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U.S. ice skater/cyclist Christine WittyChristine Witty won silver and bronze medals in speed skating at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, and became only the ninth American to compete in both the Winter and Summer Games when she finished fifth in the 500-meter time trial at the Dunc Gray Velodrome in Bankstown, Australia, on Saturday. Just naturally, in the back of your mind, you're thinking that it's the Olympics, and you're going to have tons of adrenaline going. What I try to do, though, is try to relax. Tell myself, "Relax and ready," so I can just relax and focus on the whole race-the start, the finish, and every turn.
There's no psyching people out in time trials, because you race against the clock. That's what is so cool, though, because I did match sprints in '98, and it was weird to have people stare you down. This is more like skating. It's just me against the clock. When I'm on the track, it's my world. I like that better. I can't blame anybody. Imagery is huge. Whether you're just laying around or watching TV, during a commercial break, you just relax and focus. Sort of get within yourself, because that's the way you need to be for your race. I imagine everything, being on the starting line, what the track looks like, focusing on the lanes. And that's something I'll do even in a training session. You have your maximal efforts and your timed efforts and things like that, but I'll also take time at the end of the practice and just cruise around real easy on the race lane and imagine that, "OK, this is what I'm thinking about in the race, going into the turn." And I'll take that and sort of put it into my imagery so I'll know exactly what the track looks like and what it feels like. I think I picked it up in skating, and brought it over here. They say that it's 10 percent physical, 10 percent something else, and 80 percent mental when it comes to the Olympics. So, you have to be mentally ready when you come to a race like this. It's easy to get wrapped up into a state of, "It's the Olympics, and I have to go extra-hard now, harder than I've ever gone before." But that's actually not really true, because you'll freak out and sort of choke. You have to stay within yourself.
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