Hawrysh pushes to regain lost momentum

Opinion

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This article was published 30/10/2015 (3612 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cassie Hawrysh is embracing change as she tries to push her skeleton career to a new level.

The 31-year-old Brandon native has been through some trying times the past couple of years — being left off the 2014 Canadian Olympic team after looking like a shoe-in at one point, then struggling through an injury-plagued 2014-15 campaign before regaining her form late to finish third overall in the second-tier Intercontinental Cup circuit.

“There was a lot of things that just affected last year in terms of mindset (and) equipment,” Hawrysh said. “You just wanted things to be the same as they’ve always been … but that’s not how life is. For me it was a chance to either walk away and say, ‘I’m done with this, I’ve had a good run,’ or step back and say, ‘How can I make this better and how can I take control of my situation?’ And that’s exactly what I did.”

Hawrysh began by focusing on her own health and fitness, spending the summer training in Phoenix to improve her push times, a weakness in the past and a new point of emphasis for Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, which has mandated that all candidates for the top-tier World Cup circuit must meet the standard. Hawrysh paid out of her own pocket to train at Altis, a facility that coaches elite athletes from around the world, and the effort paid off as she achieved Canada’s push-time standard this month after missing it last year.

The changes didn’t stop there as Hawrysh also replaced her aging German sled with a brand-new ride from English manufacturer Bromley.

“I joke that it’s like getting a brand-new car but the car is from somewhere where you drive on the other side of the road,” Hawrysh laughed. “Everything’s in a different place but it’s still the same. You know what you’re supposed to be doing, but you need to adjust.”

Hawrysh said the sensitivity level of her new sled is different than the old one, but she said it’s responsive and very adjustable. She’s not the only one on the team breaking in a new sled either, helping to level the playing field as the Canadian sliders compete for spots through the selection race series.

Canada is allotted three men’s and three women’s spots on the World Cup, with Elisabeth Vathje, ranked fourth in the world, already guaranteed one of them and exempt from competing in the four selection races.

Hawrysh is second in the standings after second- and third-places in the first two races in Calgary, with the next two set for No.v 5 and 6 in Whistler, B.C.

That would appear to give her the inside track on one of the three spots, except for one hitch: Canada’s skeleton funding was slashed after a disappointing performance at the Sochi Games and the country is planning to only send four sliders on the World Cup. How those spots will be divvied up between the men and the women has yet to be determined.

But going back to Hawrysh’s outlook, that is entirely out of her control. Her only concern right now is going fast and being even faster when the 2018 Olympics come around.

“Everything that happened has made me a much stronger athlete, mentally,” she said. “I’m having way more fun than I’ve had in a long time and it sounds kind of cliché but it’s so true, ask any athlete: when they have their best performance is when they’re having fun again or when you’re not really worried about anything.

“That’s when you really perform.”