Kimberley McRae is the final interview of the day on a late December afternoon at WinSport’s Bob Niven Training Centre. The talk ends and the camera is getting packed. The spotlight is turned off and the microphone is removed. As we prepare to say goodbye, McRae delivers an eyebrow-raiser.
“Sorry is there just one thing I can add?” she said. “I was a preemie, (a baby born premature.)”
How early we ask.
“14 weeks.”
McRae describes her birth almost nonchalantly, with the same smile she has while discussing growing up all around Calgary and coming from behind to reach podiums.
“I could basically fit in the palm of my dad’s hand,” she said, adding she mentions her start in life in talks at schools, to drive the point home that anything is possible. It’s hard to believe, but after spending the first three months of her life in hospital, McRae is now headed to her second Games in Pyeongchang. After time being against her so early, she’s now hoping for the time of her life.
“Anything can happen and it’s a four-run race and so it’s more of taking that step back and realizing that you just need to compete and enjoy it and enjoy the Olympics and the results will be what they’ll be.”
McRae’s mother didn’t even know what luge was when she first got introduced to the sport, learning about it at a ski show at the Max Bell Centre. At the time, she had done soccer, gymnastics and ballet. The message was simple.
“They’re like, we need girls,” she recalled, so she gave it a shot and loved it immediately. The ability matched the love in 2014, as she won her first World Cup medal and then had an impressive fifth-place finish in Sochi.
But the breakout of 2014 would be followed by on and off-track struggles the next year and McRae would make the critical decision of taking up taekwondo to build mental strength and discipline.
“I was a beginner again,” she said. “Just doing a basic kick and having somebody correct you constantly, it was a big change and very humbling and I think that that itself has helped me just go into the track and realize that little, the big picture items are things that I need to work on.”
2016 was a return to form, winning two medals in the team relay, as well as an individual silver.
Then came the 2017 World Championships.
“I was in tears,” she recalled after her first run, sitting back in 10th place. She could’ve packed it in; could’ve reverted back to the disappointment of two years prior. But this time would be different, as her trainer Jared put it bluntly.
“He was like ‘no, you’re two-tenths of a second behind,’” she remembered him saying. “’That seems like a lot to you, but right now you’re not out of it, keep working.”
She proceeded to slide the fastest time in the final heat, moving up seven spots to a bronze medal performance.
“Each race has taught me a little bit of how to race,” she said. “Know that you’re confident that you can do it, but also be calm enough on the track to let everything flow.”
The comeback bronze is certainly an example of mental strength, further proof taekwondo has had an immediate impact. Her teacher Master Rim has witnessed the progress and will return to his native South Korea to watch her next Olympic experience. Coming full circle, he attended the ’88 Seoul Games.
“He was like ‘that was the last time I was a spectator at the Olympics and this time I get to go for you and cheer you on and see the experience,’” she said. “That’s inspiration that I’ve been able to draw from going into these Games.”
Picking up another bronze last month in Lake Placid, McRae also draws inspiration from her Calgary roots. Like the marks on the luge track left behind after a run, McRae has left footprints in all four quadrants of the city, having moved around several times.
“I’ve gotten to know many different people and many different cultures and it grew me as a kid doing that as well,” she said, thinking back on one of those recent talks at a school in Dover about her path. “It’s just pure happiness. It was wonderful just to see their smiles and be able to talk to classes like that, it’s great being able to represent Calgary.”
But don’t let smiles fool you. Kim McRae is a fighter. Just like she was at birth and through the tumultuous 2015. Like she was in that bleak 10th position at the World Championships and is when she steps onto the taekwondo mat. Who knows what next month’s result will be, but one thing is certain: Pyeongchang is about to get her best punch.
Lucas Meyer is a reporter and producer for 660News in Calgary. He is also the play-by-play voice of the University of Calgary Dinos basketball teams. Follow him on Twitter @meyer_lucas.
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