Canadian alpine skier Erik Guay gets ready to tackle the famed Hahnenkamm in Kitzbühel, Austria, and hopes his injured back is strong enough to race this weekend...
Being injured is frustrating and disappointing for sure, especially having dealt with this sort of thing in the past. You think it’s behind you and you think it’s all done with, and then something like this happens and you think: “Oh no, not again.” But, at the same time, you have to just kind of roll with it, accept that it’s happened and work back to where you were before.
It was doubly frustrating for me because it was the first time that I hurt myself during the season like this and had to miss some races. I have had minor back problems, but they have been in spring or middle summer, so I’ve been able to deal with it before the season started.
It’s tough to be on the sidelines and watch but, at the same time, I know that had I tried to race in Val Gardena, it would not have been possible. I would have done two turns and then had to stop, so it is what it is and you have to deal with it.
'We need to rebuild, get the team healthy and start again'
It’s been a tough year for the Canadian team. Last year was also tough and we so many guys right get injured before the Olympics and it’s happening again this year. I was lucky that my injury was not a season-ender, but others weren’t as fortunate. There were the blown knees in Val Gardena for Frankie [François Bourque] and Louis [Louis-Pierre Helie] too, and sometimes that brings the team down. I think that’s what happened in Wengen: The guys just seemed bummed about it and cautious. Plus, Jan Hudec broke his hand in Wengen and he’ll be hoping to race in Kitzbühel – with cast!
It seems that we are just a little injury-plagued right now, so we just need to rebuild, get the team healthy and start again. That said, it’s really hard to sit on the sidelines. As a racer and competitor, you want to be out there charging, but you also have to be smart about it.
One of the things that helped was going into what I would say is ‘analysing mode’. I watch runs and everybody skiing, and I kind of think about what the quickest guys are doing to be fast. Then, once I got back on snow, right away I played around with it and it seems to be all right so far.
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