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Final countdown to the Olympic trials

August 5, 2009 12:46 AM | Posted by   Jessica Gregg  

The countdown is almost over.

On Thursday we're flying to Vancouver where the short track Olympic trials are taking place. We start racing on Aug. 9 and go through Aug. 18.

The objective of the competition is simple: to select the five best male and female short track speed skaters to represent Canada in 2010. To do this, Speed Skating Canada wanted to create an environment for the trials that would be as similar as possible to the Olympics. That means we'll have some off days in between the race days, imitating the Olympic schedule, as well as racing in the afternoon to finish roughly around the same time at night that the Olympic races will.

To prepare for this, we've been practicing in the afternoons on the ice instead of our normal time in the morning. It’s weird changing the schedule that I'm used to, but considering this should get us better prepared I've been willing to sleep in almost every morning!

I've had this competition in the back of my mind for about the last year, so I’m really starting to get excited that it’s finally here. I’ll admit that I was a little nervous thinking about how I would feel a couple days before these trials, but I'm happy to say that now that they're here, I am way more excited then nervous.

Home-ice advantage

Of course, in the sport of short track nothing is written in stone, so even the best of the best have to perform on any given day to stay at the top and earn a spot on the team. Thinking about missing out on the team isn’t an option right now, so all my focus is on what I have been doing to prepare and getting excited to race, while at the same time relaxing.

A favourite question of a lot of people is, “What are you going to do if you don’t make the team? Or if you do?” Right now my answer is, I will cross that bridge when I get to it. All I can do is go out there and give everything I have in every race, and if that happens I'll have to be happy with whatever the outcome. Obviously it will be a dream come true if I'm able to be a part of the team, but life goes on either way.

Right now we're in our tapering phase of training. We've done all the hard work to get in shape, and now it's all about fine-tuning. We'll have four opportunities to skate on the ice in Vancouver before we start racing, so that will be enough time to adjust to the ice and feel confident in that environment again. Being there for a good part of the summer really helped us out, and I think it's safe to say that everyone feels very comfortable there. It will be a nice feeling during our trials, but even nicer for the team that will skate there during the Games. That’s what home-ice advantage is all about.

I skated in the last Olympic trials four years ago, so I have an idea of what to expect for the competition. But since the field of the top 16 girls has really changed, the racing will be different for sure. Everyone is going to have to be on the top of his or her game, but I am definitely looking forward to the challenge!

Hopefully there will be good news to come!

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