Dasha Gaiazova (Can) Canadian National Team ©CCC
Dasha in action... ©Nordic Focus
Dasha Gaiazova (Can) ©Jesse Winter
(l) Dasha Gaiazova (Can) in action at Otepaa... ©Nordic Focus
Coaches at the Canmore Nordic Centre... ©Pam Doyle
Slovakian coach examines a ski... ©Pam Doyle
Thanks for sparing a few minutes Dasha, I hear you’ve had a pretty busy day.
Dasha Gaiazova: No worries…yeah it has been go go go all day. Ski testing and some race prep training at the Nordic Center this morning, then meetings about the Olympics and this weekend all afternoon. The life of a skier can be crazy!
Do you find that all this buzz is affecting your Olympic preparations?
DG: No, it’s just a little more hectic than usual.
How are your preparations going?
DG: Really well. We’re so lucky to be able to do our last few weeks of training here at home in a relaxed environment [World Cup weekend aside]. We’ve been doing lots of training, of course, at the Nordic Center, as well as getting to ski at lots of other great local spots like up in K-Country [Kananaskis], and at Nipika [Mountain Resort], and there have been some good opportunities for high altitude skiing when we want it.
What about the Alberta World Cups this weekend – is it helpful having such a big race at home, and so close to the Olympics?
DG: Oh for sure! The World Cups will really help us get pumped for the Olympics. Plus, it’s great for the community to see us around, to be able to talk to us and watch the action up close before Whistler.
You certainly had a stellar start to the season on the NorAm circuit and at your first World Cup in Otepaa [Estonia]. With all of the activity are you distracted at all heading into your second World Cup start this season?
DG: No, I’m really excited to use this weekend as a chance to see how I stack up against the World Cup field. The NorAm circuit is great, but I feel I’ve kind of out grown it in a way. It would have been nice to be at the early season World Cups, but CCC put most of their budget into the A team. I was really happy to get a one European World Cup start this season. I try to learn everything I can at big races like this. I came home from Otepaa with three pages of notes on stuff from ski selection to mental preparation, to what I ate.
There are similarities between the Alberta World Cup this weekend and the World Cup in Davos, Switzerland before the Torino Olympics in 2006. For many Davos was the first glimpse of Chandra [Crawford]’s gold medal potential. Could these races play the same role?
DG: Yes, for sure. Some of the racers here this week are tired, some are still adjusting to coming over from Europe. These races will definitely show who’s on form and who isn’t; they could easily be a harbinger of things to come.
Are you focusing on the possibility of doing well here right before the Olympics?
DG: For me, no. I’m focusing on learning as much as I can, and practicing going through the motions, to get comfortable racing against these girls. My focus will be getting through the qualifications [in Saturday’s classic sprint event], and then getting through the quarter finals, and the semi finals. I’m just going to take everything as it comes, one race at a time. As I said, I want to use the lessons learned from Otepaa here in Canmore, and then use the lessons from these World Cups at the Olympics in Whistler.
You sound pumped and ready to go – thanks for spending some time with us and best of luck up at the Canmore Nordic Center this weekend.
DG: No problem, thanks for giving me the excuse to cram a nice dinner into my day.