<<SLIDE>> << OLYMPIC FINAL >>
-nerve-wracking every time!
-what most people don’t realize is that was actually my 5th race run of the day.
-(EXPLAIN SKICROSS FORMAT!!!)
-did any of you watch that live/cheer for me?
( I felt your support. I HEARD you!). THANK YOU for that.
It really is an honour to have your attention. --Thank you SO much for having me –
it’s nice to be able to share my story in my hometown!
(I actually used to take swimming lessons in that pool right there, as a kid! )
Never in a million years did I think I’d one day be an Olympic Champion, sharing my story with a bunch of very well-educated go-getters! But here we are.
So…let’s figure out how this happened.
What does it take, to truly be at your absolute best, when it matters most?
When your time to shine comes around?
BELIEF.
(I know, I know… that’s what everyone says.) and I’m here to tell you it’s
BEYOND BELIEF.
To share the keys to a Deep-rooted, wholehearted belief –
-- that YOUR BEST IS GOOD ENOUGH.
I’ve now had 8 years to reflect on this, and
It’s clear to me… what that FORMULA for instilling belief was …
I figured it out just in time to have the BEST RACE OF MY LIFE when it mattered most.
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Sports stories hold metaphorical lessons for all sorts of real-life situations,
and I will be careful to keep in mind that --my goals were all about the Olympic Games,
whereas in your world – in the legal industry, real lives depend on favourable outcomes. (“especially in custody cases…right?”)?
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So, speaking of success…
just “give me a nod (NOD) if you’ve ever tried to win a race before” . (in anything!)
Now… “How many of you have tried to win a case before?”
Okay, great… (– for those of you who didn’t nod… I’d say you need to give yourselves more credit!…
…because I’m pretty sure you have all contributed to winning cases on some level.
I can’t stress enough that in my Olympic quest EVERYONE’S ROLE MATTERED.
Every single one of those people played a crucial role in my success and what fascinates me most about the whole experience is something I get asked about a lot. ….
“What was it like – the moment that you crossed the finish line—realizing that you had just won the Olympics?”
I guess I had always assumed it would be the ultimate bliss and fulfillment,
->accomplishing a goal like that… but nooooo…
IT WAS RELIEF.
reflief ! that I hadn’t let everyone down! I remember the faces of all of the people who had put so much into it, who would be so happy that I’d won… flashing before my eyes and just this huge sense of relief.
SKICROSS IS AN INDIVIDUAL SPORT, yet you travel as a team, you train as a team, you work together even on race day in the preliminary rounds,
…but when it really comes down to it, it’s one of those things that feels like it’s all on you.
“I felt like all of the pressure to lay down the performance of a lifetime when stakes were highest… was on me.”
Of course, :
-something could go wrong with my equipment,
-or a coach could misread something and give me bad information,
…but the only person who was going to going to be held accountable for a poor performance by those who were at all removed from the inner circle… was me.
A common coping mechanism, is to blame your team if you are unsuccessful, yet we often forget to give praise when all goes as planned. I just thought it was SO INTERESTING that MY FIRST THOUGHt at the CULMINATION OF A LIFETIME OF PREPARATION
- and pressure and sacrifice and insane effort …
…was this subconscious realization that it truly was a group effort. So many people had done everything in their power to set me up for success ----- because they had a clear understanding of and appreciation for everything I was putting into it …
(THIS IS ONE OF MY THREE MAIN POINTS I will loop this all back to at the end of my story,)
My support team instilled a sense of BELIEF in me. Belief – that I could do it. Belief that I deserved it. Belief that there were more people who wanted me to win, than those rooting for any other competitor.
I almost started believing that it was my destiny. (haha)
Everyone always talks about believing in yourself, but it’s not as simple as just telling yourself positive affirmations and visualizing success. You have to put the work in to unlock that belief.
(CLICK) “3 MAIN KEYS TO BELIEVE.”
((SLIDE)) “ 1) Strive for excellence -- in everything that you do. “
And I don’t just mean ‘put effort in’. I mean continuously striving for excellence in a variety of fields – (ideally, a selection of things that complement one another… I’ll talk about the way my biking complemented my skiing…)
..even when it’s hard to envision a clear roadmap to the end goal,
or as we accomplish goals and need to set our sights even higher…
-- strategies for being your best you.
(CLICK) 2) Identify and tap into your deepest, most inherent sources of motivation.
You have to be motivated.
But not just surface level, ego driven motivation… it’s about identifying and tapping into your deepest most inherent sources of motivation. For me, this goes way beyond medals and sponsor bonuses. What truly kept me going was the desire to be part of something much bigger and more important than my race results. To create… create.an inspirational story.
((CLICK))
3) And you have to adopt strategies for staying positive; utilizing your resources (your team!), alleviating pressure…
and then… you can genuinely, wholeheartedly BELIEVE that your best is good enough.
Those are the three underlying themes in my story – I uncovered them in chronological order so this is a 3 –part talk although you’ll find there is some serious synergy at play.
((And please remember… the parallels of my role apply to all of you…it’s not just you (front line?) (hot shot?)lawyers who need a great team around you.
Each of you is the athlete trying to win an Olympic Gold medal in this story, at some point…
We should all strive to deliver the performance of a lifetime even if it’s
But anyway… back to my story. I hope some of it will inspire you to recognize your strengths in parenting/ mentoring /leadership too!
(PAUSE)
So I’ll start right at the beginning… I’ll give you a glimpse into Whistler life in the 80s (as a KID! No..- not the sex drugs and rock n roll you were probably envisioning !)
45 sec (10:15)
((SLIDE: STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE))
“1) STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE :”
As an Olympic Champion, one of the most frequently asked questions I get is
“When was that moment… when you knew you wanted to be an Olympian?”
and almost every other athlete I’ve heard speak seems to have had that aha moment at a very young age “oh it was watching... Whoever...Compete in... Whatever... In the 1988 Olympics”, but
-THAT’S NOT MY STORY...
....>>I didn’t have any specific role models who were household names.
Olympians seeemed superhuman to me... (couldn’t relate to them on any level)...
I was more inspired by the people within our community... the people who spent the most time on the mountain on skis, and in the woods on bikes. The happiest people I knew.
it was remarkable, what they’d sacrificed to be ski bums in Whistler, and how much time they spent ‘working’ to continually get better
..To be at their best, in their chosen field.
Striving for excellence. Thriving on the emotions around that pursuit of excellence.
All I knew was that i wanted to be like them.
Throughout my childhood, I ESTABLISHED A HIGH STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE.
The dryland training sessions during that phase of my life were harder than almost any I’d ever have to power through again.
((SLIDE)) “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field.” - Vince Lombardi
I grew up in Whistler
-started skiing before the age of 2.
->my earliest memory is from skiing between my Dad’s legs, under the magic chair
->I just loved it. There was definitely a natural interest in going fast, scaring myself … that adrenaline is a great drug.!
->. BUT OF COURSE, ANY YOUNG CHILD HAS MOMENTS where the whole family has lugged a whole bunch of gear into the car, out of the car, geared up, bought lift tickets, against all odds made it up the chairlift successfully, and suddenly refuses to put her skis on,. Even into a FULL MELTDOWN, if you will. ;)
--my (incredibly patient, wonderful) parents were always all about keeping it positive
(hot chocolate)…
and as my Mom says … we didn’t turn out to be worse skiers for it.
-My Dad had been a ski racer, from Manitoba… so I got the competitive genes from him...
He has always been a risk-taker – very spirited – lives from the heart...
If it snowed more than 10cms, he wasn’t getting much work done.
But he started a (successful?) log home business in 1980 (it had it’s ups and downs.. )
(But I like to highlight that we really were just a regular family, always getting creative to finance ski racing for two of us girls...because ski racing is typically thought of as an elitest sport.)
My sister and I had a firewood business as kids, we babysat, and we always participated in ski club bike-a-thons and other fundraising drives.
And MY DAD DID WORK HARD when the snow was (thumbs down!)
He was determined to provide us with the opportunities he didn’t have as a prairie kid.
(I think he just Wanted to live vicariously through us!) (haha)
My (amazing!) Mom .... (and I had to add amazing because I’ve gained such an appreciation for her parenting style now that I’m seeing it shine through in her grandparenting style. )
But when it comes to sports, SHE has always been all about participating.
she doesn’t have a competitive bone in her body!
They got me into skiing, and my Mom was right there with me when I broke my leg for the first time, at the age of 5. Clearly, I must have been striving for excellence to crash hard enough to break my leg at that age!
(Don’t kids’ bones just BEND??!)
I remember yelling “take my boot off, take my boot off...” and then they’d start trying to take it off and I’d yell “leave my boot on, leave my boot on!”
Thankfully my mom is a nurse, and she ORDERED the ski partoller to give me intramuscular morphine.
That was the beginning of a long list of injuries.
I always used this time to focus on getting better at something else: art or music, or to focus on my school work. “AND I GOT REALLY GOOD AT RECOVERING FROM INJURIES. “
(I’ve actually encountered people who quit sports all together after one broken bone!)
(chalked it up as a “career-ender”)
THAT FIRST LEG INJURY HEALED UP and eventually my parents put me in the race program. The early days of my racing career were largely influenced by my peers, and the world class coaches that a world class resort attracts .
---- Oooo oooo ooooo ooooo Oooo oooo ooooo ooooo Oooo oooo ooooo ooooo---
AS A TEENAGER, I WAS ALPINE SKI RACING… skicross wasn’t even a thing then, let alone an Olympic sport.
-worked hard enough to be consistently at the top of my age group…
Focussed on what I LOVED about it. And
never put too much pressure on myself.
I didn’t really care whether I came 1st or 5th in a race…
But I definitely felt that overbearing drive to BECOME THE BEST that I could be.
as long as I was enjoying it. …
I HAD TO PURSUE OTHER PASSIONS TO AVOID BURNOUT.
which meant I was often skipping the organized gate training to go ski powder, or to (super casually) race my buddies
- from the top of the mountain to the bottom
.... through gullies and off jumps & cliffs...
because that was more fun, to me.
