Friday, December 14, 2001
No skeleton in the closet
Canadians hit track at COP today
By ANDREW SMITH -- Calgary Sun
Standing atop the Canada Olympic Park bobsleigh and luge track, former park guide Lindsay Alcock once captivated tourists with tales of how fast the sledders rocketed down the Olympic course.
Demands for firsthand knowledge of the lightning-fast thrill usually followed.
Problem was, Alcock had no idea.
"I started getting a lot of flak from the tourists," said Alcock.
"That was what made me decide to give skeleton a try -- that and because I knew it was going to become an Olympic sport."
She started slowly on a learn-to course but it wasn't long before she was hitting speeds of more than 100 km/h.
The Canadian team soon realized it had a natural-born racer on its hands.
That was 1998. Three years later, the 24-year-old Calgary native is ranked fourth in the skeleton World Cup women's standings and she'll be looking for her second podium finish of the season in today's World Cup races at COP.
Alcock, along with teammates Michelle Kelly and Melissa Hollingsworth, have placed Canada in the No. 2 position among skeleton participating nations, meaning expectations are growing for February's Salt Lake City Olympics.
Alcock followed up a bronze-medal performance at Ksnigsee, Germany, with a fourth-place finish in Igls, Austria, in this season's opening races.
She still needs two top-six finishes to qualify for the Olympics with three events to go but even to be in this position is a surprise for Alcock.
"(The) 2006 (Olympics) was my goal when I started," said Alcock.
"I was in for the long haul but I sort of gave up Salt Lake to my teammates.
"With Canada ranked second in the world, you can see the challenge comes from everywhere, even my teammates."
Alcock is a graduate of the U of C's kinesiology department.
Her strong point in skeleton is the critical push start.
Alcock owns the push records at both the Calgary and Park City, Utah tracks.
After her start, all the soft-spoken Alcock has to do is simply get into a groove and stay relaxed.
"Like any speed sport, you have to know how to handle things, which involves calming yourself," said Alcock.
"Errors will happen, so you have to know how to correct. After that, you just have to stay focused."
On the men's side, Canada will be led today by Jeff Pain, ranked sixth in the world standings.
Pain won his first skeleton race one year ago when he out-slid Olympic favourite Jim Shea of the U.S. at Winterberg, Germany.
Calgary firefighter Duff Gibson is ranked ninth.
For the benefit of European TV, today's event starts at 7:45 a.m., with the sledders second runs scheduled to go between 9:50 to 10:30 a.m.
Skeleton kicks off a weekend full of pre-Olympic activities at COP, followed tomorrow and Sunday by a pair of VISA Women's World Cup bobsleigh races.
2002 Games Bobsled Coverage
