WELCOME TO BEIJING

I am finally here!!!! After all the years of working and waiting for this moment, it's actually happening. It is the craziest thing. I feel like I'm living in a dream right now. Every morning when I look out my 7th floor window over looking the heart of the Olympic Village, I want to pinch myself to make sure I'm actually awake. Am I really here?! I'll be walking to get breakfast or hanging out in the athletes lounge and I'll just have a moment where I realize all over again that I am at the Olympics! It is definitely not a dream. 

When we arrived in Beijing and walked out of the airport we were hit hard with the hot, humid air. The smog wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I was more surprised with the temperature. It was boiling! I don't think I will ever complain about the air conditioning being too high in my house ever again. I seriously have a new found appreciation for it. Before we became too uncomfortable in the humidity we were whisked away in a private car to the Olympic Village, where from there the heat was a distant memory. It was the most surreal feeling driving in the Olympic lane through Beijing passing all the new facilities, the stadium and Olympic flags everywhere. When we pulled up to the Village, the COC mission staff were there to get us to our rooms as easily and quickly as possible. I recognize so many of them from the Pan American and Commonwealth Games. It's so great to see familiar faces and share this excitement with so many amazing people. It really is something special. 

I could go on and on and on about the Olympic Village and it still wouldn't do it justice. I can hardly find words to explain it. It's basically a mini city in the heart of Beijing. We all live in condo's that have gardens, parks and ponds separating them. There is never nothing to do. The athletes lounge is the most relaxing place in the Canadian section where we can all just go and chill. You meet new people every day and everyone is so friendly. I already signed up for tickets to go watch water polo, swimming and gymnastics. I'm trying to do as much as I can to soak up this amazing experience. It's hard for me to sometimes just go back and sit in my room because I want to be doing something every minute of every day! I don't want to waste any time here, this is what I've been waiting for my whole life. Tomorrow I think some of us are going to have a little Dance Dance Revolution competition in the international athletes building. It's a great way to just unwind and relax after a long day of training or a stressful competition day. So far the village has more than lived up to my expectations. I'm sorry I can't explain it better. When I upload my pictures I will definitely be posting them for all of you to see first hand. Come to think about it I'm going to go and explore a little bit. The village is so huge I have hardly seen half of it! Bye for now :)

4 Bronze now BEIJING...

The competition in Bulgaria couldn't have been a better preparation for me. Not only did I end up walking away with four bronze medals, but also with stronger confidence in myself and what I was capable of. I was a little hesitant competing on my ankle that has been injured since April, but once I walked off my first routine I knew there was nothing to worry about. My adrenaline, focus and determination washed away the pain those few days and I felt better out on the carpet than I had in a long time. I didn't think twice about the injury and was able to give it my all, not holding anything back. It was the perfect experience to have before heading to the Olympics. I feel so ready to go, which is not always the case before a competition. Every athlete knows when they're not in the best possible shape or didn't have the preparation they needed to have the competition of a lifetime. Throughout my whole career in this sport I have always known myself and how to read what my body was telling me. I definitely know that when I'm not 150% confident I can't perform to the best of my abilities. With confidence comes everything else. I'm sharper, more expressive and powerful. It is a huge difference when I let my nerves get to me. My main goal for the Olympics is to go out there, give it my all and just have fun doing what I love. I don't want to be nervous or hold back anything. This is my moment and I'm going to do everything I can to make it unforgettable. 

My Practice Run...