So when I talk about “skipping training” , (and I’ll let you know how this strategy helped me with my Olympic prep much later in my career, when i talk about managing stress and staying positive)
I just mean STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE IN SOMETHING ELSE.
INSTEAD of going straight down to the bottom of the chairlift on the groomed ski run after skiing through the gates, I’d deek into the trees with a couple of the boys ( no—no—it’s not what you think! It just always happened to be that the boys were the most dialed--- the best skiers with the greatest desire to challenge themselves on skis (and bikes) – and we’d pick our way down the cliffs and shred the deep pow! – the deep, untracked powder snow that no tourist in their right mind would ever bother to seek out. And let me tell you – I was determined to progess at that style of skiing too. Little did I know, this would be eqaully valuable prep for the sport that I would one day represent my country in – skicross
by the time I was 16, I was sick of the structured, boring old alpine racing that had become a 60hr/week minimum commitment in the winter. ( we NEVER went to school!)
->my heart just wasn’t in it anymore.
I loved some components of alpine ski racing, but the required commitment limited my ability to pursue the side of skiing that I was truly passionate about. I was too burnt out to continue striving for excellence, but I was too scared to call that the end of my ski career... It was such a huge part of myidentity, and I couldn’t handle the thought of letting my coaches down... or my parents ---even though they never ever actually put pressure on me to stick with it.
(I can’t imagine how hard it would be for the kids whose parents held their sweat equity and finanical ‘investment’ in the kid’s athletic career over their heads as a form of pressure to keep going!)
(I think most kids put enough pressure on themselves…+ that of the coaches,.. then you get parents instilling that fear of resentment ---That’s a dangerous combo. )
Have you ever noticed that when your heart’s not in it,
your head’s not in it… and that’s when bad things happen?
A few more injuries, and then came the “career-ender” (or so I thought!)
I broke my leg so badly at the age of 16 (that story’s not for the faint of heart!)… that I managed to use it as an excuse to quit ski racing. (ha!)
-l looked at it as an opportunity to focus on my new passion…downhill mountain biking, and of course my school work.
THE DOWNHILL MOUNTAIN BIKE PARK HAD JUST OPENED UP HERE,
and I was obsessed.
The way we rode was intense.
It was next-level drive to be the best. At all cost.
I had some horrific crashes… but it all just toughened me up for skicross.
Downhill mountain biking, is FOR SURE the best cross-training for skicross. Everything that goes on in your mind crosses over :
-looking ahead (around the athlete in front of you!),
-picking good lines,
- working to generate speed from every little bump and bit of terrain,
-and MOST IMPORTANTLY – mastering that ABILITY TO OVERCOME THE FEAR that you feel when you’re about to hit a cliff or a blind jump. It’s all the same.
-I had Graduated from High School with good grades and I was going to school at the University of British Columbia and I found myself missing being a competitive athlete… I knew I could have gone further with the ski racing and I was wanting more. I really feel that I needed to go through the process of self-discovery myself though –it had to come from within. Not from a coach or a parent or even a boyfriend.
-> I had all of these skills that I’d devoted my childhood to developing,
…. and I had quit before I had realized my full potential.
I knew that would frustrate me for the rest of my life if I didn’t do something about it.
But getting a good education had always been the highest priority.
I had set my classes at UBC up so that they were 3 days/week (Tuesday was a 14hr-solid day!)… so that I could continue to live in Whistler and ski the other 4 days/week.
I WAS FINALLY PURSUING MY PASSION for the wild side of the sport… freeskiing... in the winter, and mountain biking in the off-season.
SO WE’LL MOVE ON TO MOTIVATION IN JUST A SEC, but to wrap part one,up
To me, striving for excellence in what I realize now is a crazy, obssessive manner seemed totally normal, because I was basically completely surrounded by people who were just slightly more obsessed. And it’s all relative, right? Even though I skipped out on the formal training program a lot, by my calculations, I skied through a race or training course somewhere between 2 or 3,000 times... i think the super-keeners were around 3,000.
that’s left, right, left, right, left, right, 0r “red, blue, red, blue, red, blue”.....about 111,000 times... if you consider there are about 40-50 gates on most of those courses.!
That’s A LOT!
It was those years as an alpine skier, and a downhill mountain biker where the foundation was laid. STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE HAD BECOME HABIT.
So – how did I parlay this into a skicross career?
And what were my main sources of motivation to get back into it, and to keep at it?
((CLICK))
((SLIDE : MOTIVATION))
What really makes you tick?
Are you creating something special?
Is your role contributing to the greater good of humanity?
ONE STORMY DAY IN 2002, the upper chairlifts had closed down due to wind… I was inside the Glacier Creek Lodge with some of my ski buddies watching some X Games coverage of this relatively new sport… skicross. There were 6 women racing head to head, off huge jumps and I was convinced (through peer pressure) to try skicross.
One of my friends said “you should race skicross. You’d kill it”.
and thus, MY SKICROSS CAREER WAS BORN.
(CLICK)
((SLIDE)) “QUOTE ABOUT PURPOSE AND MOTIVATION”
BACK THEN, (“STILL BEFORE SKICROSS WAS AN OLYMPIC SPORT! “) you had to go over to Europe to compete on the World Cup circuit.
But There was a pro tour in North America –
it had a bit of a renegade feel to it,
with music blasting in the finish line
and big wrap up parties at night.
It was like this harmonious combination of everything I’d loved about alpine ski racing none of the things I’d hated,… plus everything else I’d been doing for fun my whole life, growing up heeeeere...wrapped into this cool new sport.
THERE WERE NO NATIONAL TEAMS and I would have to fend for myself when it came to
-managing costs,
-logistics, and
-training
….. so the pressure to perform (and win prize money), was on.
But this I look at this phase of my career as the opportunity to put everything I’d been striving for excellence in to work, together
where the results of always pushing from one angle or another suddenly became measurable. And it had worked.
I was almost always on the podium on the North American Tour, and I managed to beat every single competitor in the qualification round in the one world Cup I did travel to Europe for.
THIS WAS THE PHASE OF MY CAREER where I uncovered what truly motivated me,
and how important it was to tap in to and honour that.
I HAD THE CHANCE TO LEARN HOW DIFFERENT SKIING FOR CASH WAS.
I remember being in the lead in a race in Alberta, and then missing a gate… I actually aired up an over the whole panel, which means my body didn’t travel the full distance it needed to to go out and around that whole gate… I had technically missed a gate, and I was disqualified from the race… and all I could think about was the opportunity cost. It basically cost me $2,500 to miss that gate by a matter of inches. I eventually realized that
I had to abandon ALL thoughts of money (or medals) while racing,
or my systems would seriously malfunction.
so , fastforward a few years to 2006, I was 23, and I had quit racing (again) because I just wasn’t having enough fun to justify the sacrifices I felt I was making to travel around, all by myself, competing in a high-risk sport... I was madly in love with my downhill mountain biker/surfer boyfriend Adam, and I just wanted to run off to Mexico with him for the winter....
I had decided I would follow my heart and just hit all of the big races, with BIG PRIZE MONEY, because THAT HAD BECOME MY MAIN SOURCE OF MOTIVATION...
but what have we learned about racing when your heart’s not in it, and your head’s not it in? That’s when bad things happen.
I had blown my knee at the X Games and that was (what I thought was) the end of that!
)
THEN!!! the announcement came that SKICROSS WOULD BE ADDED TO THE OLYMPIC PROGRAM for 2010.
the Olympic debut of my sport
at home, in BC
in perfect timing for me to be at the pinnacle of my career.
Suddenly, I knew that this was the opportunity I’d been working so hard for that whole time,
and I was in a good position to make the most of it.
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A SELECTION PROCESS FOR A NATIONAL TEAM was established, and selection camps were held right here in Whistler on the glacier, and on a glacier in southeastern BC, where we actually slept in tents, did a whole bunch of hiking with our skis on our shoulders, and ENDURED SOME REALLY EXTREME WEATHER.
- I remember thinking about how badly I wanted to make that team,
...and feeling like I was made for this event, and I kind-of thought I would just walk onto it. ...Afterall, I was one of 3 women who actually had experience racing skicross internationally, with a world cup medal to boot.
Well, IT WASN’T QUITE THAT SIMPLE:
The administration team that had been put in place – the coaches and directors who held my fate in their hands – really had no idea how to determine who should be on the team. They didn’t have the resources to build a full-length skicross course with full-size jumps, so they put us in GS courses, and timed us , which was great for the athletes who had continued to race alpine long after I had switched my focus to skiing powder, cliffs, jumps, and downhill mountain biking. Some of them had now made more than 200,000 turns around gates... I had just stopped at a measley 111,000. ;)
But there was no way for the other skills I’d developed to shine.
ONE OF THE COACHES had a whole bunch of SKICROSS EXPERIENCE, and NO COACHING EXPERIENCE, and the others had a whole bunch of coaching experience (on the alpine side), but didn’t know anything about skicross. They sure made me work for it.
I remember thinking about quitting really regularly, just telling myself “one more training camp” “one more day at the training camp” or even, at times “ one more gym session” and then I’ll quit ...if I’m still feeling like this. I set manageable goals, no matter how small. And celebrated each small victory. And somehow, this kept me going.
I had learned a lot about what did not motivate me before this point, and THIS IS WHERE I BEGAN TO UNCOVER THE DEEPER SOURCES OF MOTIVATION.
I needed to feel like what I was doing was important. Like it was going to impact a whole bunch of people positivitely. “I had the feeling that our nations’ youth would be inspired by our team, and particularly my a unique path to success, but if I had known the scale of it then –man i would have been on fire!”
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My coaches finally broke the news to me that I had made the team in November of 2007.
They claimed that they had always planned to put me on the team, --they just needed to see if I would actually work for it… If I had it in me to obey the authoritative figures in my life.
SUDDENLY, I HAD THIS ENTIRE SUPPORT SYSTEM IN PLACE:
-funding
-physios/massage therapists
-coaches – who trusted me to respect them now, so allowed me to provide a lot of input
-world’s best ski techs
-and a really talented group of teammates.
