Olympic Winter Games 2010

Well done Amy Williams! Although I didn't win a spot at the Olympic Games it is great to be a part of the team when one of your co-athletes produces such a fantastic performance! Having seen the highs and lows for the past 8 years, I have an understanding of the gravity of what has been achieved by the whole British Skeleton Team. Let me list a few of the jobs within the team that leads to such World Class performance: Performance Director, ice coaches, strength & conditioning coach, psychologists, nutritionists, administrators, board members, athletes, aerodynamic engineers, sled technicians, physiologists...all these people, and more; consult, interact, communicate, share ideas, take action and keep the team moving forward towards their main mission - Olympic Medals!
Thanks you to all my family, friends and sponsors who have taken an interest in my sporting career over the past 10 years - I won World Cup medals, am one of the few athletes over 140 kph and I've learnt valuable lessons to take with me in my future endeavors!

ICC8 Park City 2010

4th in this race and 22nd overall World Ranking.

ICC 7 Calgary 2010

I haven't been selected for the Games...13th today sealed my fate! The start house was charged with emotions from athletes around the globe who all had different criteria to qualify themselves for an Olympic spot - for some it was to finish top 60 in the World, for others they had to win the race! Qualifying for the Olympics always contains an element of luck as forces outside your control contribute to dictating your results i.e. how other athletes do, internal politics etc! It would make more sense to me to take the top 25 athletes in the World and then include a further 8 'smaller' nations so as to have the best athletes at the Olympics whilst still including everybody!
I always promised myself that I would include this quote from Theodore Roosevelt, however I did and whatever the result, in this decisive blog entry. It is for all those athletes who are daring greatly and keeping the essential Olympic message alive whether they make it or not!

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Next week is the last ICC race in Park City - so although it won't count for Olympic selection I will try to represent myself in the best light and finish the season on a high!

ICC 6 Calgary 2010

8th place really was an under performance compared to how well training has gone this week. In terms of Olympic selection, I have to go for it in tomorrows race to show I am in form and have the potential to be an Olympic medalist!! If I can beat Adam (2nd today) and Chris Type (9th today) then I will give the Selection Committee something to think about I hope - on any one day any one of the British Skeleton men on World Cup or ICC could beat the rest! We are a strong team, which makes qualification for the Games that much harder! I have shown I am one of the fastest pushers in the World and with potential to do well in 4 year time in Sochi, that may swings things in my favour!?

ICC 5 Lake Placid 2010

2nd place! A great result - I have achieved my top 3 criteria on this circuit, so I can now be considered for the Olympic team - I'm in the mix! It's probably the most important medal I have won in the last 10 years of international competition - because of the way in which I won it. Having been 'down and out' in 3 of my races before Christmas, and just missing out with a 5th in Cesana, I could have felt defeated, but I'm pleased with my optimism and belief in my chances as a World Class Skeleton pilot! I now need to keep this momentum going into Calgary next week!