I was boarding a plane on monday from Toronto to Vienna and  realized that the next time I would be taking off I would be heading to China. This week was my last competition before the Olympics and as I sat on that eight hour flight over to Europe I couldn't get that out of my head. Since my injury in April I have been out of the competitive scene until now and knew how important this competition would be for me. It wasn't just another chance for me to be out on that carpet, but a chance to get my confidence up. It was my Olympic practice run. I have been working so hard these past couple of months to be ready for the Games and unfortunately with my ankle I couldn't be competing all this time for practice. So when I arrived here in Varna, Bulgaria I was anxious to get out there in front of the crowd. We did run into a few surprises once we were here though. We ended up making it to the hotel Tuesday night after a very long day and a half of traveling. I flew over with my coach, Mimi, and my teammate, Demi, and we were all exhausted and just wanted to sleep. My coach received the competition schedule right when we walked in and thought there was some sort of mistake. Apparently, the schedule had been changed and instead of competing friday and saturday we would be starting on thursday! We had to train the next day only once coming off 30 hours of traveling and a very jet lagged sleep before we competed. This was definitely not the best news to get the second we got here. Honestly, when things like that happen you just have to roll with it. There was obviously nothing we could do and no sense getting upset about it. Well, I can say that now, but at the time I was pretty upset. I wanted a better preparation than that. The day after any long flights are usually a write off. Your head is not all there, your legs are tired and don't even get me started on jumping. I basically feel like I can't get two feet off the ground, BUT I have to say that when you put something in your head you can do anything. After I was initially a little disappointed about the whole situation I knew I had to have a good practice on wednesday to feel ready to go on thursday. So I really focused all my energy on training well. I'm not going to say it was easy because it wasn't. I didn't feel that great, but I pulled it together and even though we were up at 6:30am running on only a few hours of sleep it went better than expected. My energy was there, which was a nice surprise. I guess my two training camps in Spain and Toronto have really helped get me into shape. The biggest challenge of the day was not falling asleep in the afternoon so I could get a full eight hours at night before the competition. That was the hardest part of the trip. I don't know how we did it, but I think it was all that european coffee in the morning because we managed to make it through the day without fading.  So it's the day of my first real competition since April and I am excited and nervous. Wish me luck, I'll let you know how it goes!

CHATELAINE!

A year ago I would've never believed you if you told me I was going to be on the cover of a magazine. Well, as it would happen, this month I'm on the cover of CHATELAINE!!!! I cannot even begin to tell you how crazy that is to me. At first I thought it was pretty cool, but I've done photo shoots and stuff before so I wasn't that excited. Then I got flown out to Montreal for a day for the shoot and met my long time idol Perdita Felicien and the funniest fencer in the world Sherraine Schalm. We had the most amazing day. I don't think I've ever laughed so much in my life. The photographer was definitely starting to lose his patience with us by the end of the day. The best was when he told us to look sexy and we all put on the goofiest faces ever. That was priceless. All three of us had to wear white and got to try on so many designer duds. We were all in heaven. I definitely wore the Prada shoes even though our feet were not in the shot at all. It was probably the coolest thing I've ever gotten to do through my sport and it was in support of all female Canadian athletes. It really couldn't have gotten any better. 

where has this month gone?

I can't believe the last time I wrote was two weeks ago. I have that whole eat, sleep, breathe gymnastics mentality going right now and somewhere along the way I totally neglected my blog. I can honestly say that nothing that exciting has been happening, so you haven't missed anything important. The day after I got back from Spain I started my training camp in Toronto and it was just as intense as I imagined it would be. The only really great part was I had two of my teammates with me, Ali and Demi. Even though we were in the gym every day the time seemed to fly by while they were with me. It's such a different atmosphere training with friends than by yourself. We have all seen each other at our best and worst and no matter what are there for each other. The second I was getting frustrated in the gym, all I had to do was see a huge smile from Demi or a comforting look from Ali and I would instantly feel better. They can read me so well after basically living with each other 24/7 all over the world for weeks at a time. They know my moods and exactly what I'm thinking without even talking to me. They gave me a chance to really enjoy my last training camp in Toronto and not let the pressure get to me. I haven't trained so well and so consistently in the past year than I did these past few weeks. It made me realize just how much I'm going to miss them after this crazy journey is over. After the Olympics I have decided to take the year off so last week was maybe the last time Demi, Ali and I will ever train together. It's really sad to even think about. I know that I will always remember this summer before the Olympics and will always remember the three of us. Thanks for the never ending love and support girls! When I need some extra motivation I know exactly who to come to....