IT WAS SUCH AN INCREDIBLE FEELING, to finally make the team. But I realized I had been so focussed on that, that I’d forgotten what being on that team was all about. The goal posts had shifted wayyyy back.It might be similar to working your whole life to get good grades, always going the extra mile in everything that you do, making all sorts of sacrifcies to get through law school, then finally passing the bar and becoming a lawyer. Then what?
“Ahhh.... you need to recalibrate... set your sights higher. Become a great lawyer. Make an impact.”
LOOKING BACK NOW, I can see why the beginning of that first season on the National Team was so horrible. I didn’t even qualify for the QUARTER final in either of the first 2 world Cup races. (I think I was like 28th or something.) They were such horrible results, that I had become completely convinced that it was all over. That all of these women had come out of the woodwork, now that it was an Olympic sport, and I could not compete. I had just felt so accomplished for making the team, that
I forgot to keep striving for excellence day in, day out.
I did manage to pull it together briefly, for the 3rd World Cup race… but THAT FIRST SEASON on the National Team got cut short.
We were racing in Les Contamines, France, on a really stormy day.
The fog made for horrible depth perception. I could hardly see the tips of my skis!
,
I dislocated my shoulder for the 22nd time while winning the semi-final …
and my coaches decided I should head home to have it operated on,
so that I would be ready to go for the next season – where all of my results would count for Olympic qualifying.
WHEN I CAME BACK, I was stronger than ever, and i’d had a nice break.
I’d done a whole bunch of soul searching, really evaluated whether this was something I wanted to continue to devote my life to, and realized that there was some unidentifiable source of motivation deep down that was keeping me going, even on days that were really hard. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was there.
Just knowing that, made me really excited to be back on the circuit.
Picture this:
Fukashima, Japan… a little ski area overlooking a giant Lake… NO SNOW.
Literally, NO SNOW , ON THE GROUND IN THE TREES, and they had plowed as much snow as they could make on to one run to try to pull a skicross course together.
BECAUSE THEY HAD SO LITTLE TO WORK WITH, they built one HUGE jump, right in the middle of the steepest pitch within hundreds of kilometers, and called it a race track.
Only 35 women qualify for World Champs, just like the Olympics… max of 4 from each nation, tough selection criteria. Then we all compete for the 32 spots in the head to head racing, by doing a qualification run, one at a time, against the clock.
WELL, AFTER DAY 1 OF TRAINING, we were down to 28 women. Some had decided there was no chance they were hitting that jump. Some had tried, and failed miserably. There were some bad injuries – just making it down that course successfully was an accomplishment in itself.
Standing in the start gate, about to race my qualifying run, my coach clued into the fact that we were down to 28 women, as he added the DNSs up (Did Not Start).
He told me “If you blow out of the course or miss a gate, hike back up, get around that gate, and finish your run. “
( I didn’t think to blame him for missing a gate until just now (HE PUT THAT IN MY HEAD!!!)–
I hiked straight up this mountain as fast as I could. 2 minutes of hiking to get back up around that gate, ski the rest of what should have been a one minute course, and finish in 28th place.
I have NEVER wanted to give up on anything as badly as I did that day.
EVERY RACE COURSE IS DIFFERENT, but the start mattered on this one. It would be pretty much impossible to get to the first turn in the lead from the far right start gate... I would have last pick , when it came to lane selection, and I would be at a serious disadvantage. My coaches went to bat for me. It was a big deal. They managed to convince the officials to keep me on the start list.
I had worked my butt off to qualify for world champs, conquered the fear of that big scary jump more effectively than 7 competitors already, and I deserved to race.
It became a matter of principle.
I wanted this sport that I love so much to be fair.
I wanted the World Championship to include the world's best. No disqualifications over a technicality.
I found that to be more motivation than anything .
I still wanted the chance to show people what was possible.
I wanted to prove that my approach to success works.
I wanted people to change their views on what it means to become your best, and to recognize that you don't have to sacrifice everything, it doesn't have to be horrible....
I wanted to inspire young girls to have an awesome life full of JOY and FREEDOM, following their heartswherever possible, and putting the work in when the time comes... just enough work into all sorts of channels to be ready to seize the moment when opportunity knocks.
To be healthy and active and so dedicated to becoming their best that they don't even have time to get into trouble. THIS was what truly motivated me, far beyond any medals or sponsor endorsements.
And at the end of that day,
i realized, i had already won.
I won all of my heats -- threw down some sick passes on that tricky corner , diving into the pitch that had put me in my place in that qualifying run., ,,,won every heat, including the final, to become the 2009 World Champion.
It was a note of my facebook wall from the parent of a 12 year old girl, to say congratulations, and that her daughter is so inspired by my story that she has decided to give her sport one more try.
)
and then someone else who wrote "you've already won."
I just remember that realization hitting me like a ton of bricks.
That was what it was all about.
That was the goal.
I'd already won.
---- ----------- -----------------------------
“So from there, the pressure was off! Right?”
Not quite, but I was able to channel that deep-rooted sense that this was much, much BIGGER than my own fame and glory...into the reason to get out of bed each day.
and the words of encouragement and appreciation kept pouring in.
(I'm pretty sure every single teacher in this country got their kids to write letters to us Olympians, and we each had a massive pile of them waiting for us in the athletes village in Vancouver! )
Have you ever just taken a step back, in the heat of digging through evidence, to think beyond the financial incentive to win a case, or the recognition you'll be awarded with? To think about the clients, and their kids, or those who will be directly impacted by the outcome, aside from you?
I'm sure you have.
But how much time do you spend looking beyond that?
How much time do you spend thinking about the people who will be indirectly impacted by your efforts? The people who will eventually go through similar situations and will also benefit from your standard of work keeping the system just.
or the judges or the juries or the (less noble lawyers?) or their teams who will DEVELOP RESPECT FOR YOU and therefore tend to be MORE OPEN TO A FAVOURABLE OUTCOME FOR YOU AND THE GREATER GOOD down the line, once the precedent has been set that you are the best.
…or at least one of the best. I
I understand that divorce cases don't typically end with a glory moment where you and your client are just as ecstatic as I would be if I won a race, but a resolution is a resolution and you are part of something greater than you and your own personal career every time you settle a case fairly. I’d imagine that would feel a lot like being on the podium. Allow that to be your true source of motivation and the sky's the limit.
SO -- NEXT RACE -- THE OLYMPICS.
Before we get into the behind the scenes race day mental game reveal, utilizing these keys to believe, let's talk about stress.
(CLICK)
((SLIDE))
MANAGING STRESS EFFECTIVELY:
“This is the part of my story where – JUST in the nick of time!—I really unlocked my ability to embrace stress …or pressure.”
I was good at keeping it positive in the less-important races. I knew I could count on my team, yet I didn’t feel responsible for their emotions. but I still didn’t yet know that my competitors were only human… and the PRESSURE…well, we’ll get to that.
THIS LAST PART IS ABOUT recognizing what it takes to have confidence that your best is good enough
…to BELIEVE.
During the offseason before the Olympics, we trained HARD.
I believed --at that point --that I had to train like a superhuman to compete with those “superhuman “ Olympians on the one most important day..
and that I had to strive for an out –of –this –world LEVEL OF BELIEF.
(SLIDE)) “DON’T LIMIT YOURSELF TO THE SKIES WHEN THERE IS A WHOLE GALAXY OUT THERE!”
But back to reality…Gym sessions 5 days a week, for 4 - 5 hours, and then agility and quickness sessions in the afternoon, on top of my mountain biking social schedule.. and dirtbiking by that point too.
It was hard for my coaches to manage their concern for my safety with their understanding of my passions, and the value of the cross-training.
Thankfully, they put a lot of faith in my decision-making ability.
They knew it was my way to de-stress, stoke the fire inside.
I absolutely HAD to be in a positive frame of mind to perform.
My favorite coach of all, Willy Raine, (Nancy Greene's son) learned to say "have fun Ash!" in the start gate... instead of "good luck" or "kick some ass".
They would, however, give me a hard time for skipping out on the last set of squats in the gym when I was just absolutely hating it, and wanting to be outside... but i always justified any lack of effort somewhere with my extra effort somewhere else...
I had a mental tally in my mind, and i was convinced i was doing enough.
I had learned to CALL ON MY SUPPORT TEAM to alleviate some of my workload, responsibilities, and therefore, pressure. But the pressure was INSANE.
I remember one of the speedskaters complaining – after a poor performance just before my event —about the Own the Podium initiative. That it put too much pressure on us Canadian athletes. More money: more pressure – but that’s because we suddenly had no excuse! We were equipped to compete with the best in the world! That was a real turning point for me. I turned that pressure into confidence that I had been given every opportunity to be worthy of success. For the first time in my career, I embraced that pressure.
((SLIDE))) OLYMPIC GOLD
So let’s talk about THAT BIG WIN… the 2010 Oympic Games… right here, at home. (in Vancouver).
The atmosphere in the city was incredible... it felt like pure magic. It was the like the entire nation was buzzing. I couldn’t believe how much support was pouring in. I felt like what i was doing represented so much more than my individual performance.
The Olympic movement is really about world peace.
... and it was so special to see the way it brought people together, galvanizing our nation, and ---what was even closer to my heart... it brought my family together. My parents had just settled their divorce, and they stood together in the grand stands and cheered me on, and later watched my medal ceremony as a team. (oh I might CRY!)
CONVINCING MYSELF THAT I WAS NOT GOING TO buckle under the pressure was a full time job. It was crazy, how overbearing it was. But I just kept putting it off. I kept procrastinating on dealing with the feelings of stress..
---- ----
BEFORE RACE DAY, we had 3 days of training on the Olympic course.
I remember my first try at the features they’d built out of the start. It looked like an obstacle course, with 3 “Wutangs” ... aptly named for their resemblance to the W in the Wutan clan emblem.
Standing in the start gate, it looked like you’d be skiing straight into a vertical wall... like your ski tips would dig straight in, and your body would make an imprint like a cartoon character’s running into a wall, before falling backward slowly, squashed flat as a pancake.
