THE CANADIAN PRESS
By removing the clutter from her mind, veteran racer Emily Brydon has been able to focus on skiing and think about a possible podium finish at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Brydon returns to a comfort zone this week with a World Cup stop at St. Moritz, Switzerland, where she won her first career race last February with a victory in the super-giant slalom. Three of Brydon’s seven World Cup podium finishes have come at St. Moritz.
The Fernie, B.C., native was second in a super-G there in 2007 and earned her first World Cup podium finish at the Swiss resort in 2000 when she was third in a downhill.
"I feel really comfortable here," the 28-year-old said in a telephone interview from her hotel. "It’s a combination of the snow and the place and the atmosphere.
"I think a lot of courses suit different people. This course has always suited me. I just feel really comfortable when I’m here. I don’t have to stress. It just seems easy."
Brydon hasn’t always done things easily. She has a outgoing personality, a self-deprecating sense of humour and is quick with the one-liners. She also can bottle up her stress inside, putting extra pressure on herself which adversity affects her skiing.
Working with two sports psychologists has helped Brydon harness her mental energy.
"I am one of those people who have about two million things going on (in her head) at once," she said. "She (one of the psychologists) told me to slow down, just try to balance things out a little bit more, to really focus on what I’m working on and what I need to do to succeed. She’s given me the tools to calm my mind, see the bigger picture when I need to, and really hone in on my skills and what I need to work on.
"To have a really calm mental state you have to have confidence within yourself. I have been around for so long, I have experienced so many different things. I have to trust what I feel and what I know."
By reaching the podium three times in 2007-’08 Brydon enjoyed her best World Cup season since joining the national ski team in 1997. Over the summer she worked at not only becoming physically stronger but mentally tougher.
Her new, relaxed, attitude showed at the opening World Cup speed events at Lake Louise, Alta., earlier this month. She finished seventh in the downhill and sixth in the super-G, two very respectable results on a hill that had brought her to tears in the past.
"I’ve had the same sports psychologist for eight years but it’s taken seven and half to get through my thick head," she joked at the time.
She hopes to carry that confidence into races in Europe.
"This is probably one of the best building blocks I’ve ever had to work from," said Brydon, whose seven career podium finishes is the most of any active skier on the women’s team. "In the past I’ve been known as a glider. In Lake Louise I really showed myself in the technical parts.
"That confidence transcends all the disciplines. I didn’t come here and have to work on a lot of stuff. I just am here, I’m training, maintaining and finetuning. It just makes everything a little bit easier and calmer."
Brydon knows the 2010 Winter Games will be her last Olympics. She isn’t intimidated by the thought of trying to reach the podium at a Games on home soil.
"I don’t dissuade people when they talk about it or when I think about it," she said. "I think you have to embrace it. It’s a chance and an experience of a lifetime that many kids, myself when I was young, only dreamed about.
"Now that it’s a reality, it’s kind of sad to just push it away until those two weeks."
Another experience that has brought balance to Brydon’s life is her involvement with Right to Play, the international humanitarian organization that uses sport and play programs to help children in under-developed regions of the world.
Last spring she spent five days in Ghana, where she saw first hand the difference between her life and the realities faced my many children.
"Every athlete needs to have something that balances them from our little bubble," Brydon said. "You need to see, you need to appreciate the opportunities that we are given and the lifestyle we have.
"We have been given this opportunity to pursue our dreams and goals. When you do see other parts of the world it just kind of gives you perspective. You really do feel guilty for your lifestyle and what we get compared to what all of the other people get. The way I rationalize it, through what I do I can impact more people than if I didn’t ski."
Downhill training at St. Moritz will be held Wednesday and Thursday. A super-combined race will be staged Friday, a downhill Saturday and super-G Sunday.
