Working with National Cross Country Ski Team

By Shane Munro, SPC member and Certificate Credential holder

I am happy to share a little about my experiences with Canada’s Cross Country Ski Team.  If you would like some visual inspiration here is a u tube video of a training camp that I shot most of the footage for and one of the athletes put together:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xezFTzckKKo

I will be attending the upcoming Olympic Games and proving services to Cross Country Skiing.  I have been involved with the national team for 5 years now and was brought on the summer before the Torino Olympics to help give guidance and develop the Physical Therapy side of the Cross Country Canada’s then IST. 

Although I did not attend the Torino Olympics I was involved in the teams care and management including a pre-Olympic camp a few weeks prior to the Games in Pontrisina, Switzerland.  It was an atmosphere of excitement and also focus for the athletes and 3 of our athletes went on to medal that year. 

Chandra Crawford won a Gold Medal in the Skate sprint event and Sara Renner and Becky Scott won a Silver medal in the classic sprint relay event.  This for me was the highlight of the games with Sara unfortunately breaking a pole on an uphill section of the course.  If you have been involved in cross country skiing then you realize that it is very difficult to even rejoin the pack let alone go on to medal in an Olympic event.  We are still very grateful to the Norwegian coach who passed her a spare pole.  It really showed the determination, focus and competitive spirit of these athletes and highlighted a “never give up” approach.

Since Torino I have been actively involved with the team doing yearly pre-season assessment screening and maintenance for the team as well as attending world championships in Sapporo Japan in 2007 and attending a pre-world champs camp and the start of the events in Liberec in the Czech republic in 2009.

 In 2007 one of our athletes made history by being the first para Nordic skier to qualify for a world championship event in cross country skiing.  That athlete, Brian McKeever, will be the first athlete of any sport and of any country to compete this year in the Vancouver Winter Olympics for able bodied athletes AND in the Paralympics!  Brian is a visually impaired skier who was a multiple medalist at the Paralympics in Torino.  He can really mix it up and be very competitive with the international able bodied athletes, certainly exciting to watch in Vancouver!

I hope this gives you a little insight into Physio with Cross Country.  I have a website www.ascentphysio.com that I will be updating regularly throughout the games.

Go Canada Go!




Photo from Sapporo World Championships 2007. 
Brian is the FIRST athlete in the world to compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics. 
He will be doing this in Vancouver in 2010!