WE HAD SIDE-SLIPPED DOWN THE TRACK ALREADY, getting a close inspection of the course, and I could visualize a run through the whole thing in my mind, but it was HUGE. So there was that added stress.
FEAR.
...I don’t know if you remember how little snow there was here during the Olympics... but they were literally helicoptering snow in to keep our jumps covered.
NORMALLY, ON THE WORLD CUP CIRCUIT, they would build the course with big huge jumps like this, then send some racers down, and some would have trouble or be too scared about some of the jumps, so they’d come in and ‘dumb it down’... shave the take-offs down.. .make the jumps smaller.
But with the lack of snow, these jumps had been built out of wood and hay. There was no shaving them down.
I remember standing in that start gate, watching my teammate (and then boyfriend) Chris Del Boscotightening his buckles on his ski boots up, clamping them down into race mode, then carefully placing his goggles over his eyes...
as I said “are you just gonna run it???”
And i remember the exact tone with which he responded...
“yeah.” Like it was the dumbest question i had ever asked.
And so. WE RAN IT.
I followed him as closely as I could, watching as he safely made it from the takeoff of each massive jump to the nice, big, well-built landing. (I almost had a heart attack flying off the final jump into the finish... it was like a cliff drop, and so big...
about 40 feet down, from takoff to landing.
But he had held my hand (figuratively speaking) all the way down...
having him to follow – one of the most technically sound skiers on the circuit... so smoothand fluid...was my ace in my sleeve when it came to keeping the stress under control... working through the process systematically without getting too scared.
--Plus, I knew I JUST HAD TO BE A LITTLE BIT LESS SCARED
than the women I’d be racing against! --
------------------------------
I REMEMBER DAY THREE OF TRAINING, one athlete from Romania watching us practice starts from the sidelines... crying... telling me she kept having nightmares about it.
I ALREADY HAD 5 FULL-LENGTH RUNS under my belt so I took the opportunity to
rest my legs, and practice some more starts,
while some of the women had not even made it through the course once.
I was having so much fun, and I felt so confident, IT WAS AMAZING.
I had never felt so good going into a race. IT WAS ALL COMING TOGETHER.
(I just couldn’t wait to go hit those jumps again!!!)
*As I picked my way down the side of the course to watch/size-up my competition, i stopped and chattedwith each and every one of the volunteers,
(the gatekeepers – who literally keep the gates in place if someone crashes into one).
*I connected with them.
*I thanked them for all of their hard work, answered their questions, and showed them how important each of their roles was to each of us.
*Those connections turned out to be top of mind for me as I rode the chairlift up over them for each of my race runs. I felt like they really wanted me to win. That wasn’t why I had stopped to express gratitude and appreciation, but it was a pretty special byproduct.
One of the most vivid memories for me is the moment that third day of training ended, two days before our race.
I WAS ASTONISHED BY THE way I just instantly relaxed.
This huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders,
right when i needed it to go away the most.
I remember thinking “that’s it! I’m done! I;ve done everything in my power to be ready for this race. There is nothing more that I can do to prepare. All I need to do now is just see how it all unfolds.”
(SLIDE)) “quote about everything falling into place.
I TRULY BELIEVED THAT I HAD DONE MY BEST, & that MY BEST WOULD BE GOOD ENOUGH.
^^I believed that my motivation was pure and powerful,
^^and I believed that my positive attitude and excitement would serve me well. ...
...The kind of positivity and excitement that is from genuinely being in a good headspace, which was the result of some of the things I’d done that could have been perceived as cutting corners. That start was a section that only a downhill mountain biker could nail. I was FIRED UP!
When I woke up on race day, I felt like it was MY DAY.
I convinced myself that every single thing that happened...
was a sign that it was MY DAY.
I REMEMBER LOOKING OUTSIDE, and discovering that it was stormy.
I LOVE storm days. .... You see, most days here, are storm days...
(Those European women don’t even go skiing when it’s too foggy to see... a lot of their ski areas are above tree line, so they can’t just deek into the trees for better depth perception. )
I KNEW THAT IT WOULD BE HARD TO SEE UP THERE. The landmarks we had lined our takeoffs up with ... (mountain peaks in the distance the only thing you can see as you approach those launching ramps)... would be invisible.
But i also knew that it would affect me less than it would affect the other my competitors.
I made these things that were surely stressing them out, MY COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE.
I think TO GO INTO SUPERHUMAN-MODE, you have to get a bit spiritual. (and I had never been one to get spiritual!)
I started believing that this was my destiny. >>that everything that had happened in my life had led me to that point...
...even farfetched things like our family car breaking down right on the route that athletes’ bus had to take through what would otherwise have been unfamiliar part of East Vancouver up to the mountain once... that happened right there so that I could have a warm childhood memory of family time as i travelled through there, to calm my nerves.
...Or that my Mom had left my Dad, moved out of Whistler, all the way to Winnipeg, and then ended up living in Vancouver, just down the street from that athletes village, so that I could feel right at home there during my Olympic experience.
You, know... that kind of thing.
I had learned to trust in my systems... to BELIEVE!
I KNEW I DIDN’T NEED TO THINK ABOUT the seemingly ridiculous idea of winning the Olympics,
(I set manageable goals. It was like a method of defering the stress,
which actually meant I didn’t really have to feel into it at all... and I’ll tell you why!)
>>I KNEW that the first step was to have a good qualifying run,
and I KNEW that I didn’t need to worry about any of the other athletes, or their performances... only the things I could control.
I KNEW that my ski tech was the best, and I trusted my coaches to only give me valuableinformation as it was needed.
I KNEW they knew how much I appreciated them, and that they genuinely wanted to see me succeed. (gatekeepers, volunteers too)
>>I made a couple of tiny mistakes on my qualifying run, and finished .02 of a second behing the big Swedish girl, Anna Holmlund.
That, to me, was a victory.
I KNEW i could make up 2 hundredths of a second, and i was happy that all eyes were on her, instead of me.
COMING 2ND ALSO MEANT that I would be in the bottom bracket,
--the 8th heat to leave the start gate.
I HAD NOTICED, watching the men’s race 2 days earlier, that those in the FIRST HEAT had to spend SO much time standing in the start gate , on standby, boots buckled tight, goggles down ( it’s really hard to keep your goggles from fogging if you are nervous and sweating, by the way!)..
... whereas those in the LATER HEATS could recognize a cadence once the race was underway...
...once the 6th heat went, I’d know almost exactly how much time i’d have until the 7th went, and then enter the start gate right when i needed to for mine, the 8th.
I DIDN’T EVEN HAVE A CHANCE to stress about that first round because i was still celebrating that small victory from the qualifier...
I gained energy from it., and confidence.
I WON THAT ROUND OF 8, and advanced to the quarter final.
>>My skis were like rockets.
And again, you see the pattern here?! (and this applies to any series of goals!)
I WAS SO FIRED UP FROM WINNING THAT ROUND OF 8 that i carried that energy right with me into the start gate of that next round, and that next round,
and then!!! before i knew it!!!!
I was standing in the start gate, about to race the Olympic final,
>>and I was WAYYYYY too excited for the stress i thought would creep in there to even stand a chance!!!
I remember the words that were echoing in my mind.
“this is your day” “you were made for this race”
...a Pele quote about sailing through his opponents effortlessly...
...that made me feel like in was locked into a groove of flowing energy...
“savour every moment”.
I remember the butterflies in my stomach. >>They were exploding!!! to my outer extremeties... my whole body was buzzing...
I remember thinking “this is good.
This is your body doing what it’s supposed to do.
You will have more strength, more finesse, more poise because of it.
This is how to achieve that seemingly superhuman power.
I realized later it was KIND OF LIKE AN OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE... like my mind was very separate from my body. My body was just the tool I, or my mind or my consciousness or ‘whatever you want to call it’ had ...to carry-out this mission.
---DEEP DOWN... I felt so calm... So at ease
The gate opened, and my body took over.
That’s the beauty of training at that level -- once you’ve put the work in, your systems really run on autopilot on race day. Like habit.
I REMEMBER CROSSING THE FINISH LINE,
and feeling that immense sense of relief .
I put my arms out and felt like I was actually floating.. flying...
...like my arms had become wings.
(( SLIDE)) ? photo of the finish line.
I couldn’t remember anything that had just happened!
I just knew IT HAD WORKED!!
It was THE ULTIMATE CULMINATION of a lifetime of
--striving for excellence from all angles,
---uncovering and tapping into deeprooted, heartfelt sources of motivation,
---and impeccable implemenation of stress management strategies...
in the pursuit of passion and purpose ---
---To BELIEVE that my best was good enough to become Olympic Champion.
<<CLICK>>
So THANK YOU for listening!
I am certain that to accomplish what you’ve accomplished,
-- you are very familiar with these concepts.
>>> and I hope I have inspired you to reflect on how they have impacted your life,
>>>and to continue to honour them and put them to work for you.
I wish you all the best in your life and career and I hope you leave Whistler feeling fired up!
-nerve-wracking every time!
-what most people don’t realize is that was actually my 5th race run of the day.
-(EXPLAIN SKICROSS FORMAT!!!)
-did any of you watch that live/cheer for me?
( I felt your support. I HEARD you!). THANK YOU for that.
It really is an honour to have your attention. --Thank you SO much for having me –
it’s nice to be able to share my story in my hometown!
(I actually used to take swimming lessons in that pool right there, as a kid! )
Never in a million years did I think I’d one day be an Olympic Champion, sharing my story with a bunch of very well-educated go-getters! But here we are.
So…let’s figure out how this happened.
What does it take, to truly be at your absolute best, when it matters most?
When your time to shine comes around?
BELIEF.
(I know, I know… that’s what everyone says.) and I’m here to tell you it’s
BEYOND BELIEF.
To share the keys to a Deep-rooted, wholehearted belief –
-- that YOUR BEST IS GOOD ENOUGH.
I’ve now had 8 years to reflect on this, and
It’s clear to me… what that FORMULA for instilling belief was …
I figured it out just in time to have the BEST RACE OF MY LIFE when it mattered most.
