Great news!  I qualified for the World Sprint Championships in Moscow, Russia.  This competition is a combination of 2 x 500m and 2 x 1000m instead of being single distance.  My overall score from the Cnandian Single Distance Championships over the holidays put me in position to qualify.  The Worlds are on January 17-18.  I am so excited to get this opportunity!  This is my 4th time skating at this major event.  After the Worlds I will be off to the first World Cup of the new year in Kolomna, Russia and the weekend after that I go to Erfurt, Germany.  A great start to the new year!

Arne and I in front of the new Richmond Olympic oval

I’m not going to lie, this year has been quite a struggle so far.  After finishing with my highest placing at World Championships last season, I came into this year high with confidence, feeling like my “comeback” was over and the desperate claw-back onto the team was over.  No such luck!  I have been plagged this year with more problems.  My knee is getting quite a bit better, but now I have to remember how to skate the right way again.  My equiptment has been becoming an issue.  I got on my new boots right before the World Cups in Asia.  My performance suffered, but I thought it would be worth it.  I went into the Canadian Single Distance Championships with my head hanging low and not feeling very much confidence at all.  What was wrong with me?  Where was my spark?  I got to Richmond a couple days before Christmas and my skate tech and I started working on my skates.  Soon the 500m came up and I was shaky at best.  I bombed it!  I couldn’t believe it.  My confidence was crushed even more.  I had one day to recoup before the 1000m race.  This has always been my favorite distance.  It’s not too short and not too long.  It is suited to my style of skating and it was the first distance I ever made a World Cup in.  I was nervous.  Plain old nervous.  If I don’t make this, I don’t go to World Cups.  On the ice, negative thoughts were crowding my mind.  I finally decided that I was just going to skate for fun.  All of this has just become too business and I wasn’t skating for myself, for fun.  I just wanted to skate well.  I raced my heart out and it came down to the line.  I skated the last corner with burning legs that wouldn’t move and stretched my blade over the line.  I snatched my spot on the team! 

All I have to say is “phewf!”  I now have one year until Olympic trials.  What I learned from this season so far is to never take anything for granted.  Right when you think you have it made, this is what happens.  My goal for the next year is to work as hard as possible and keep my ego in check :) 

Happy New Year!

You can chanck out an article about my race on the Speed Skating Canada Website at http://www.speedskating.ca/index.cfm?id=1778