the line and I asked what the condition of the groove was, it was great. I left any hesitation behind the block as I grabbed my sled and exploded off of the block. My run was a bit of a gong show with a big hit on the entry of corner 7 and 3 hits down the bend-away and skidding into 9, but I saw a #1 when I crossed the line. I waited to hear my start time over the PA as I stood on the dock, 5.00… UGH!!! I was instantly disappointed but I snapped out of it quickly when I reviewed my start in my head. It was pouring rain and I pushed really well without hesitation and after Day 1 I should have owned the right to hesitation. I could have played it safe on that run just to make sure nothing went wrong and slid safely down the track to ensure I kept my spot in the race. But I didn’t and I was proud of that rebel attitude that I tend to lack most of the time. To me it will be the difference of having a medal around your neck or watching the medals being handed out.

I just arrived home late last night to prepare for our 2 races in Calgary this coming Saturday & Sunday at Canada Olympic Park. Then our World Cup and Intercontinental Cup teams will be announced and the Olympic qualifications will continue. Come out and cheer us on this weekend if you don’t have anything better to do, it will be the only time you will see your Canadian skeleton athletes/potential Olympians compete this year, as we aren’t hosting a World Cup in Calgary this season. I don’t know the time of our races yet, sad I know I heard they were in the afternoon, but I think they have been moved to the evening…

Congrats to my teammates who all had a successful camp in Whistler, we all came away without too many injuries and everyone slid personal bests at some point during the 3 weeks. Good luck in Calgary!