--------- ------------------ --------------------------------- -------------------
Sports stories hold metaphorical lessons for all sorts of real-life situations,
and I will be careful to keep in mind that --my goals were all about the Olympic Games,
whereas in your world – in the legal industry, real lives depend on favourable outcomes. (“especially in custody cases…right?”)?
------------- ------------ --------------------------
So, speaking of success…
just “give me a nod (NOD) if you’ve ever tried to win a race before” . (in anything!)
Now… “How many of you have tried to win a case before?”
Okay, great… (– for those of you who didn’t nod… I’d say you need to give yourselves more credit!…
…because I’m pretty sure you have all contributed to winning cases on some level.
I can’t stress enough that in my Olympic quest EVERYONE’S ROLE MATTERED.
- Those who were making high-level decisions for the organization
- those who coordinated all of the behind-the-scenes logistics or dealt with the media,
- right down to those who voiced two or three words of encouragement on my Facebook wall.Or in a letter by mail. the FANS.
Every single one of those people played a crucial role in my success and what fascinates me most about the whole experience is something I get asked about a lot. ….
“What was it like – the moment that you crossed the finish line—realizing that you had just won the Olympics?”
I guess I had always assumed it would be the ultimate bliss and fulfillment,
->accomplishing a goal like that… but nooooo…
IT WAS RELIEF.
reflief ! that I hadn’t let everyone down! I remember the faces of all of the people who had put so much into it, who would be so happy that I’d won… flashing before my eyes and just this huge sense of relief.
SKICROSS IS AN INDIVIDUAL SPORT, yet you travel as a team, you train as a team, you work together even on race day in the preliminary rounds,
…but when it really comes down to it, it’s one of those things that feels like it’s all on you.
“I felt like all of the pressure to lay down the performance of a lifetime when stakes were highest… was on me.”
Of course, :
-something could go wrong with my equipment,
-or a coach could misread something and give me bad information,
…but the only person who was going to going to be held accountable for a poor performance by those who were at all removed from the inner circle… was me.
A common coping mechanism, is to blame your team if you are unsuccessful, yet we often forget to give praise when all goes as planned. I just thought it was SO INTERESTING that MY FIRST THOUGHt at the CULMINATION OF A LIFETIME OF PREPARATION
- and pressure and sacrifice and insane effort …
…was this subconscious realization that it truly was a group effort. So many people had done everything in their power to set me up for success ----- because they had a clear understanding of and appreciation for everything I was putting into it …
(THIS IS ONE OF MY THREE MAIN POINTS I will loop this all back to at the end of my story,)
My support team instilled a sense of BELIEF in me. Belief – that I could do it. Belief that I deserved it. Belief that there were more people who wanted me to win, than those rooting for any other competitor.
I almost started believing that it was my destiny. (haha)
Everyone always talks about believing in yourself, but it’s not as simple as just telling yourself positive affirmations and visualizing success. You have to put the work in to unlock that belief.
(CLICK) “3 MAIN KEYS TO BELIEVE.”
((SLIDE)) “ 1) Strive for excellence -- in everything that you do. “
And I don’t just mean ‘put effort in’. I mean continuously striving for excellence in a variety of fields – (ideally, a selection of things that complement one another… I’ll talk about the way my biking complemented my skiing…)
..even when it’s hard to envision a clear roadmap to the end goal,
or as we accomplish goals and need to set our sights even higher…
-- strategies for being your best you.
(CLICK) 2) Identify and tap into your deepest, most inherent sources of motivation.
You have to be motivated.
But not just surface level, ego driven motivation… it’s about identifying and tapping into your deepest most inherent sources of motivation. For me, this goes way beyond medals and sponsor bonuses. What truly kept me going was the desire to be part of something much bigger and more important than my race results. To create… create.an inspirational story.
((CLICK))
3) And you have to adopt strategies for staying positive; utilizing your resources (your team!), alleviating pressure…
and then… you can genuinely, wholeheartedly BELIEVE that your best is good enough.
Those are the three underlying themes in my story – I uncovered them in chronological order so this is a 3 –part talk although you’ll find there is some serious synergy at play.
((And please remember… the parallels of my role apply to all of you…it’s not just you (front line?) (hot shot?)lawyers who need a great team around you.
Each of you is the athlete trying to win an Olympic Gold medal in this story, at some point…
We should all strive to deliver the performance of a lifetime even if it’s
- pulling the best evidence together behind the scenes,
- planning the best company retreat ever, or
- providing any other form of support for those going out there and representing clients on trial.
- Or, even while participating in an activity that doubles as great networking with potential clients! Go for gold!_))
But anyway… back to my story. I hope some of it will inspire you to recognize your strengths in parenting/ mentoring /leadership too!
(PAUSE)
So I’ll start right at the beginning… I’ll give you a glimpse into Whistler life in the 80s (as a KID! No..- not the sex drugs and rock n roll you were probably envisioning !)
45 sec (10:15)
((SLIDE: STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE))
“1) STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE :”
As an Olympic Champion, one of the most frequently asked questions I get is
“When was that moment… when you knew you wanted to be an Olympian?”
and almost every other athlete I’ve heard speak seems to have had that aha moment at a very young age “oh it was watching... Whoever...Compete in... Whatever... In the 1988 Olympics”, but
-THAT’S NOT MY STORY...
....>>I didn’t have any specific role models who were household names.
Olympians seeemed superhuman to me... (couldn’t relate to them on any level)...
I was more inspired by the people within our community... the people who spent the most time on the mountain on skis, and in the woods on bikes. The happiest people I knew.
it was remarkable, what they’d sacrificed to be ski bums in Whistler, and how much time they spent ‘working’ to continually get better
..To be at their best, in their chosen field.
Striving for excellence. Thriving on the emotions around that pursuit of excellence.
All I knew was that i wanted to be like them.
Throughout my childhood, I ESTABLISHED A HIGH STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE.
The dryland training sessions during that phase of my life were harder than almost any I’d ever have to power through again.
- My parents, my teachers, the program directors TREATED US LIKE WORLD CLASS ATHLETES, and EXPECTED US TO PUT FORTH A WORLD CLASS EFFORT.
- And honestly, the rest of my careeer was just applying these habits.
((SLIDE)) “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field.” - Vince Lombardi
I grew up in Whistler
-started skiing before the age of 2.
->my earliest memory is from skiing between my Dad’s legs, under the magic chair
->I just loved it. There was definitely a natural interest in going fast, scaring myself … that adrenaline is a great drug.!
->. BUT OF COURSE, ANY YOUNG CHILD HAS MOMENTS where the whole family has lugged a whole bunch of gear into the car, out of the car, geared up, bought lift tickets, against all odds made it up the chairlift successfully, and suddenly refuses to put her skis on,. Even into a FULL MELTDOWN, if you will. ;)
--my (incredibly patient, wonderful) parents were always all about keeping it positive
(hot chocolate)…
and as my Mom says … we didn’t turn out to be worse skiers for it.
-My Dad had been a ski racer, from Manitoba… so I got the competitive genes from him...
He has always been a risk-taker – very spirited – lives from the heart...
If it snowed more than 10cms, he wasn’t getting much work done.
But he started a (successful?) log home business in 1980 (it had it’s ups and downs.. )
(But I like to highlight that we really were just a regular family, always getting creative to finance ski racing for two of us girls...because ski racing is typically thought of as an elitest sport.)
My sister and I had a firewood business as kids, we babysat, and we always participated in ski club bike-a-thons and other fundraising drives.
And MY DAD DID WORK HARD when the snow was (thumbs down!)
He was determined to provide us with the opportunities he didn’t have as a prairie kid.
(I think he just Wanted to live vicariously through us!) (haha)
My (amazing!) Mom .... (and I had to add amazing because I’ve gained such an appreciation for her parenting style now that I’m seeing it shine through in her grandparenting style. )
But when it comes to sports, SHE has always been all about participating.
she doesn’t have a competitive bone in her body!
They got me into skiing, and my Mom was right there with me when I broke my leg for the first time, at the age of 5. Clearly, I must have been striving for excellence to crash hard enough to break my leg at that age!
(Don’t kids’ bones just BEND??!)
I remember yelling “take my boot off, take my boot off...” and then they’d start trying to take it off and I’d yell “leave my boot on, leave my boot on!”
Thankfully my mom is a nurse, and she ORDERED the ski partoller to give me intramuscular morphine.
That was the beginning of a long list of injuries.
I always used this time to focus on getting better at something else: art or music, or to focus on my school work. “AND I GOT REALLY GOOD AT RECOVERING FROM INJURIES. “
(I’ve actually encountered people who quit sports all together after one broken bone!)
(chalked it up as a “career-ender”)
THAT FIRST LEG INJURY HEALED UP and eventually my parents put me in the race program. The early days of my racing career were largely influenced by my peers, and the world class coaches that a world class resort attracts .
---- Oooo oooo ooooo ooooo Oooo oooo ooooo ooooo Oooo oooo ooooo ooooo---
AS A TEENAGER, I WAS ALPINE SKI RACING… skicross wasn’t even a thing then, let alone an Olympic sport.
-worked hard enough to be consistently at the top of my age group…
Focussed on what I LOVED about it. And
never put too much pressure on myself.
I didn’t really care whether I came 1st or 5th in a race…
But I definitely felt that overbearing drive to BECOME THE BEST that I could be.
as long as I was enjoying it. …
I HAD TO PURSUE OTHER PASSIONS TO AVOID BURNOUT.
which meant I was often skipping the organized gate training to go ski powder, or to (super casually) race my buddies
- from the top of the mountain to the bottom
.... through gullies and off jumps & cliffs...
because that was more fun, to me.
So when I talk about “skipping training” , (and I’ll let you know how this strategy helped me with my Olympic prep much later in my career, when i talk about managing stress and staying positive)
I just mean STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE IN SOMETHING ELSE.
