div style=”text-align: center;”br //diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_k1DHbqzFvCE/Sq7l9RwFZLI/AAAAAAAAApw/MP5ipArPPFU/s1600-h/DSCF6548.jpg”/a!–StartFragment– p class=”MsoNormal”I have just returned from a few days in Colorado to attend an bInternational Association of High Performance Training Centers Forum /bspan style=”font-weight:normal”at the/spanb Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center/bspan style=”font-weight:normal”. It was a great opportunity and I’d like to share my experiences:o:p/o:p/span/p p class=”MsoNormal” span class=”Apple-style-span” style=” color: rgb(255, 153, 0); font-size:19px;”Why has it been beneficial to live and train at a High Performance Center?/span/p p class=”MsoNormal”This week I spoke on an Athlete’s Panel for a Qamp;A session about the effects of high performance training centers on elite athletes. Representatives from training centers around the world, and specifically from Columbia, Ecuador, South Africa, Brazil, Macedonia, and Finland asked about our experiences while training at the centers, how centralized training centers help or hinder both our sports and us as individual athletes, and the pros and cons of living full-time at such centers in the US. /p p class=”MsoNormal” o:p/o:p/p p class=”MsoNormal”The panel was formed by a Paralympic champion sprinter, 3-time Olympic weightlifter, a US Gymnastics coach, a pairs figure skater and my self – together we represented Summer and Winter Olympic sports and the three US Olympic Training Centers (OTC) in Lake Placid, NY, Colorado Springs, CO and Chuela Vista, CA. We shared a lot of the same perspectives in our answers and agreed that what really makes this experience special and beneficial are the relationships formed with coaches and training center staff. It is through these relationships that information is communicated and progress is able to happen. Once an athlete signs on to this lifestyle, everyone from Sports Medicine to housekeeping staff become a part of your “team.” How you interact and communicate with these people, in addition to your own teammates, roommates and coaching staff can either clear the channels for success, or hinder and squander them. The sprinter commented that it takes a certain athlete to want to live and train in such an environment. It certainly does and I am grateful that I’ve been able to thrive in this environment. This is my third year at the Lake Placid OTC and its staff and resources have helped me rise from a Development Team athlete to a member of the National Team. It has provided a professional environment, both in which to train and to live, that has helped me mature as a person, athlete and team member. /p p class=”MsoNormal”A question asked by a man from Ecuador spurred an answer that I enjoyed sharing the most. He asked, i“As athletes, what [advice would we give] to an athlete that is not able to train at a training facility such as the OTC, but has potential for becoming a successful athlete?”/ispan style=”font-style:normal” I followed behind the weightlifter who offered that the athlete should tap into the passion that his country of Ecuador has for sport, which is something she has experienced first hand as a competitor at their events. I added that yes indeed, training centers have a lot of resources, but this athlete can also look hard for those types of resources within his own community, such as doctors, mentors, sponsors and coaches. Before I was able to train at the OTC I benefited greatly from the myriad of resources that my home communities provided, and find that as I work to reach greater heights in my sport I value those community resources, and my own passion for the sport, just as much as the ones from the Olympic Committee./span/p p class=”MsoNormal”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=” color: rgb(255, 153, 0); font-size:19px;”Environmental and Social Sustainability in Vancouver/span/pp class=”MsoNormal”spanspan class=”Apple-style-span”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:medium;”The following talk after the Athlete’s Panel was a representative from VANOC’s (Vancouver Olympic Committee) Sustainability Committee. Her presentation illustrated that VANOC, and in a few years London (2012) and Sochi, Russia (2014), are committed to integrating /span