HBC RUN FOR CANADA

I am so happy I didn't miss the event this year. Even though I was a bit jet lagged from my trip the day before, I wouldn't have missed it for anything. The HBC Run for Canada is on July 1st and it's basically a huge fundraiser for us Canadian amateur athletes. Anyone can come and participate in a 10k run, a 1k kids run and/or a 3k jog/walk down by the lake shore. All the proceeds go to supporting the athletes and this year they raised about $2 million dollars! I don't think I've seen a bigger turnout of supporters and there were a lot of Olympic bound athletes in these very cool personalized shirts helping out all day. I think my favorite part was watching the little kids do their 1k run and giving them their medals afterwards. The competitiveness definitely comes out and there were a few tears shed of course, but it's adorable and I love it. 

I had to be up at around 5:45am to get down by the water for 7am, but it was worth it. The day always flies by and it was a lot of fun. It was so great to see so many athletes I hadn't seen in over a year! I was catching up with people that I was at Pan Ams with last July and meeting new athletes from the GTA. We were sharing stories, joking around and supporting all the runners. I find it so funny that none of the athletes run the 10k, but there's really no need to risk injury this year of all years. We just always laugh about it because there are some pretty intense hardcore runners that show up to the event and could probably outrun and outlast us all! 

Anyways, I was asked at the end of the day to say a little thank you on behalf of all the athletes and I was very honored to do so. Of course I was pretty nervous to get up in front of the thousands of people that showed up for the day, but it went really well. I don't know why I stress so much before I speak because when I actually get up there you can't shut me up. Funny huh? 

My good friend, Ohenewa Akuffo, who just happens to be Canadian Wrestling Champion and Olympic bound as well spent the whole day with me (check us out in my pic). I hadn't seen her since I left for Spain and it was so great to have a little fun outside the gym or the clinic. Thanks for making the Run that much better! See you at the clinic :)

For next year anyone interested in the Run for Canada check out www.hbc.com and come support your athletes!!!! THANKS HBC!

Back Home

I have to say I was a little sad to leave Marbella last week. We woke up at 4am in the pitch black morning to catch our flight to Paris. There were still tons of people on the streets coming home from their night out and the warm breeze coming off the water made me want to just sit on the beach and watch the sunrise. When we took off it was starting to get light out and there were absolutely no clouds in the sky so I said goodbye to Spain for the last time properly. 

So after a long and delayed flight from Paris we got back to Toronto last sunday afternoon and I don't think I even smiled until I came around the corner through customs and saw my mom waiting for me. That's my favorite part of any trip. Coming back from wherever you were and seeing your family or friends standing there because they missed you. It was the perfect homecoming. I noticed her immediately. My mom is a pretty cool lady. She has this awesome Victoria Beckham inspired hairstyle and an everyday killer orange purse (which I absolutely love and want to steal). Let's just say she's pretty noticeable. I hope I get that from her someday. 

Anyways, I don't think I've ever talked so much in my life from the airport to our house. I got so excited to see her and I wanted to tell her everything about my trip. I think it hit me that it's July and I leave for Beijing in a month!!!! I have one more little trip and then the next time I pack my bags it's for the Olympics! That is so CRAZY!!! It could be also that after my training camp in Spain I feel like I've improved so much and am really ready to compete. I left all my insecurities and doubts over in Spain that first week and I'm feeling good. I've got my confidence up and am sooo ready to get our there and compete. A few days ago I checked my email and I had one from a good friend of mine Nazmi from Australia who will also be in Beijing with me for Rhythmic. It was one line, "getting excited?". It put the biggest smile on my face. I have never been so excited in my life....nothing could describe it. 30 days to go.....