David Hearn’s
2000 Olympic Journal
Under
the Knife and Back on the Water
It's sort of like remembering how to ride a bike. Your muscles remember what
to do while your balance comes back readily without any conscious thought. At
least, this is what I was hoping last fall the first time out in my SuperGlide
canoe following arthroscopic shoulder surgery to my left (bottom) shoulder. I
had a lot of hard work ahead of me, both in the gym and on the river before the
April 2000 Olympic Team Trials.
Since the October World Cup final on the Olympic Course in Australia, most
of my training was on dry land with physical therapists and body workers. Given
the green light by Georgetown's Dr. Ben Shaffer I started training on easy
moving water gradually building to more difficult water workouts. I was getting
back into the head to head competitive workouts on the Feeder Canal with my
coach Silvan Poberaj gradually. Other winter seasons would often take me to
places like Costa Rica for a month of whitewater training, but my shoulder
wasn't ready to be weaned away from my supervised shoulder rehab and body work
with Kate White, Dr. Charlotte Jensen, Bud Earley, and Kimberly Kirk, Eric
Hill, Mick Adams and Inger at Orthopaedic Therapy Associates.
I was into paddling outside, enjoying the wildlife and quiet that winter
brings to the Potomac River. Luckily, National Team athletes are also granted
access to the Navy's David Taylor Model Basin, a long indoor tank for tow
testing of ship designs. I paddled 500-meter lengths and turned around in the
dark feeling the warmed air on my bare chest while outside it is a freezing
cold February evening. I made steady progress with the shoulder strength and
flexibility.
This year's Olympic Team Trials consisted of 3 days of racing on the Ocoee
River in Tennessee, the site of 1996 Olympics and upcoming 2001 World
Championships. (Check out www.ocoeewhitewater.com) The early April Trials was a
first, (usually we race in May) making it difficult to size up the competition
as there were only a couple races scattered throughout North America before the
biggest race of the season. This time the top USA athletes met for the first
time on the Ocoee. I had just started running some tougher Potomac whitewater
just weeks before the Olympic Trials to prepare mentally and physically for the
challenges that lay ahead. My body was feeling good, but I didn't know my speed
compared to the other boats in my class. I felt a little rushed into speed
work, feeling like I could use another couple weeks to properly prepare on
whitewater. I did feel as though I had the mental benefit of loads of
experience on whitewater slalom courses around the globe and on the Ocoee
course in particular.
The great thing about our sport is that each year at the Team Trials
everyone starts with a clean slate and has the opportunity to race well and
make the US Whitewater Team. It is an objective method of racer against the
clock finding the fastest, cleanest line from the start to the finish on a
surging and moving playing field, the whitewater river. This year's Olympic
Trials was no different. 109 racers showed up to go one on one with the mighty
Ocoee so that they could "go to the show" and realize their Olympic dreams.
After three days of nerve-racking spring racing, one boat in each class, or 5
athletes, will represent the USA in Australia. Scott Shipley in K1, Rebecca
Bennett Giddens in K1W, Matt Taylor & Lecky Haller in C2 and myself in C1
will all be racing our hearts out this September at the Penrith Whitewater
Stadium down under.
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