National Anthem

As you may recall in my explanations of Olympic qualification, I needed to finish in the top 8 of the Challenge Cup. So, just to make sure, I went ahead and won the whole thing. Better safe than sorry, you see. To be more specific I came joint first but that's a minor detail that doesn't preclude the fact that I've qualified for the Olympics.

After all the preparation and after doing so well in training I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to do it on race day. How wrong was I. Instead I pushed faster than I'd ever pushed and slid faster than I'd ever done before. Everything came together, I almost forgot that it was an Olympic qualifier, all I wanted to do was go so fast I'd destroy every other athlete. I was quiet and smooth on the sled, correcting mistakes almost before they'd even happened. I can't describe what it feels like to think and slide that fast, I don't think I'll ever forget it.

I took 5 hundredths off my push time and half a second off my downtime with a 49.47s. No-one else even got below 50 seconds. By the time the two heats of the first race were done, I'd finished over a second clear of everyone else. When races are normally won by tenths, that's devastating.

The second race was plagued by snow. I hate sliding in snow, it makes things a bit of a lottery. Generally the better sliders will be faster but occasionally novices can get caught in clear lines and get a fast time. And even the good sliders can get caught by snow drifts building up in the track. I was in the lead after the first heat which means I go off last in the second heat. With about 3 people to go, a blizzard descended and the roulette wheel was set spinning. On the way down I was steering for clear patches of track but it wasn't good enough and I dropped to third place. Annoying, but inconsequential, I'd done enough to finish joint first and earn my place in the Olympics.

My first ever podium was very enjoyable. Only a few weeks before we'd been joking that they'd have a hard time getting hold of the Irish National Anthem if we ever won anything, but they surprised us and got an accurate version of it, although it definitely the slowest version I've ever heard. I was sharing the podium with Tyler and after all the training we've done together I can't think of a more fitting result.