Six-time Olympic medallist Cindy Klassen is sitting out the speedskating season for the second time in three years. On the first occasion, in 2006, she said she needed a mental break. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)Cindy Klassen is sitting out the speedskating season for the second time in three years to rest her surgically repaired knees.
The six-time Olympic champion is confident she'll be ready for next season and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler.
Klassen, who hails from Winnipeg but lives and trains in Calgary, had surgery on July 8.
She had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee playing basketball in high school and never having it repaired. That injury combined with the stress of years of racing and training took its toll on both knees, which prompted the long-track speed skater to have surgery.
"I haven't had any setbacks and I don't want to have any," Klassen, who hasn't put her skates on since the surgery, said on a conference call Monday. "If I push it too hard, who knows what could happen.
"I just want to make sure that I'm strong, that I'm getting my fitness in so that I'm fully prepared when 2010 comes."
Her recovery was expected to take four to six months. Klassen said in October she hoped to try skating the following month, but has delayed that to mid-January at the earliest.
"I just don't want to push because I've seen so many athletes where they're feeling good and they try and go out and do something they're just not ready for," explained Klassen, who still feels pain in the knees. "Then they have the setback of a month and I don't want the setback of a month. I want to be going forward every week."
The 29-year-old won five of Canada's 24 medals at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, including gold in the 1,500 metres.
Her five-medal haul marked the highest total by a female speed skater, surpassing the four gold medals won by Lidiya Skoblikova of Russia at the 1964 Innsbruck Winter Games.
In October 2006, Klassen announced she was sitting that season, citing the need for a mental break.
Klassen has won 13 World Cup races during her career. Now, she spends her days at the Olympic Oval in Calgary, in the weight room, in physiotherapy and on a special bike that monitors her lactic acid while she spins.
"It's strange when I see the results and realize I'm not in Europe, but I'm taking that as motivation to get back," Klassen said. "I know how to race. I've done it for the last 10 years, so I don't think racing is going to be key to my recovery."
Klassen, a devout Mennonite, says her faith has helped her through a tumultuous 2008. Her younger sister, Lisa, nearly died on Feb. 5 when her SUV slid off a Winnipeg bridge and plunged into the Red River.
She is not the only Canadian speedskating star on the sidelines.
World-record holder Jeremy Wotherspoon of Red Deer, Alta., broke his arm in the first World Cup race of the season. He doesn't know if he will race again this season.
With files from the Canadian Press