INSTEAD of going straight down to the bottom of the chairlift on the groomed ski run after skiing through the gates, I’d deek into the trees with a couple of the boys ( no—no—it’s not what you think! It just always happened to be that the boys were the most dialed--- the best skiers with the greatest desire to challenge themselves on skis (and bikes) – and we’d pick our way down the cliffs and shred the deep pow! – the deep, untracked powder snow that no tourist in their right mind would ever bother to seek out. And let me tell you – I was determined to progess at that style of skiing too. Little did I know, this would be eqaully valuable prep for the sport that I would one day represent my country in – skicross
by the time I was 16, I was sick of the structured, boring old alpine racing that had become a 60hr/week minimum commitment in the winter. ( we NEVER went to school!)
->my heart just wasn’t in it anymore.
I loved some components of alpine ski racing, but the required commitment limited my ability to pursue the side of skiing that I was truly passionate about. I was too burnt out to continue striving for excellence, but I was too scared to call that the end of my ski career... It was such a huge part of myidentity, and I couldn’t handle the thought of letting my coaches down... or my parents ---even though they never ever actually put pressure on me to stick with it.
(I can’t imagine how hard it would be for the kids whose parents held their sweat equity and finanical ‘investment’ in the kid’s athletic career over their heads as a form of pressure to keep going!)
(I think most kids put enough pressure on themselves…+ that of the coaches,.. then you get parents instilling that fear of resentment ---That’s a dangerous combo. )
Have you ever noticed that when your heart’s not in it,
your head’s not in it… and that’s when bad things happen?
A few more injuries, and then came the “career-ender” (or so I thought!)
I broke my leg so badly at the age of 16 (that story’s not for the faint of heart!)… that I managed to use it as an excuse to quit ski racing. (ha!)
-l looked at it as an opportunity to focus on my new passion…downhill mountain biking, and of course my school work.
THE DOWNHILL MOUNTAIN BIKE PARK HAD JUST OPENED UP HERE,
and I was obsessed.
The way we rode was intense.
It was next-level drive to be the best. At all cost.
I had some horrific crashes… but it all just toughened me up for skicross.
Downhill mountain biking, is FOR SURE the best cross-training for skicross. Everything that goes on in your mind crosses over :
-looking ahead (around the athlete in front of you!),
-picking good lines,
- working to generate speed from every little bump and bit of terrain,
-and MOST IMPORTANTLY – mastering that ABILITY TO OVERCOME THE FEAR that you feel when you’re about to hit a cliff or a blind jump. It’s all the same.
-I had Graduated from High School with good grades and I was going to school at the University of British Columbia and I found myself missing being a competitive athlete… I knew I could have gone further with the ski racing and I was wanting more. I really feel that I needed to go through the process of self-discovery myself though –it had to come from within. Not from a coach or a parent or even a boyfriend.
-> I had all of these skills that I’d devoted my childhood to developing,
…. and I had quit before I had realized my full potential.
I knew that would frustrate me for the rest of my life if I didn’t do something about it.
But getting a good education had always been the highest priority.
I had set my classes at UBC up so that they were 3 days/week (Tuesday was a 14hr-solid day!)… so that I could continue to live in Whistler and ski the other 4 days/week.
I WAS FINALLY PURSUING MY PASSION for the wild side of the sport… freeskiing... in the winter, and mountain biking in the off-season.
SO WE’LL MOVE ON TO MOTIVATION IN JUST A SEC, but to wrap part one,up
To me, striving for excellence in what I realize now is a crazy, obssessive manner seemed totally normal, because I was basically completely surrounded by people who were just slightly more obsessed. And it’s all relative, right? Even though I skipped out on the formal training program a lot, by my calculations, I skied through a race or training course somewhere between 2 or 3,000 times... i think the super-keeners were around 3,000.
that’s left, right, left, right, left, right, 0r “red, blue, red, blue, red, blue”.....about 111,000 times... if you consider there are about 40-50 gates on most of those courses.!
That’s A LOT!
It was those years as an alpine skier, and a downhill mountain biker where the foundation was laid. STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE HAD BECOME HABIT.
So – how did I parlay this into a skicross career?
And what were my main sources of motivation to get back into it, and to keep at it?
((CLICK))
((SLIDE : MOTIVATION))
- IDENTIFY & TAP INTO DEEP ROOTED SOURCES OF MOTIVATION
What really makes you tick?
Are you creating something special?
Is your role contributing to the greater good of humanity?
ONE STORMY DAY IN 2002, the upper chairlifts had closed down due to wind… I was inside the Glacier Creek Lodge with some of my ski buddies watching some X Games coverage of this relatively new sport… skicross. There were 6 women racing head to head, off huge jumps and I was convinced (through peer pressure) to try skicross.
One of my friends said “you should race skicross. You’d kill it”.
and thus, MY SKICROSS CAREER WAS BORN.
(CLICK)
((SLIDE)) “QUOTE ABOUT PURPOSE AND MOTIVATION”
BACK THEN, (“STILL BEFORE SKICROSS WAS AN OLYMPIC SPORT! “) you had to go over to Europe to compete on the World Cup circuit.
But There was a pro tour in North America –
it had a bit of a renegade feel to it,
with music blasting in the finish line
and big wrap up parties at night.
It was like this harmonious combination of everything I’d loved about alpine ski racing none of the things I’d hated,… plus everything else I’d been doing for fun my whole life, growing up heeeeere...wrapped into this cool new sport.
THERE WERE NO NATIONAL TEAMS and I would have to fend for myself when it came to
-managing costs,
-logistics, and
-training
….. so the pressure to perform (and win prize money), was on.
But this I look at this phase of my career as the opportunity to put everything I’d been striving for excellence in to work, together
where the results of always pushing from one angle or another suddenly became measurable. And it had worked.
I was almost always on the podium on the North American Tour, and I managed to beat every single competitor in the qualification round in the one world Cup I did travel to Europe for.
THIS WAS THE PHASE OF MY CAREER where I uncovered what truly motivated me,
and how important it was to tap in to and honour that.
I HAD THE CHANCE TO LEARN HOW DIFFERENT SKIING FOR CASH WAS.
I remember being in the lead in a race in Alberta, and then missing a gate… I actually aired up an over the whole panel, which means my body didn’t travel the full distance it needed to to go out and around that whole gate… I had technically missed a gate, and I was disqualified from the race… and all I could think about was the opportunity cost. It basically cost me $2,500 to miss that gate by a matter of inches. I eventually realized that
I had to abandon ALL thoughts of money (or medals) while racing,
or my systems would seriously malfunction.
so , fastforward a few years to 2006, I was 23, and I had quit racing (again) because I just wasn’t having enough fun to justify the sacrifices I felt I was making to travel around, all by myself, competing in a high-risk sport... I was madly in love with my downhill mountain biker/surfer boyfriend Adam, and I just wanted to run off to Mexico with him for the winter....
I had decided I would follow my heart and just hit all of the big races, with BIG PRIZE MONEY, because THAT HAD BECOME MY MAIN SOURCE OF MOTIVATION...
but what have we learned about racing when your heart’s not in it, and your head’s not it in? That’s when bad things happen.
I had blown my knee at the X Games and that was (what I thought was) the end of that!
)
THEN!!! the announcement came that SKICROSS WOULD BE ADDED TO THE OLYMPIC PROGRAM for 2010.
the Olympic debut of my sport
at home, in BC
in perfect timing for me to be at the pinnacle of my career.
Suddenly, I knew that this was the opportunity I’d been working so hard for that whole time,
and I was in a good position to make the most of it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A SELECTION PROCESS FOR A NATIONAL TEAM was established, and selection camps were held right here in Whistler on the glacier, and on a glacier in southeastern BC, where we actually slept in tents, did a whole bunch of hiking with our skis on our shoulders, and ENDURED SOME REALLY EXTREME WEATHER.
- I remember thinking about how badly I wanted to make that team,
...and feeling like I was made for this event, and I kind-of thought I would just walk onto it. ...Afterall, I was one of 3 women who actually had experience racing skicross internationally, with a world cup medal to boot.
Well, IT WASN’T QUITE THAT SIMPLE:
The administration team that had been put in place – the coaches and directors who held my fate in their hands – really had no idea how to determine who should be on the team. They didn’t have the resources to build a full-length skicross course with full-size jumps, so they put us in GS courses, and timed us , which was great for the athletes who had continued to race alpine long after I had switched my focus to skiing powder, cliffs, jumps, and downhill mountain biking. Some of them had now made more than 200,000 turns around gates... I had just stopped at a measley 111,000. ;)
But there was no way for the other skills I’d developed to shine.
ONE OF THE COACHES had a whole bunch of SKICROSS EXPERIENCE, and NO COACHING EXPERIENCE, and the others had a whole bunch of coaching experience (on the alpine side), but didn’t know anything about skicross. They sure made me work for it.
I remember thinking about quitting really regularly, just telling myself “one more training camp” “one more day at the training camp” or even, at times “ one more gym session” and then I’ll quit ...if I’m still feeling like this. I set manageable goals, no matter how small. And celebrated each small victory. And somehow, this kept me going.
I had learned a lot about what did not motivate me before this point, and THIS IS WHERE I BEGAN TO UNCOVER THE DEEPER SOURCES OF MOTIVATION.
I needed to feel like what I was doing was important. Like it was going to impact a whole bunch of people positivitely. “I had the feeling that our nations’ youth would be inspired by our team, and particularly my a unique path to success, but if I had known the scale of it then –man i would have been on fire!”
----- ---------
My coaches finally broke the news to me that I had made the team in November of 2007.
They claimed that they had always planned to put me on the team, --they just needed to see if I would actually work for it… If I had it in me to obey the authoritative figures in my life.
SUDDENLY, I HAD THIS ENTIRE SUPPORT SYSTEM IN PLACE:
-funding
-physios/massage therapists
-coaches – who trusted me to respect them now, so allowed me to provide a lot of input
-world’s best ski techs
-and a really talented group of teammates.
IT WAS SUCH AN INCREDIBLE FEELING, to finally make the team. But I realized I had been so focussed on that, that I’d forgotten what being on that team was all about. The goal posts had shifted wayyyy back.It might be similar to working your whole life to get good grades, always going the extra mile in everything that you do, making all sorts of sacrifcies to get through law school, then finally passing the bar and becoming a lawyer. Then what?
