I'm very happy to post this blog by Ashley Brzoozwicz, Champlain's Scholar/Athlete in Residence
Ashley's time at Trent has given her the opportunity to reflect on her Olympic experiences, and she'll share them here on the Champlain College blog.
Ashley's time at Trent has given her the opportunity to reflect on her Olympic experiences, and she'll share them here on the Champlain College blog.
Preparation.
People always
ask if I was nervous before we started our race on August 2nd, 2012.
It is a fair question to be sure but my answer is always the same: Not really.
There were plenty of nerves leading up to that final race day: would the traffic
be bad, would some one get sick, would the weather be an issue? Those issues
were mainly out of our control and by then we knew as a team that we had done
everything we could to avoid the negative impact of any of those factors. After
all the preparation, all the training, visualizations, the weights, the World
Cup races and the heat at the Olympics there was no room left for nerves.
I was told
before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games that no matter what your coaches and
teammates tell you, you cannot be fully prepared for the experience of your
first Games. In many ways, that proved to be true for me. Maybe the reality is
that you don't really want to be entirely prepared: you only get to have the
experience as a rookie once. When that first Olympics is done and over, that is
when you start to appreciate all the work and dedication that goes into
achieving an Olympic medal. Some athletes are lucky enough to win a medal at
their first Olympics but for most of us it takes a couple of tries (and a lot
more training) to get it right.
We
had a plan going in to the Games that started well before we actually made it
to the starting line at Eton-Dorney. Each athlete sat down with coaches and physiologists
and strategized how we would get as physically prepared as possible. We looked
at historical data from both our own performances and those of our competitors.
Analysis of that data enabled us to set standards of performance that would
ensure we were competitive. We looked at each athlete’s strengths and
weaknesses and worked to improve in every area we could distinguish. We had
nutritional consultations, anthropomorphic analysis and blood work drawn to
ensure that our nutrition, body composition and supplement levels were on
track. We had meetings with our sports psychologist and our teammates to make
sure that we were mentally prepared and clarified our goals to be sure we did
not shy away from voicing them. We were training and preparing to win a gold
medal. It almost sounds simple but it takes a lot of work and dedication to not
only be able to voice that goal but to really believe that specific goal is achievable
as a team.
Because
we had outlined our journey and clearly broken it down into achievable steps we
knew by the time race day came we would be ready. No amount of preparation can
guarantee you Olympic Gold but knowing that you have done everything that you
could have done will get you and your team into the race. And to be perfectly
honest, that opportunity is as good as gold.
Ashley Brzozowicz, Olympic Silver Medallist, is the Scholar/Athlete
in Residence at Champlain
College
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