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.