Paul Murray is Australia’s top sprinter and the first Australian to achieve World Cup points. He also achieved Australia’s highest placing at a World Championship with 31st placing in Obertsdorf. At the Olympics in Torino, illness prevented him doing his best with a 51st placing.. A back injury prevented him from racing this past Australian winter but he is hoping for a good season in Europe this year. Whilst in Europe he spends most of this time training and racing with the Falun-Borlange club in Sweden. I started off by asking him a few questions about Torino.
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<p><b>Paul, how were the Olympics?</b></p>
<p>They were a lot of fun. Everything you can imagine about the hype is all there. The village life, the media, the events, the shear shize of it all, its massive.<br />
We were up at Sestriere village with the alpine guys and all the sliders.</p>
<p><b>Was it hard to stay focused and not get caught up in the hype of it all?</b></p>
<p>No it was fine. I was pretty exited when we first got there, but it’s the same guys we are racing against on world cup and we had a few weeks to settle in. I was really nervous on the morning of the event but fine once I started warming up.</p>
<p><b>The whole XC team got sick, how was that?</b></p>
<p>Yeah that was hard. We all had really high expectations of what we could do there and that kind of went out the window when we all got sick. Close living quarters, and lack of space to move sick athletes made things a bit hard. We were all pretty frustrated, and disappointed but at least we all raced. Lots of other teams got sick as well.</p>
<p><b>Highlights of the games?</b></p>
<p>Opening and closing ceremonies for sure. I was the first athlete to run in out of all the countries in the closing so that was pretty cool.<br />
Having my family and mates in the grandstand watching me race was also really great.</p>
<p><b>Any crazy shenanigans going on?</b></p>
<p>We did have a lot of fun after our event, but generally people were well behaved. It was great to cut loose a bit after such a long build up though.</p>
<p><b>What was different this time around to 2002?</b></p>
<p> I missed Salt Lake by not much, a few seconds I think, and that stung for a very long time. This time I trained better, we had much better support, and I believed I could do it. Last time I just hoped I could.</p>
<p><b>So are you planning on going to Vancouver?</b></p>
<p>I think all three of us are keen to go again. I feel like I an ski a lot faster and it’s a classic sprint in 2010, so that’s more my speciality. There’s a lot of work to do between now and then, but I’m confident we can have a bigger, better team in 4 years.</p>
<p><b>So what did you do after the Olympics?</b></p>
<p>I’m back in Mt Beauty, working a bit, finishing my parents house and training. I had a few weeks off up the coast with national coach Finn Marsland and national team member Chris Darlington and some other mates surfing, and that was great. </p>
<p><b>You train and regularly race against some of the best sprint racers in the world in Sweden. Is there anything in your training or your racing that you have learned you need to do in the next four years to take you to the next level?</b></p>
<p>I need to train harder. Its as simple as that. More hours, more hard sessions and more consistency.. The racing part with tactics etc. you learn as you go. It’s a steep learning curve when you are in a heat with 3 guys who have all podiumed in a World Cup and it’s a quarter final in a Swedish Cup!</p>
<p>Once I can get to that level of fitness then hopefully it will all fall into place. With those Swedish guys they are very helpful. Lind, Larsson, Ostberg, I’ve seen their training diaries and talked to them about stuff when we have been training together. The stuff we are doing with the OZ program is on the right track and Finn knows what’s he doing. Its just me being able to step and train the hours they do.</p>
<p><b>Any advice for those aiming for 2010 and beyond?</b></p>
<p>Making the Olympics achievable for Aussies. The girls on the team had amazing results this year and no one expected that 3 years ago. As a country we have the ability to ski fast internationally as our team has proved. There are no short cuts, no secrets and no garuantees. I know patience and perserverance are needed. Its not easy making the Olympics and for good reason. Work hard, aim high and believe in yourself. </p>
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