The last two months have been pretty crazy for me. The biggest goal of my season and of my ski career up until now was to qualify for the Olympics at the trials at the start of December. The criteria weren’t super clear but I knew that a win at the Trials would very likely qualify. After a horrible race in the first of four qualifying races I regrouped and raced very well in the remaining races. I had done all that I could do but had come up just short of winning a race, finishing second in two of the four events. My coach was fairly sure that this would be enough but I needed to wait to hear the official word. The day after the last race was a nervous one for me with my heart starting to race every time my cell phone rang.

Finally the call I was waiting for came, but it was a little different than I was expecting. I was informed that I was nominated to the Olympic team but the word “conditional” was thrown in there to make me less sure. I asked what that meant, and was informed that the number of athletes that Canada was allowed to name for the games had not yet been finalized by the International Ski Federation (FIS). Cross Country Canada wouldn’t know if there was enough space for me for a several weeks. I was cautiously excited but wasn’t sure when I would find out the final answer.

I waited about a week and FIS released an updated list in which Canada had fallen from 16 spots on the previous list to 12 on the updated one. Reading this put a damper on my excitement (seeing as I was the 15^th person on the Olympic team) and forced me into thinking about what I would do for the remainder of the season. I hadn’t lost all hope though and found out that this wasn’t the final list and that I would need to wait another two and a half weeks for the decisive list to be published. Also as I studied more about the allocation process I began to understand that there was also a drop-down list handing spots to countries that want to bring more people if other Nations choose not to fill their quota.

With all of this complicating things and me learning that I would not have a definitive answer until the end of January, my coach and I decided to look for race opportunities for the last two weeks of January. After a huge amount of work done by my coach, Louis Bouchard, a last minute trip was organized for a small team of four athletes to travel on a self-funded basis to World Cups in Estonia and Russia. I was excited to have this opportunity but found planning a trip to Europe and especially Russia to be very stressful and tiring. We needed to organize visas to enter into Russia but discovered the embassy was closed for the Christmas holidays. We ended up getting our visas processed overnight one day before we left for Estonia

Feeling tired and stressed from not knowing where my season was going to take me, I was off to Estonia and raced just one day after arriving. Climbing up the massive hills in Otepaa, Estonia my body could feel both the long travel and stress from organizing everything on very short notice. The racing was a great experience for me, as it was the first time I had raced a World Cup in Europe. The feeling of the event was electric with 10 000 enthusiastic ski fans cheering on the racers. With the Olympic selection still lurking in the back of my head I waited until after the last race knowing that the final allocation list would be released the following day. If the next list provided Canada with at least 15 positions I would need to cancel the Russia portion of my trip and come back to Canada for a pre-Olympic training camp. The day wore on with me checking the FIS website every few minutes. Finally the list appeared but it was not what I had wanted to see, Canada had lost another spot and we had fallen further down the drop down list. I was very discouraged and felt pretty certain that my Olympic dream was over.

Off to Russia I went disappointed about my chances to be part of the Olympic team but looking forward for another opportunity on the World Cup. Russia was a great event with a world-class venue and organizing committee. I unfortunately got a little sick and had to skip one of the races but still had a great time experiencing another weekend of competing at the highest level of cross country ski racing. While I was in Russia I found an in-depth analysis of the Olympic allocations with predictions of how many drop down spots would be available. This gave me some hope but I was still not very optimistic. Russia came to an end and we were headed back to Canada after a very busy two weeks of traveling and racing.

Seeming like a bad omen, our flight out of Munich was delayed by snow that resulted in us missing our direct flight to Calgary. Our group found a flight that re-routed us through Toronto before continuing on to Calgary. This little diversion added almost 8 hours onto an already long travel day. Throughout the day my mind was drifting to my Olympic spot in question. This was one of the last days that I could get good news. – I expected that if I had to wait until the 28^th for news about my position I would be told I wasn’t on the team. Jet lagged and wishing I had already arrived in Calgary, I arrived in Toronto, only a four hour flight from home. I received a much needed boost to my morale when I turned on my phone and heard a message saying that I was on the team! My mood brightened immediately when I realized something I had dreamed of, as long as I could remember, was going to come true and in my home country Canada, as well. I was overwhelmed and extremely excited.

I have now arrived back in Canmore and am leading into my final preparations for the Olympics. I am taking a couple of days easy to recover from my trip to Russia and Estonia, and then will get a bit of distance training in prior to racing a World Cup in Canmore the weekend before the Olympics. It will be very exciting for me and I look forward to sharing it with you on my website

Brent