CBC-Sports

Hoping for better days in the 4x100 relay

The past several seasons I've been a member of the Canadian 4x100m relay, a team whose pedigree and accomplishments run deep. That legacy has, perhaps unintentionally, placed a heavy burden on the current generation, and we have failed to reach the heights of supremacy that the generation before us did.

I'm writing this with a heavy heart because I'm reminiscing about the past four seasons I've competed for the relay squad, and the memories of triumph are overwhelmed by memories of disappointment. Not disappointment that we as a team didn't train hard and develop the minutia necessary to execute a very fast relay squad, but our general inability to perform when it's mattered most.
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It's like old times at 2011 worlds

The anticipation leading up to the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea was high. Many experts estimated that this 13th edition of the world championships would be the fastest, farthest and highest yet, with many records broken in the process.

But that hasn't happened, and the reason lies deeper than just wind direction or track hardness.
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Home away from home

I love travelling, and I love competing for my country, particularly at major championships like the upcoming track worlds in South Korea. But leaving home has become increasingly difficult as I've aged.

When I was young, I often felt trapped or bogged down living on Prince Edward Island. I don't know, call it cabin fever or just a sense of being trapped upon an island that time has forgotten, but I yearned for the day that I'd finally depart for good.

But I quickly realized that home wasn't so bad after all. That, deep down, I was a home body whose soul was warmed by that sense of house and home.

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Don't be a hater

Recently I've read about the United Kingdom's run towards the 2012 Games in London, and the multitudes of resources dumped into British programs with hopes that the support will lead to medal-winning performances. There is an astronomical amount of funding and man-power available to these athletes.

Then I thought back to the social support, coaching and funding received by Canadian winter athletes and coaches leading up to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and how immeasurably influential this support was to those athletes and their success.

My immediate thought was, "Why not me? How come I don't get free massages or shoe contracts or TV deals?"
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The pressure got to me

With the Canadian track and field championships happening this week (June 22-25) at Foothills Sports Complex in Calgary, I reflect back on moments in my sporting life and think, has the pressure ever truly gotten to me before

The answer is yes! Of course it has. Many times, come to think of it
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The good, the bad, and the Island

Deciding to give up my promising hockey career to focus on sprinting was a risky choice, as my home province of Prince Edward Island was not only without proper funding, equipment and resources, but, most glaringly, without a single synthetic track.

I'm very grateful for the support and resources I have at my disposal now, but sometimes I miss the simpler days, when soccer fields and sand dunes were my sanctuary.


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Are athletic superstitions just bad luck?

As an athlete, I've often seen a connection between success and maintaining routines or even possessing certain "lucky" inanimate objects.

But I came to the conclusion that these magical habits had a hold on my destiny, and that scared me.
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