Throughout the past month I have literally traveled around the world including a 30 hour travel ‘day.’  I have been very fortunate that in each place I’ve gone I have had friends to explore with and stay with.  I have a teammate who teases me because I have been able to meet so many people over the years.  She says it is my gift and explains she sees my love for the sport through the friends I have made.  I had never thought of it this way until recently.

Ironically when I was younger my mom seemed to always worry about me and my inability to branch out and make more than one friend.  I remember her sitting me down and having talks with me about how important it was to have more than one close friend.  I constantly disregarded her urge for me to make more friends.  Now, as I reflect back on my years of bobsled and the friends I made I am so thankful that my mom taught me the importance of keeping good people in my life. 
In each place I have gone I not only have had a place to sleep, but also friends who are willing to do anything they can to support me and to be sure I am happy.  My friends on my ‘tour’ have cried with me, eaten with me, skied with me, thrown up in helicopters with me, eaten more with me, snorkeled with me, sipped latte macchiato’s with me and danced until the sun came up with me.  No matter what things I have missed out on throughout the last month I have gained more experiences than I ever thought possible.  I have been told a time or two that it is not about the end point, but more about the journey.  There are many things on my recent journey that I have grown to appreciate (of course puking in a helicopter is an experience I could I have gone without).   No medal can compare to the people I have met and the places I have seen.  

I have been surrounded by some of the most caring people.  I have met complete strangers who are willing to not only accept me and befriend me, but have gone out of their way to include me and protect me.  I will forever be thankful for the generosity I have experienced and the friends I have made.  I guess as it works with everything it always goes back to the lessons we are taught when we are children.  I was taught to respect myself and others and maybe most importantly I learned the necessity of friends.

No Snow Pants Needed

Angels Amongst Us

I believe we have Angels that live amongst us.  We rub shoulders with them and breathe the same air without even knowing it.  This was something I truthfully have never thought about until recently.  I cannot say the past few weeks have been some of the best weeks of my life, but I have had the chance to realize people are put in your life at a certain time for a certain reason.

On January 19^th the decision was made that I would not be competing on the 2014 Olympic Team.  I always knew this was a possibility, but believed I did whatever I could to earn a spot.  The next day I left the team, hopped on a train and made my way to a friend’s house in Switzerland.  I was still in a great deal of shock.  I was confused and questioning if I had made the right decision.  I did not know what to do and where exactly to go.  I was now alone.  I made my way to the train and probably didn’t move for the first hour of the trip.  My mind was racing and I still could not put together everything that had just happened only a few hours before.  I could not feel anything.  I felt numb.  It was something I do not think I have ever felt before and therefore did not have a remedy.  

I was approached by a man on the train who asked if I was okay and if I wanted to get a coffee and talk.  He told me he could see sadness in my eyes and wanted to help.  I was polite, but made it clear I preferred to be left alone.  I continued to sit in the same place for the next hour.  He tried again and now was talking at me as I politely tried to ignore him, but he persisted.   I reluctantly succumbed and went with him to get a coffee.  We sat and chatted for a minute or two as he continued on to tell me a story in his own life.  He could tell I had no interest in sharing my own story with a total stranger but easily shared hardships he had gone through.  He said he tried to start each day with a smile and then moved forward from there. 

The trip was about over so I made my way back to my seat, still feeling like I was just going through the motions to make my next move.  As I got off the train there he was waiting for me.  He took a small key chain out of his pocket and handed it to me.  He gave me a hug and told me that tomorrow would be brighter and that it would bring me luck.  I will never see him again, but on that day and that moment he gave me hope, which made a huge difference.  Someday I would like to return this favor to someone going through a tough time.  I am thankful on that day I met an Angel. 

New Adventures

Skiing with Friends - 2014

My family and I would ski ever spring break when I was younger.  It was some of my most favorite times.  My sister and I would take the week to explore the mountain and find the best possible jumps.  We would pick up speed and fly through the air until we gracefully or sometimes not so gracefully landed on our feet.  I felt fearless and free.

Because I have been involved in competitive sports for so long the last time I went skiing I was when I was a teenager.  I decided it was time to get back on the horse (or skis) and give it a shot.  I was not sure if my brain would still be able to connect with my body and remember how to glide down the powdery slope.  I started off a bit slow and cautious.  I was afraid of falling or making a mistake, but by then end of the day things started to come back to me.  Instead of feeling like a toddler learning how to walk for the first time, I was free again like I was when I was a teenager. 

