October 30, 2009 Sean Crooks, a Thunder Bay, Ontario native, has gained invaluable World Cup and Olympic experience over the last two three years that he will take with him on the road to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. He has been racing competitively for more than a decade now and is excited to continue his Olympic dream on Canada’s senior team. Crooks used that valuable Olympic experience in 2006 to his advantage, while regularly threatening for the podium in domestic races last season. A naturally gifted athlete, he actually 
started his athletic career in Nordic Combined. He switched to cross-country skiing in 1998, and enjoyed a successful career as a junior, claiming national titles in consecutive years and twice finishing in the top-20 at the World Junior Sprint Championships.
Canada’s National XC Ski team was recently in New Zealand for three weeks. How were the conditions and the training?
Sean Crooks: The training camp in NZ was incredible. The skiing terrain and conditions are some of the best I have ever experienced. The Snow Farm is a great place to stage a camp – a little far, but definitely worth it.
What is it like putting on a race bib and actually cross-country ski racing in August?
SC: It felt like the race season. The same pre-race jitters. It was like those Coke Zero commercials with the brain and the eye talking to one another. When everything around you feels like winter and you are stepping up to the start line, the eyes say it’s racing season. Sometimes the brain chimes in with “Chill out Sean, it’s August”.
This December you hope to qualify for your second Olympic Games. As you’ve qualified at pre-Christmas trials before does that give you confidence knowing that you’ve done it when it counted?
SC: The trials for this Olympics are much different than the way I qualified in 2006. I qualified for Torino with a good result at my first ever World Cup start. This Olympic trial does not factor in international skiers. However, being the fastest Canadian sprinter on any day is a still a difficult task. I will not take these races lightly and will approach the early season similar to other years where I have been fast in December.
The 2010 Olympic sprints will be staged in the classic technique for the first time ever. Do you prefer one technique over the other?
SC: Yes, I prefer classic sprinting, so it’s nice that the 8-year wait is over!
In the Team Relay in 2006 at the Torino Games you were lead off skier. Is a Team Relay spot a goal for you this time around?
SC: No. When it comes to distance racing I love competing at World Cup and Nor Am distance races. I am improving, as I get older, but still am not ready to compromise sprint races for distance. Our men’s team now has the depth to race four top international distance men. That was not the case in ’06. I am only interested in the sprint events at these Games and I’m really excited to see how our 4x10km relay guys will do.
Do you feel like a more mature and wiser skier than your last Olympics? And how many more Games might we see you compete at?
SC: I feel like I have been paying my dues for the last four years. I have raced at many World Cups and at the Nordic World Championships since ’06 and approaching the level I want to be at – top 12 and medals at the Olympics and World Cup. How many more Olympics? I evaluate my career and life goals every quadrennial – so I’m up for evaluation after this season and will keep you posted.
What can you share with regard to things you’ve been focusing on so far during training this year?
SC: I haven’t made any drastic changes. This year has been about tweaking the existing plan to make it more effective. I am working with my longtime coach Eric De Nys on some new intensity workouts and alternative approaches at some of the camps. I did some research this spring about different training methods with other Canadian coaches and am incorporating this into my training. Our new Canadian team coach Inge Braten has also been adding some really great workouts for the team and myself.
Rumour has it you injured your knee this spring. Is everything ok now?
SC: Here I am skiing through some chest deep pow and dropped off a 60 foot cliff and decided it would be super sick to throw a double back flip. I was disoriented in the air and when I landed, I twisted my knee. Ok, that’s not really what happened. I did twist my knee though. I tore my ACL and MCL on my first day out on the hill in the spring. I was skiing at Sunshine and took a crash in the trees, landing in a tree well.
I spent the following week extremely worried about the outcome of my training season. I had a great team of doctors and was back to health very quickly. I didn’t need any surgery and instead did a fair amount of physio and ended up not missing too much training. It was actually a good learning experience for me. The physio has been great for leg strength, and I am also more careful when it comes to keeping myself injury free.
You’re from T-Bay – a hot bed for xc skiing – but have lived in Canmore, AB for a number of years. Do you miss anything from your early ski days in Thunder Bay and when you’re home do you ever stop by the Hoito?
SC: Thunder Bay has an incredible ski community. Big Thunder and the NTDC were critical in my development as a racer. The two ski areas always had packed chalets and races every weekend. My uncle Peter Crooks runs Kamview ski area and Reijo Puiras at Lappe always had great trails for training. It was a fun place to grow up as a ski racer. After being to Finland a few times now, I can honestly say, Thunder Bay is the exact same, it’s so strange.
The Hoito is a TBay classic and great breakfast spot. These days, I haven’t been as much. My parents moved from town onto Lake Superior and it’s about a 25-minute drive to the Hoito. Now that I’ve been thinking about those pancakes while answering this question, I will be sure to get there next visit.
Good uck this season.
SC: Thanks!
Check out Sean on his website www.seancrooksonline.com and on Twitter www.twitter.com/SeanCrooks.
