Thursday, November 22, 2001
LeMay Doan digging deep one last time
By STEVE SIMMONS -- Toronto Sun
On the worst day of her worst training month, Catriona LeMay Doan went home, doubled over, threw up and then began to cry.
This, she says, is all part of the process.
This is getting ready for the Winter Olympics.
"You have to do it," she said in a lengthy interview, just as she's about to stop doing interviews. "I don't know what it is about training, but I have to hit a low before I can begin to build myself up.
"For eight days (of the past 10), I just felt like I was broken down. I came home, frustrated, hurting, feeling lousy, crying. This is the time of year you get down a bit, but you have to work your way through it.
"People don't understand what you have to go through. There's so much going on when you're an athlete. You go through times like this, the low times, and you're pushing your system feeling drained, your hormones are low, everything is low.
"And then you start to build."
To build for February. Her last Olympic Games. Her last time on the big stage.
"You have to break yourself down every year and start over again ... I want to walk away from the Games saying 'Wow, that's the best I've been.' That's important to me."
You don't hear a lot about Catriona LeMay Doan between Olympic years, because you don't hear a lot about anybody whose chosen vocation happens to be speed skater. For two weeks every four years, her smile is everywhere. She becomes our hope, our dreams, carrying a little bit of all of us in each of her Olympic races.
The Olympics of Salt Lake City should be no different for her. She expects to see herself on the podium, maybe once, maybe twice. She won't talk about the colour of the medal she figures to win, only to say she'll be disappointed if she isn't ranked amongst the best of her craft.
The attention, as the Games grow closer, will be on Canadian hockey players, and a choice few figure skaters and some skiers with outside chances of success and a slew of speed skaters in different events -- but there is something about LeMay Doan that makes her different from the majority of Canada's unknown winter-sport athletes.
Maybe it's her look. Maybe it's her longevity. Maybe it's because she has won before and keeps coming back. But when the Canadian athletes parade in to the opening ceremony in Salt Lake, cameras will be on her, whether she is carrying the flag or not.
And she should be carrying the flag although it's unlikely.
"It was unbelievable to carry the flag at the closing ceremony in Nagano," said LeMay Doan, who's from Saskatoon and now lives in Calgary. "I wish I could have walked in with the rest of the team instead of with all the other flagbearers but still there's something about that honour.
"It's like you're carrying the whole country. It's a feeling I can't even put into words. I'd love to be able to do it again."
But politics being politics means Canada doesn't use the same flag bearer twice. If you close one Games, you don't open the next. If you open one, you don't close another. No one is more deserving than her, but that rarely matters in these instances.
The debate doesn't inspire LeMay Doan. She is far too focused on the months ahead to worry about accolades. The worst, she figures, is over; the pain, the throwing up, the breaking down of her body.
Now, it's all a timing game. Being your fastest when it matters most. Understanding what it is you have to do. Being ready to race when the lights come on and the world is watching.
"It's different this time," she said. "The first time I trained for the Olympics, it was a brand new experience. The second time, we were all getting used to the clap-skates and they were so new. Now, it's the last time and it has a different feel altogether. I know where I'm going and how to get there."
And with it comes an excitement that the finish line of her Olympic life is near and she wants the perfect ending. Catriona LeMay Doan will soon be 31 years old, wants her medals, wants her athletic time, then wants to start a family with her husband, Bart.
People have told her she can do it all -- have the family, keep racing, travel the world, not retire, but she knows in her heart it's time. This will be the final Olympic chapter. One more year after that and then goodbye.
"I had a great time in high school but I'm not going back," LeMay Doan said. "Didn't mean I didn't love it. I just don't want to do it again."
2002 Games Long Track Speed Skating Coverage
