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My new home away from home

November 9, 2009 05:50 PM | Posted by   Jessica Gregg  

For the last three weeks I’ve been training in Montreal with the team that is based here. As I am the only member on the Olympic team this year who normally trains in Calgary, I decided, with my coach, that it would be good for my skating and the team for me to come early to train here before the World Cups.

I am staying in a little apartment/hotel room in downtown Montreal, which has worked out quite well so far. It’s the first time I have lived alone so it’s a bit different but there are lots of things to do and see downtown Montreal.

I think in any sport there are little rivalries between training centres around the country, but I see all the skaters who train out of Montreal as teammates too because I have travelled with many of them for the last couple years. I received a warm welcome when I arrived here and the training has been going very well. It is especially helping our relay team, as now we can practice a lot with everyone involved. The exchanges can make or break a relay, which is something that can only get better with practice, so that’s exactly what we are doing!

We had a couple weeks of hard training and now this week we are tapering for the World Cup being held here this weekend. The competition seems to creep up on me when it’s at home because we don’t need to travel anywhere, but I look at that as a good thing! Many countries came earlier than the usual week before, to train either at our rink or rinks close by. As this is one of only two World Cups that count as the Olympic qualifiers, they are the most important yet. I heard that there are 32 countries competing! Of course, it’s an Olympic year, so the number of skaters is always at its highest for the World Cups.

Our team is ready to go and excited to race in front of a home crowd! It will definitely be a good test for us not only racing wise, but also in adjusting to the environment that we will be in during the Games in Vancouver. Because we are the host country, we already have one skater secured for each distance and the relay team at the Games, but we can have a maximum of three skaters in each distance, so this weekend our goal is to qualify three boys and three girls in each distance. Our results from the first two World Cups were good enough to do just that, so we know it is achievable, and don’t feel too much added pressure.

I’m skating in the 500-metre and relay this weekend in Montreal, and I’m hoping to get back on the podium for both! We only have two chances to do so before the Olympics so this weekend and next weekend, at the World Cup in Marquette, will be good tests to see what we can do at the Games.

There is a lot of time in between these last two World Cups and the Olympics however, so anything can change, but you need to take opportunities when you get them!

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