Ashley Brzozowicz: Preparation

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.

Preparation.

People always ask if I was nervous before we started our race on August 2^nd, 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