Saturday, January 14, 2012

Gunde Svan on Pain......

One of my friends sent me an incredibly nice email, commenting on my blog and specifically, this line that I used to express my feelings about the Tour:  

"The pain of racing is temporary and the pain of quitting lasts forever"


He had a great story about Gunde Svan, a story that I think is worth sharing: 

"Many years ago at the Holmenkollen 50k, Gunde Svan fell on the first 25k lap and hurt his arm badly. It turned out it was broken. He could not use the arm, so he skied the rest of the lap with one pole and his hurt arm tucked inside his bib. When he came into the stadium everyone thought he would quit. However, he continued without stopping and completed the 50k with one pole. After the race he was interviewed by the TV guys who asked him why did not quit. He told them if he had done that he would probably do it again and again….and that would surly end his skiing carrier. Good call and you could argue that was his best race ever. Today heprobably still ranks as one of the top 10 XC skiers of all times."

Busy day for me as it's my "travel day" to Ramsau.  Traveling outside of the team isn't quite as easy and when you are with the team... I have to take 2 taxis, three trains and one bus in order to get to Ramsau. I'm crossing my fingers it all works out. One pole distance camp starts tomorrow! I hope you all enjoyed your weekends! Ciao! More soon.... Holly :) 

1 comment:

  1. I remember that race. Actually the first thing Gunde said was that Sixten Jernberg never failed to finish a race and then he sure wan't either. =)

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