The Final Countdown

I have been thinking a lot lately about what it means to go to the Olympics.  For me, one of the things it means is that it will likely be my last international rowing race.  That scares me.  For some reason I have always been excited to attend the world championships.  The world championships have been an opportunity to show the world what my training has done, how well Canada works as a team and to have the best race possible to feel good about myself.  The Olympics seem so much bigger.  Part of that feeling is all the media attention the Olympics spurs and also the expectations of fellow Canadians who tune in to watch.  I think when I imagine the Olympics being something so much bigger than the world championships, I get seriously overwhelmed.  What if that last race is not the race I want to have?  What if that last race doesn't bring gold?  What if the Greeks and the Brits and the Americans and the Aussies and the Kiwis and the....and the...and the...the list goes on.  But then I think this, I haven't been training for this regatta for one year, I've been training my whole life.

       Some of you might be a facebook friend and for this entire training season, I have listed each training day of the year and paired it with an inspirational quote.  Today, for example is day 151, however I realize that it is actually thousands of days into the training cycle.  Every bump in the road, every failure, every bad coach, every good coach, every team mate, every family member, every practice I ever had (including those of volleyball, track and softball etc), were pieces of the Olympic training puzzle.  I have always been competitive, I have always wanted to win, I have always been dedicated to practice and I have never missed training for unimportant reasons.  I have been training for this one and final race my whole life and that makes me ready.

      I think at the end of all of this winning isn't the measure of what I have accomplished.  We might win, we might not.  We might not even get on the podium, but I do know that the preparation that has gone into giving myself the best possible chance of winning has been done.  This event isn't something different when it comes to racing to show the work we have done as a team.  It's different in that there will be TV's, there will be numerous interviews, there will be other sports and there will be every athlete in the world at the absolute peak of the their game, but it's still a race that presents the best of the thousands of days and millions of hours of hard work that went into having the best race possible.  I can not control what other countries have done, and I most certainly can not control what other countries will do on race day, but this race will show what I have accomplished as an athlete and that is what I have control over.  All I want is to walk away from the course at Eton and say "Damn, that was a great trip.  I did everything I could and I am the happiest I have ever been. I am the best I will ever be."