Chandra Crawford ICan) ©Nordic Focus file photo
George Grey (Can) ©Nordic Focus file photo
Stefan Kuhn (Can) ©Lance/Danny Parrish file photo
Chandra Crawford:
If ever there was a skier who had to deal with the distinctly different hurdles of fame and near devastation, it’s Chandra Crawford. She had a spectacular gold medal victory in the skate sprint at the Torino Games in 2006. The victory turned her world upside down, as the previously undiscovered athlete became an international star overnight (note: she placed 3rd in the sprint at the World Cup in Davos weeks earlier).
“It was so overwhelming in the months after the Olympics,” said Crawford, who has overcome two years of injuries and was named to the 2010 Olympic team on January 22. “My life became a wild frenzy of attention, but I still went on to race in Japan and China after Torino. I was exhausted and couldn’t keep up even with emails, let alone the rest of my life.”
Less than two years later she did it again with a gold at the World Cup in Canmore, which was followed closely by another first place finish in Lahti, Finland. While she was setting the track on fire, Crawford was also getting a spark going under Canadian girls as she created “Fast and Female” an exciting program that hopes to bring self-esteem, a life-long commitment to good health and physical activity, and a commitment to not taking the backseat in life. Eventually Fast and Female grew so big, as Crawford and her national teammates taught skiing, yoga and dance to girls across the country, she had to get other people to run the day-to-day organization. With another Olympics soon coming around and she wasn’t ready – then she got injured.
“I thought, ‘it can’t be any worse than this’ when I became injured,” said Crawford, “There was adversity piled on coming into 2010.” She needed surgery on her shin for compartment syndrome, which was causing numbness, tingling and lots of pain in her lower legs. Crawford was forced to take the 2008/09 season off completely as she healed from surgery and gradually built herself up again. No sooner was she back training when she discovered chronic problems with a tendon in her ankle. She was propping her leg up again, “getting a ton of therapy” and eventually took a stretch of time off once more as she rested the ankle. But when she felt her ankle had healed and put her ski boots back on, her other ankle started to exhibit the same symptoms.
While training in Austria she began experimenting with her Fischer, her ski sponsor, with boot options that did not disturb the tendon and soon after Crawford announced she would be wearing Fischer boots as well going forward. “I did everything in my power to get back to where I had been,” said the top Canadian sprinter. “In a way I felt like I didn’t have much left for world beating.” But of course she did.
On December 5 Crawford placed 12th in the World Cup classic sprint in Dusseldorf, Germany. “That was a very important day. I had to get a top 20 result if I wanted to go to the Olympics,” she said soon after the team was named. “It’s going to be tough. I’m frustrated because I haven’t been in the form I’d like to be in, but I’m finally healthy and for some reason the sprint races are now 1.6km, which is half a kilometre longer than they were previously. But everything’s working, including my boots, and I’ve trained really hard. It’s a really great feeling to be part of a ski community once again.”
Sounds like the amazing Chandra C. is back.
George Grey:
“For me this is the strongest team Canada has ever fielded to the Olympics, with the most depth we have ever had as well.” So said George Grey, soon after he donned on his Olympic team jacket, as he competes at his second Olympics. Grey says he is lucky to be on the team given the unfortunate series of injuries he has been dealt.
“In late fall I ended up with tendon damage, and the x-ray showed an inactive fracture too, so it was confusing. I realized I had hurt my foot during a tough day of training. It didn’t hurt at first, but two days later, it was very sore even to touch it.” It turns out Grey had used an old pair of boots with too much give which allowed his foot to flex too far in his intervals. Ironically, the skier who didn’t want to admit he had injured himself has a father who is an orthopedic surgeon. He flew to Canmore and told his son pointblank it was time to rest. Grey discovered a new sport…pool running.
Doing intervals tethered to the wall of a pool by a bungee-cord and topping that off with a bike ride while wearing an air cast wasn’t what Grey had in mind for himself four months before the Olympics. He also made progress at the roller board machine where he double poled for ridiculously painful interval sessions. The patience and attention to alternative training details paid off as Grey got back on the skis in December and hit the finish line of the Tour de Ski prologue in 17th place at the end of that month. Then injury hit again. Two kilometres into a 10km classic race Grey had a hard crash that pitched him into a farmer’s field. He climbed back into the race knowing he had a huge gap in time, but even more disconcerting was the familiar pain in the L4 and L5 area of his lower back. He knew if he was going to be healthy in February he would have to abandon the tour and get the physio and rest required.
“Already I am close to 100%” says Grey, just before heading off to a three-day training camp at Mt Washington on Vancouver Island. The team is in search of snow that will act like the water drenched snow of Whistler Olympic Park. At last year’s World Cup in Whistler Grey and Alex Harvey took the bronze in the team sprint. He believes they can do that or better again; in fact there’s so much depth Canada could field two teams that could win medals in that event. He’s also hopeful about the 4×10 relay, the 15km skate, which is the opening event, and the 30km pursuit. “If all things go well we’ll be hunting for a medal” Grey concludes, but admits, as does everyone who has skied there, that having the right ski base and ski flex, and the right substance on that base, will be key to winning. “Anything can happen there. You can get forty centimeters of snow in four to five hours” says Grey, but adds that Canadian wax technicians are on the ball when it comes to selecting skis and waxes.
Stefan Kuhn
Stefan Kuhn wasn’t on anyone’s radar after the Torino Olympics. That’s because in 2006 he was just getting back into the sport he loved as a JackRabbit and later as a teenager on the Junior National Team. But four years, and thousands of kilometres of training later, Kuhn not only made a comeback, he made an Olympic team for which there were plenty of excellent skiers vying for positions. “I remember in 2000 winning the silver in the 10kilometre classic at the nationals and looking up to the top skiers who were thirty-four and thirty-five and thinking, ‘What do they have to fall back on?’ I knew I had to go to school and then decide if I still wanted to ski at that level. If you’re not there 100%, trying hard each day you train, you won’t make it.”
Going to school also meant apprenticing as a chef at the Mount Royale Hotel in Banff where he met a snowboarder named Erin. They discovered Australia and surfing together, but eventually returned home to Canmore, got married and went to work. Still there was a niggling thought at the back of Kuhn’s mind: Just how fast could he ski?
Kuhn started to train early in the morning before his shift started. “I was working full-time, training and racing. It was really hard.” But his commitment paid off. In the 2006-07 season he made the team, and that April Sport Canada carding funding kicked in. He no longer had to work as a chef.
“It was a huge lift to make the national team. I could train in the morning, train in the afternoon and then rest. Without carding and our sponsors, Canada would never be a force to be reckoned with. When you see what the Norwegians and the Germans have in terms of sponsors, carding and things like massage and physio, you can see why they do so well. We definitely have taken huge steps forward, but cross-country still doesn’t have huge sponsors to join in. Canada is very oriented towards hockey and baseball-team sports, but these Olympics will be another step forward for us.”
Last March he won the American championships in the 50km classic and was second in the 10km classic. Just before the American championships he took the gold in the 15km classic event at the Canadian championships, was third in the 10km skate, and fourth in the 1.2km classic sprint. Without question classic skiing is what he does best. While the skiers have not yet been selected for each event, Kuhn hopes to race in the team sprint, the classic sprint, the pursuit and the 50km classic race in Vancouver. Meanwhile, Erin and plenty of other family members will be in Whistler “with cowbells in hand.”