Thursday, 14 August 2014

#power2podium

I have developed this ambition to become a bob skeleton athlete or slider if you know the lingo (I'm trying!). I have been aware of the sport since I watched Amy Williams win Olympic gold in Vancouver in 2010 when I was doing my placement at the university of baths high performance center. There was a lot of interest as that is where Amy lived and trained. So I shed a little tear (I always cry when people get medals) and thought how amazing winning a gold medal was but had no desire to try that myself despite knowing Amy had come from an athletics background.
2014: Sochi Olympics.
I was more aware of this Olympics because I was now working in high performance sport in Scotland where we have a good reputation for curling in particular. So the whole office were pretty into Sochi. I'd heard a bit about Lizzy Yarnold through the media so I knew she had a decent chance based on her form and previous races. I also knew that she was a product of Girls4Gold a talent ID drive that I'd also done and made the initial skeleton tests but gotten no further. Then she won gold. The second consecutive British woman to win a skeleton medal. They know what they are doing down in Bath. In all the post games media I came across power2podium; the newest British skeleton talent ID drive and remembered thinking I could have a shot at that.
So encouraged by my then boyfriend (now ex) I applied and went to phase 1. I LOVED phase one!! It was all speed and power testing and really favoured my strengths coming from a long jump background. Onto phase 2.... And Bath. Probably my favourite city in the UK. Fewer girls but they were all athletic and physically not dissimilar to me. How do you stand out against that? What are the skeleton team looking for? No one provided these answers so time to just get on with it. The best part was the push track; a 50-60m downhill track with a sled on runners and a bungee that let you practice the push start away from ice. Pretty daunting!! However it was a lot of fun and no one wanted to leave. The challenge was running with one arm and bent over (sounds obvious) but it is really weird and hard to coordinate and keep balanced. Anyway practice we did and we all improved and got faster with no major incidents (cause it is pretty dangerous if you mess it up).
Post phase 2 ice bath because I had an athletics comp the next day!
Next up a nervous wait to hear about phase 3... I got through. I was more relieved and pleased than I expected so a sign that I was beginning to really want this. Despite all the chat that you're away from home 6 months of the year, become a human pin ball, live in cramped conditions, are broke for the most part I am relishing the chance to be a full time athlete. It won't happen for me in athletics, money is hard to come by there. This is the opportunity.
Yesterday and today was phase 3. It really feels make or break now, no one wants to get rejected at this stage cause phase 4 is ice time baby!! It feels really close and I have committed time and money to this cause now so I'll be gutted if I don't make it.

We had a lot of things to do over the past two days. We did two push start sessions on the track, an eye test, team building activity, psychology assessment, sled workshop and performance lifestyle. I was loving all the sport science :) With all that on the table it is hard to guess what will make or break it for any one athlete. I suspect it is the push track. Which is a shame because I didn't feel I performed to the best of my ability in today's session. Whilst a lot of girls stepped up I felt that I regressed, having a few dodgy runs (wrecking my spikes in the process). Luckily I ended on two good runs however I'm wishing that they had been my first runs so I could have built on them. But hey ho what can I do now but wait? I believe in myself as an athlete and want to test myself further in this sport, particularly on the ice. So the waits begins. I'll update in two weeks time...for now it's back to the tartan track!

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