aly GUO) By Wendy Long FEAR is many things to many people —a shadowy figure lurking in the dark, Prive manoncancmmeloinerti tel lS oe ai Fear can prevent Pee CM KOU PLETE Teme Cony hopes and dreams. . CS eyFEARISALSOANATURALRESPONSE, | snow at the base that inlnde an el ing i ition suit nd at high speeds or leaping s hes can prompt as eat al, the very act of perform : eta put life and lina in jeopardy Fear is nature Forty minutes after that debacle h unleashed the jump that would earn hi 3 medal There Tas, coming into the base of sporting events that put fonr-metre triple kicker at 67 knn/ls and my ‘in danger often marvel atthe right ski is going north-northwest” recalls Bat those ranavway heartbeats are as present inthe 1 and officials, Managing, key toa successful and sale competition, superhuman, oF that we Canadian fre Blais. "We are, You have swith tan the cons Proce an assessment with tearm medical stl No broken bones, although he did sustain ortable only after the emotion a renaline had abated. Physically, he was sled with Canadian teas nny Werthner, They tall mental train pent the fact that the indent was not due to an on Blais part bu hal since been ilPact) something goes wrong, you get the chance to re-set — talk about the bad things that go wrong, the fears, then once that conversation is over, it’s over. There's no more thinking about it Sport psychology consultant Karen MacNeill was impressed with Blais’ ability to put body and mind back together quickly to compete and to succeed “That shows a high level of mental fitness, to overcome a certain event and get yourself back and focused,” says MacNeill, a former national field hockey team player and current PhD candidate in counseling the University of B.C “The body is smart,” says MacNeill, “and ifyou have a bit of a trauma your body wants psychology at to avoid that action because it doesn't want to get hurt again. Yet you might have to go back and re-address that. It sounds like he ‘went through and found the specific cause ~ catching an edge —and then once identified he created solutions to give himself a control and confidence fans revere athletes who achieve success amid danger, oF who continue to compete ev spills and serious injury. They may appear invincible but, as Blais and MacNeill confirm, they have honed specific skills to assess and manage their individual fear responses. Alpine skiing is fraught with pe Yet it is no wonds after enduring frightening competitors descend mountainsides at speeds normally reserved for cars on major highways, At the 1998 Olympic Winter Games Hermann Maier skied away from one of the most spectacular crashes ever witnessed. The Austrian ace lost control « sly in his Olympic downhill run, flew some 30 jetres through the air and crashed-l safety nets. After through two a brief respite he got up dusted off the snow, waved, t ade his way down the hill. Three days later he won the men’s super giant slalom and went on to win gold in the giant slalon After the crash Maier went th those Games a h oiding situations that might cause him to view footage of his fall. In his case, ont of sight was out of mind and with ‘more Olympic races on his schedule he was determined not to sabotage future success by kindling fear from negative images of the nt past MacNeill’s recent assignments include serving on the sport science team for Team. B.C. to the Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse. she notes young athletes are perhaps more willing to embrace mental training as part of their overall training regimen than elder predecessors. Blais ‘concedes it is only in the past four years that he has utilized mental training in his competition preparation. I think,” says MacNeill, “it’s always bee important but the mystique has come off it a bit. The athletes are seeing it like strengt training, but it’s mental training, [like to call it mental fitness with athletes becaus its about developing that mental fitness, t mental capacity you need to perform. For his part, Blais has but one regret about his crash in January No one got it on video, not one person he laments. “T don't necessarily like to analy crashes and watch them over and over bu this one I would like to have, as a reminde and a positive reinforcement that I came bal from it.