As we drove home I realized that my day on the slopes parallels with the turns that my life will soon take.  Yes, it will be scary at first and I am sure there will be plenty mistakes, but as time goes by I will find my way ,just as I found my way down the mountain.  The landing may not always be a perfect one, but I will always find a way to land back on my feet.



Azevedo Ski Team- 1994

 

Sunny St. Mortiz

Bree and I looked at each other before our second run in St. Mortiz with confidence and a hint of fear.  We knew that this was it.  It all came down this run.  We had fought all season to do something even our coaches had deemed impossible; earn a third sled at the Olympic Games.  All we had to do was stay on the shiny side of the runners and get down the track and that is just what we did.  It was not the greatest run, but it was enough.  As soon as we crossed the line I welled up and could not hold the tears back.  Bree being the competitor she is instead was concerned about our finish, the down time of the run and what place we were in.  It took her a few minutes to understand she, in fact was going to the Olympic Games.  Later that night after our selection committee met to decide the best three brakemen for the Olympics I was also selected.  The tears kept flowing when I called my parents and sisters and told them the news.  I cannot describe the relief I felt when my name was announced.  It was a long fought season, but something Bree and I always believed we could do.   We decided it was going to happen and we found a way to make it a reality. 

All odds were staked against.  It was a simple David vs. Goliath task.  Bree had to not only complete all the European tracks, which she had never been on, she had to be successful on these tracks.  I also had a major task on my hands of proving that I was the best brakeman for the job.  This was no easy task with the pool of talented athletes that there was to choose from.  Somehow, some way we did it. 

This week I am back in St. Mortiz, Switzerland four years later in a similar situation.  Racing and fighting hard to earn a spot on the 2014 Olympic Team.  I can not help but think about all the memories here in St. Mortiz.  This is the place my career began.  During my first season it was in St. Moritz I pushed Erin Pac to an 8^th place finish in World Championships.  It was my first real bobsled experience and ultimately what got me hooked.   The respect for the sport and the deep rooted history this place exudes only leaves me wanting more each time I am here.  If I have learned one thing from bobsled it is to never give up and being here reminds me of the that sentiment and what it can lead to.  

Bree and I after the Olympic Team was selected in St. Mortiz 2010

First Half of the Season Complete!

4th Place Finish with Jazmine Fenlator in both Park City, Utah and Lake Placid, New York

 

 

 

 

Lots to be thankful for

I slowly woke up, reached down to my left hip and felt a bulky brace down my leg.  I immediately started to cry.  Before going into surgery the doctors had told me that if I had the brace on they had to do more work on my hip than they had expected and my recovery time would be longer.   When you are an elite athlete every day counts, especially when you are recovering from an injury.   

After coming off a stressful and exciting Olympic season in 2010 I was struggling to maintain motivation training for the upcoming season.  I decided to enter in a local weightlifting meet.  It was exciting and allowed me to have something other than bobsled to train for.  I learned the lifts as best I could in the month leading up to the meet and managed to use my strength developed from years of bobsledding to complete a decent amount of weight.  It was exactly what I needed to find the competitive fire leading into the next season. 

Subsequently after the meet I started to feel pain in my left hip in the deep squat position.  I backed off on a few of my lifts hoping the pain was muscular and that it would go away with a treatment plan.  Unfortunately it did not.  I quietly limped my way through the following season hoping I could maintain my position and performance.  I managed to complete the season but knew if I wanted any chance of improving and having a chance at competing in Sochi a drastic measure was going to be needed. 

I was terrified this was going to be the end of my bobsled career.  I really did not tell anyone on my team but instead went under the knife four days after returning home from the season to repair a torn labrum in my hip.  Dr. Safran and his team at Stanford Medical took great care of me and managed to calm my nerves with their long history of success stories.   As I laid on the table choosing the music the medical team was going to listen to, I reiterated how important it was for my 'new hip' to be fast (I am sure that did not add any pressure!)

On this Thanksgiving I was able to reflect back on that difficult time in my life and remember how many things, especially my health, I have to be thankful for.  I am so thankful to everyone who helped me fully recover from surgery.  Dr. Safran and his team dutifully answered all my crazy post-operative questions including if I could do pull ups days after surgery.  The U.S. Olympic Committee Sports Medicine team pushed me in my rehab and held me back when I wanted to move forward too quickly.   And of course my family who has always 100 percent supported every decision I have made.  My father helped to comfort me with his orthopedic knowledge and confidence in my physicians.  My mother took her nursing role very seriously and no matter how stubborn I was she reminded me that I needed her help.  I am thankful every day that I am healthy and I am able to continue to compete for my country.