September 1, 2009 – Canada has many reasons to be thankful for the late Heinz Niederhauser’s selfless devotion to the sport of Cross Country skiing in Canada. We, the athletes of the Alberta World Cup Academy, are especially thankful for Heinz’s recruitment strategy at a daycare in Pakenham, Ontario. If it weren’t for his efforts, we would not be fortunate enough to have a teammate by the name of Kathleen ‘Kate’ Brennan.

‘Racing Kate’, or ‘The Thoroughbred’ as she’s known to her siblings, started in the sport of x-c ski racing at a young age and hasn’t looked back since. Kate is thankful for her parent’s support in the early days as a skier. “It was a lot of driving for my parents. We drove an hour each way to the Gatineau Park three times a week, and a half hour to Heinz’s house for the other training sessions.” She admits that all the time and travel led to a definite ‘not so keen’ period in her early teens – a period that likely claimed her siblings.

As the only remaining racer in the Brennan household, The Thoroughbred is supported in her racing career in a way that only proud siblings can. She’s often reminded of her status as an athlete, and how at 7:30 it’s probably past her bedtime, or how she might not want to eat that last cookie. This sense of humour is also present in Kate’s description of her reason for leaving Ontario. “With red hair I hate wearing red or pink – it looks horrible on me. Ontario loves red. Luckily this team likes blue!”

As we chat, Kate is diligently working on completing a puzzle – a Simpson’s puzzle difficult enough to lead most people to pull out their hair. Kate has been working on it for days and it’s almost finished. I believe that this is a testament to Kate’s calm-cool-collected personality and her high level of commitment to reaching her goals. While the above-mentioned traits certainly help to make Kate the dynamite skier that she is, she acknowledges that there are a few traits that she possesses that can be detrimental to her skiing performance. Kate says that she has a tendency to get a bit “negative in [her] head” and worries that it might bring others down. The fact that she worries about her effect on other people makes me think that it won’t be a problem!

Read the rest about Kate at www.albertaworldcup.com.