“Ahhh.... you need to recalibrate... set your sights higher. Become a great lawyer. Make an impact.”
LOOKING BACK NOW, I can see why the beginning of that first season on the National Team was so horrible. I didn’t even qualify for the QUARTER final in either of the first 2 world Cup races. (I think I was like 28th or something.) They were such horrible results, that I had become completely convinced that it was all over. That all of these women had come out of the woodwork, now that it was an Olympic sport, and I could not compete. I had just felt so accomplished for making the team, that
I forgot to keep striving for excellence day in, day out.
I did manage to pull it together briefly, for the 3rd World Cup race… but THAT FIRST SEASON on the National Team got cut short.
We were racing in Les Contamines, France, on a really stormy day.
The fog made for horrible depth perception. I could hardly see the tips of my skis!
,
I dislocated my shoulder for the 22nd time while winning the semi-final …
and my coaches decided I should head home to have it operated on,
so that I would be ready to go for the next season – where all of my results would count for Olympic qualifying.
WHEN I CAME BACK, I was stronger than ever, and i’d had a nice break.
I’d done a whole bunch of soul searching, really evaluated whether this was something I wanted to continue to devote my life to, and realized that there was some unidentifiable source of motivation deep down that was keeping me going, even on days that were really hard. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was there.
Just knowing that, made me really excited to be back on the circuit.
- The PASSION was reignited! (arms up!!)
- I landed on the podium in almost every race that year, (though rarely on the top of it. --and I'll talk about that more in a minute)
The big event that season was the World Championship, which is held every two years.
I have a crazy World Champs story.
THIS IS WHERE I DROPPED ALL OF THE BARRIERS -- labels I’d assigned to myself about performing poorly in the high-pressure events, expectations, any arrogance that had weaseled its way in, and got to the core of the whole mission. - I uncovered my true source of motivation, and I think you’ll be able to relate.
Picture this:
Fukashima, Japan… a little ski area overlooking a giant Lake… NO SNOW.
Literally, NO SNOW , ON THE GROUND IN THE TREES, and they had plowed as much snow as they could make on to one run to try to pull a skicross course together.
BECAUSE THEY HAD SO LITTLE TO WORK WITH, they built one HUGE jump, right in the middle of the steepest pitch within hundreds of kilometers, and called it a race track.
Only 35 women qualify for World Champs, just like the Olympics… max of 4 from each nation, tough selection criteria. Then we all compete for the 32 spots in the head to head racing, by doing a qualification run, one at a time, against the clock.
WELL, AFTER DAY 1 OF TRAINING, we were down to 28 women. Some had decided there was no chance they were hitting that jump. Some had tried, and failed miserably. There were some bad injuries – just making it down that course successfully was an accomplishment in itself.
Standing in the start gate, about to race my qualifying run, my coach clued into the fact that we were down to 28 women, as he added the DNSs up (Did Not Start).
He told me “If you blow out of the course or miss a gate, hike back up, get around that gate, and finish your run. “
( I didn’t think to blame him for missing a gate until just now (HE PUT THAT IN MY HEAD!!!)–
- but that’s just what I did.
COMING INTO THAT INSANELY STEEP PITCH, naturally a little tentative, I stood up to make the switch of direction, and came down hard on my edges, miscalculating how far I’d drift out to the left by …mmm… about and inch… and my inside ski tip caught on the gate I was supposed to go around. It stayed, I kept moving down the hill, FAST… twirling around like a ballerina on one ski, until I was finally able to get that ski to dig in and stop myself. Almost all the way down the pitch.
I looked up at the group of coaches standing right there, looking absolutely stunned, none of whom, my coaches. And the Swedish coach yelled “HIIIIIIIIKE!!!!!”
I will love him forever.
I hiked straight up this mountain as fast as I could. 2 minutes of hiking to get back up around that gate, ski the rest of what should have been a one minute course, and finish in 28th place.
I have NEVER wanted to give up on anything as badly as I did that day.
- But Some of the other athletes were lobbying to get me kicked out of the race, trying to come up with some rule that there must be a time limit.
EVERY RACE COURSE IS DIFFERENT, but the start mattered on this one. It would be pretty much impossible to get to the first turn in the lead from the far right start gate... I would have last pick , when it came to lane selection, and I would be at a serious disadvantage. My coaches went to bat for me. It was a big deal. They managed to convince the officials to keep me on the start list.
I had worked my butt off to qualify for world champs, conquered the fear of that big scary jump more effectively than 7 competitors already, and I deserved to race.
It became a matter of principle.
I wanted this sport that I love so much to be fair.
I wanted the World Championship to include the world's best. No disqualifications over a technicality.
I found that to be more motivation than anything .
I still wanted the chance to show people what was possible.
I wanted to prove that my approach to success works.
I wanted people to change their views on what it means to become your best, and to recognize that you don't have to sacrifice everything, it doesn't have to be horrible....
I wanted to inspire young girls to have an awesome life full of JOY and FREEDOM, following their heartswherever possible, and putting the work in when the time comes... just enough work into all sorts of channels to be ready to seize the moment when opportunity knocks.
To be healthy and active and so dedicated to becoming their best that they don't even have time to get into trouble. THIS was what truly motivated me, far beyond any medals or sponsor endorsements.
And at the end of that day,
i realized, i had already won.
I won all of my heats -- threw down some sick passes on that tricky corner , diving into the pitch that had put me in my place in that qualifying run., ,,,won every heat, including the final, to become the 2009 World Champion.
It was a note of my facebook wall from the parent of a 12 year old girl, to say congratulations, and that her daughter is so inspired by my story that she has decided to give her sport one more try.
)
and then someone else who wrote "you've already won."
I just remember that realization hitting me like a ton of bricks.
That was what it was all about.
That was the goal.
I'd already won.
---- ----------- -----------------------------
“So from there, the pressure was off! Right?”
Not quite, but I was able to channel that deep-rooted sense that this was much, much BIGGER than my own fame and glory...into the reason to get out of bed each day.
and the words of encouragement and appreciation kept pouring in.
(I'm pretty sure every single teacher in this country got their kids to write letters to us Olympians, and we each had a massive pile of them waiting for us in the athletes village in Vancouver! )
Have you ever just taken a step back, in the heat of digging through evidence, to think beyond the financial incentive to win a case, or the recognition you'll be awarded with? To think about the clients, and their kids, or those who will be directly impacted by the outcome, aside from you?
I'm sure you have.
But how much time do you spend looking beyond that?
How much time do you spend thinking about the people who will be indirectly impacted by your efforts? The people who will eventually go through similar situations and will also benefit from your standard of work keeping the system just.
or the judges or the juries or the (less noble lawyers?) or their teams who will DEVELOP RESPECT FOR YOU and therefore tend to be MORE OPEN TO A FAVOURABLE OUTCOME FOR YOU AND THE GREATER GOOD down the line, once the precedent has been set that you are the best.
…or at least one of the best. I
I understand that divorce cases don't typically end with a glory moment where you and your client are just as ecstatic as I would be if I won a race, but a resolution is a resolution and you are part of something greater than you and your own personal career every time you settle a case fairly. I’d imagine that would feel a lot like being on the podium. Allow that to be your true source of motivation and the sky's the limit.
SO -- NEXT RACE -- THE OLYMPICS.
Before we get into the behind the scenes race day mental game reveal, utilizing these keys to believe, let's talk about stress.
(CLICK)
((SLIDE))
MANAGING STRESS EFFECTIVELY:
“This is the part of my story where – JUST in the nick of time!—I really unlocked my ability to embrace stress …or pressure.”
I was good at keeping it positive in the less-important races. I knew I could count on my team, yet I didn’t feel responsible for their emotions. but I still didn’t yet know that my competitors were only human… and the PRESSURE…well, we’ll get to that.
THIS LAST PART IS ABOUT recognizing what it takes to have confidence that your best is good enough
…to BELIEVE.
During the offseason before the Olympics, we trained HARD.
I believed --at that point --that I had to train like a superhuman to compete with those “superhuman “ Olympians on the one most important day..
and that I had to strive for an out –of –this –world LEVEL OF BELIEF.
(SLIDE)) “DON’T LIMIT YOURSELF TO THE SKIES WHEN THERE IS A WHOLE GALAXY OUT THERE!”
But back to reality…Gym sessions 5 days a week, for 4 - 5 hours, and then agility and quickness sessions in the afternoon, on top of my mountain biking social schedule.. and dirtbiking by that point too.
It was hard for my coaches to manage their concern for my safety with their understanding of my passions, and the value of the cross-training.
Thankfully, they put a lot of faith in my decision-making ability.
They knew it was my way to de-stress, stoke the fire inside.
I absolutely HAD to be in a positive frame of mind to perform.
My favorite coach of all, Willy Raine, (Nancy Greene's son) learned to say "have fun Ash!" in the start gate... instead of "good luck" or "kick some ass".
They would, however, give me a hard time for skipping out on the last set of squats in the gym when I was just absolutely hating it, and wanting to be outside... but i always justified any lack of effort somewhere with my extra effort somewhere else...
I had a mental tally in my mind, and i was convinced i was doing enough.
I had learned to CALL ON MY SUPPORT TEAM to alleviate some of my workload, responsibilities, and therefore, pressure. But the pressure was INSANE.
I remember one of the speedskaters complaining – after a poor performance just before my event —about the Own the Podium initiative. That it put too much pressure on us Canadian athletes. More money: more pressure – but that’s because we suddenly had no excuse! We were equipped to compete with the best in the world! That was a real turning point for me. I turned that pressure into confidence that I had been given every opportunity to be worthy of success. For the first time in my career, I embraced that pressure.
((SLIDE))) OLYMPIC GOLD
So let’s talk about THAT BIG WIN… the 2010 Oympic Games… right here, at home. (in Vancouver).
The atmosphere in the city was incredible... it felt like pure magic. It was the like the entire nation was buzzing. I couldn’t believe how much support was pouring in. I felt like what i was doing represented so much more than my individual performance.
