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No, I’m not crazy
Canadian Veronica Brenner, 26, is considered a veteran in the sport of freestyle skiing. The aerialist was a member of the 1998 Canadian Olympic team and won the 1997 World Cup title. Brenner, a native of Scarbourgh, Ontario, missed the past World Cup season after tearing her ACL but is back on track to make the 2002 Olympic team. Check out Brenner's diary on CNNSI.com as she prepares for Salt Lake City.
May 29, 2001
Einstein once said, "When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it feels like a minute. When a man sits on a hot stove for a minute, it feels like an hour. Now that's relativity!" I can't even begin to count the number of times people have said, "You do those flippy-twisty things? You guys are crazy." Yes, I do those flippy-twisty things and no, I'm not crazy. My reasoning goes back to Einstein's theory-everything is relative. I like to use the football analogy. I think being tackled by a 300lb man is pretty crazy, yet fans don't appear to question the sanity of their favorite quarterback. It's all what you're used to. I started off in gymnastics and skiing. Aerials is just the combination of my two favorite sports. An aerialist doesn't begin by doing multiple flips and twists. In fact, beginners don't even do their first flips on snow until they've spent a summer practicing single front and back flips on a trampoline and off wooden jumps into a swimming pool. Currently the Canadian Team is training at the water ramp in Lake Placid, NY (yes, that's right -- the Canadian Team trains in the U.S.).
So here I am, sitting in my apartment in Lake Placid. At 26, I'm considered a veteran on the World Cup circuit. Just when I was coming to terms with that label, I tore my anterior cruciate ligament in my knee during our November training camp in Alberta. As a result, I spent the winter doing post-surgery rehab in Lake Placid. Now that my "bionic knee" is almost as good as new, I'm waiting for my surgeon to give me clearance to start jumping again. Rehab has been quite an experience for me. Not only was this my first injury that required surgery, this was also the longest amount of time I've spent in one place in nine years. Athletes, particularly skiers, tend to lead a nomadic life. Only four or five summer training facilities exist in the world, none within an easy commute from my family's home just outside Toronto. When fall comes, we follow the snow to training camps, then the World Cup tour for four months. After a couple of weeks off in the spring, we're ready to move again. But don't feel too sorry for me. A nomadic lifestyle has its advantages. This spring our team had our first-ever Maui conditioning camp. No, there's no snow there, but it's a great place to shed that winter coat (both the one made of fabric and the one made from eating poorly while traveling). While there was some beach time at this athlete-funded camp, we spent the majority of our day lifting weights, sprinting, biking, stretching, generally trying to kill ourselves, and finally sleeping. Not a vacation I'd recommend for the unmotivated. Now that our team's in great shape, we're ready to start training for the Olympics. Yeah, right. Like we haven't been doing that for years already. Visit my diary again and I'll keep you up to date on my Olympic training experiences and let you know how things go with my doc. -- Veronica
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