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