The Olympic movement is really about world peace.
... and it was so special to see the way it brought people together, galvanizing our nation, and ---what was even closer to my heart... it brought my family together. My parents had just settled their divorce, and they stood together in the grand stands and cheered me on, and later watched my medal ceremony as a team. (oh I might CRY!)
CONVINCING MYSELF THAT I WAS NOT GOING TO buckle under the pressure was a full time job. It was crazy, how overbearing it was. But I just kept putting it off. I kept procrastinating on dealing with the feelings of stress..
---- ----
BEFORE RACE DAY, we had 3 days of training on the Olympic course.
I remember my first try at the features they’d built out of the start. It looked like an obstacle course, with 3 “Wutangs” ... aptly named for their resemblance to the W in the Wutan clan emblem.
Standing in the start gate, it looked like you’d be skiing straight into a vertical wall... like your ski tips would dig straight in, and your body would make an imprint like a cartoon character’s running into a wall, before falling backward slowly, squashed flat as a pancake.
WE HAD SIDE-SLIPPED DOWN THE TRACK ALREADY, getting a close inspection of the course, and I could visualize a run through the whole thing in my mind, but it was HUGE. So there was that added stress.
FEAR.
...I don’t know if you remember how little snow there was here during the Olympics... but they were literally helicoptering snow in to keep our jumps covered.
NORMALLY, ON THE WORLD CUP CIRCUIT, they would build the course with big huge jumps like this, then send some racers down, and some would have trouble or be too scared about some of the jumps, so they’d come in and ‘dumb it down’... shave the take-offs down.. .make the jumps smaller.
But with the lack of snow, these jumps had been built out of wood and hay. There was no shaving them down.
I remember standing in that start gate, watching my teammate (and then boyfriend) Chris Del Boscotightening his buckles on his ski boots up, clamping them down into race mode, then carefully placing his goggles over his eyes...
as I said “are you just gonna run it???”
And i remember the exact tone with which he responded...
“yeah.” Like it was the dumbest question i had ever asked.
And so. WE RAN IT.
I followed him as closely as I could, watching as he safely made it from the takeoff of each massive jump to the nice, big, well-built landing. (I almost had a heart attack flying off the final jump into the finish... it was like a cliff drop, and so big...
about 40 feet down, from takoff to landing.
But he had held my hand (figuratively speaking) all the way down...
having him to follow – one of the most technically sound skiers on the circuit... so smoothand fluid...was my ace in my sleeve when it came to keeping the stress under control... working through the process systematically without getting too scared.
--Plus, I knew I JUST HAD TO BE A LITTLE BIT LESS SCARED
than the women I’d be racing against! --
------------------------------
I REMEMBER DAY THREE OF TRAINING, one athlete from Romania watching us practice starts from the sidelines... crying... telling me she kept having nightmares about it.
I ALREADY HAD 5 FULL-LENGTH RUNS under my belt so I took the opportunity to
rest my legs, and practice some more starts,
while some of the women had not even made it through the course once.
I was having so much fun, and I felt so confident, IT WAS AMAZING.
I had never felt so good going into a race. IT WAS ALL COMING TOGETHER.
(I just couldn’t wait to go hit those jumps again!!!)
*As I picked my way down the side of the course to watch/size-up my competition, i stopped and chattedwith each and every one of the volunteers,
(the gatekeepers – who literally keep the gates in place if someone crashes into one).
*I connected with them.
*I thanked them for all of their hard work, answered their questions, and showed them how important each of their roles was to each of us.
*Those connections turned out to be top of mind for me as I rode the chairlift up over them for each of my race runs. I felt like they really wanted me to win. That wasn’t why I had stopped to express gratitude and appreciation, but it was a pretty special byproduct.
One of the most vivid memories for me is the moment that third day of training ended, two days before our race.
I WAS ASTONISHED BY THE way I just instantly relaxed.
This huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders,
right when i needed it to go away the most.
I remember thinking “that’s it! I’m done! I;ve done everything in my power to be ready for this race. There is nothing more that I can do to prepare. All I need to do now is just see how it all unfolds.”
(SLIDE)) “quote about everything falling into place.
I TRULY BELIEVED THAT I HAD DONE MY BEST, & that MY BEST WOULD BE GOOD ENOUGH.
^^I believed that my motivation was pure and powerful,
^^and I believed that my positive attitude and excitement would serve me well. ...
...The kind of positivity and excitement that is from genuinely being in a good headspace, which was the result of some of the things I’d done that could have been perceived as cutting corners. That start was a section that only a downhill mountain biker could nail. I was FIRED UP!
When I woke up on race day, I felt like it was MY DAY.
I convinced myself that every single thing that happened...
was a sign that it was MY DAY.
I REMEMBER LOOKING OUTSIDE, and discovering that it was stormy.
I LOVE storm days. .... You see, most days here, are storm days...
(Those European women don’t even go skiing when it’s too foggy to see... a lot of their ski areas are above tree line, so they can’t just deek into the trees for better depth perception. )
I KNEW THAT IT WOULD BE HARD TO SEE UP THERE. The landmarks we had lined our takeoffs up with ... (mountain peaks in the distance the only thing you can see as you approach those launching ramps)... would be invisible.
But i also knew that it would affect me less than it would affect the other my competitors.
I made these things that were surely stressing them out, MY COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE.
I think TO GO INTO SUPERHUMAN-MODE, you have to get a bit spiritual. (and I had never been one to get spiritual!)
I started believing that this was my destiny. >>that everything that had happened in my life had led me to that point...
...even farfetched things like our family car breaking down right on the route that athletes’ bus had to take through what would otherwise have been unfamiliar part of East Vancouver up to the mountain once... that happened right there so that I could have a warm childhood memory of family time as i travelled through there, to calm my nerves.
...Or that my Mom had left my Dad, moved out of Whistler, all the way to Winnipeg, and then ended up living in Vancouver, just down the street from that athletes village, so that I could feel right at home there during my Olympic experience.
You, know... that kind of thing.
I had learned to trust in my systems... to BELIEVE!
I KNEW I DIDN’T NEED TO THINK ABOUT the seemingly ridiculous idea of winning the Olympics,
- or how it might feel to be standing in the start gate, about to race for the victory,
(I set manageable goals. It was like a method of defering the stress,
which actually meant I didn’t really have to feel into it at all... and I’ll tell you why!)
>>I KNEW that the first step was to have a good qualifying run,
and I KNEW that I didn’t need to worry about any of the other athletes, or their performances... only the things I could control.
I KNEW that my ski tech was the best, and I trusted my coaches to only give me valuableinformation as it was needed.
I KNEW they knew how much I appreciated them, and that they genuinely wanted to see me succeed. (gatekeepers, volunteers too)
>>I made a couple of tiny mistakes on my qualifying run, and finished .02 of a second behing the big Swedish girl, Anna Holmlund.
That, to me, was a victory.
I KNEW i could make up 2 hundredths of a second, and i was happy that all eyes were on her, instead of me.
COMING 2ND ALSO MEANT that I would be in the bottom bracket,
--the 8th heat to leave the start gate.
I HAD NOTICED, watching the men’s race 2 days earlier, that those in the FIRST HEAT had to spend SO much time standing in the start gate , on standby, boots buckled tight, goggles down ( it’s really hard to keep your goggles from fogging if you are nervous and sweating, by the way!)..
... whereas those in the LATER HEATS could recognize a cadence once the race was underway...
...once the 6th heat went, I’d know almost exactly how much time i’d have until the 7th went, and then enter the start gate right when i needed to for mine, the 8th.
I DIDN’T EVEN HAVE A CHANCE to stress about that first round because i was still celebrating that small victory from the qualifier...
I gained energy from it., and confidence.
I WON THAT ROUND OF 8, and advanced to the quarter final.
>>My skis were like rockets.
And again, you see the pattern here?! (and this applies to any series of goals!)
I WAS SO FIRED UP FROM WINNING THAT ROUND OF 8 that i carried that energy right with me into the start gate of that next round, and that next round,
and then!!! before i knew it!!!!
I was standing in the start gate, about to race the Olympic final,
>>and I was WAYYYYY too excited for the stress i thought would creep in there to even stand a chance!!!
I remember the words that were echoing in my mind.
“this is your day” “you were made for this race”
...a Pele quote about sailing through his opponents effortlessly...
...that made me feel like in was locked into a groove of flowing energy...
“savour every moment”.
I remember the butterflies in my stomach. >>They were exploding!!! to my outer extremeties... my whole body was buzzing...
I remember thinking “this is good.
This is your body doing what it’s supposed to do.
You will have more strength, more finesse, more poise because of it.
This is how to achieve that seemingly superhuman power.
I realized later it was KIND OF LIKE AN OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE... like my mind was very separate from my body. My body was just the tool I, or my mind or my consciousness or ‘whatever you want to call it’ had ...to carry-out this mission.
---DEEP DOWN... I felt so calm... So at ease
The gate opened, and my body took over.
That’s the beauty of training at that level -- once you’ve put the work in, your systems really run on autopilot on race day. Like habit.
I REMEMBER CROSSING THE FINISH LINE,
and feeling that immense sense of relief .
I put my arms out and felt like I was actually floating.. flying...
...like my arms had become wings.
(( SLIDE)) ? photo of the finish line.
I couldn’t remember anything that had just happened!
I just knew IT HAD WORKED!!
It was THE ULTIMATE CULMINATION of a lifetime of
--striving for excellence from all angles,
---uncovering and tapping into deeprooted, heartfelt sources of motivation,
---and impeccable implemenation of stress management strategies...
in the pursuit of passion and purpose ---
---To BELIEVE that my best was good enough to become Olympic Champion.
<<CLICK>>
So THANK YOU for listening!
I am certain that to accomplish what you’ve accomplished,
-- you are very familiar with these concepts.
>>> and I hope I have inspired you to reflect on how they have impacted your life,
>>>and to continue to honour them and put them to work for you.
I wish you all the best in your life and career and I hope you leave Whistler feeling fired up!