Chris Hadfield was in Whistler this week to take some turns, and give the keynote address to an international conference.
Hadfield, who became a sensation thanks to his amazing tweets from the International Space station in 2013, and his best selling books is an avid skier, though his passion was rarely indulged as a working astronaut in case of injury.
A former youth ski racer he told Pique in an exclusive interview that the sport helped prepare him in many ways for the future.
Preparation, hard work, dedication, determination - these are the transferrable skills from ski racer to astronaut.
"Number one, if you wait until the race begins, you're going to fail,'" he explained. "It's all about preparation. You have to be skilled. You'll never win a race based on pure luck. It's the skill that matters... And then the direct preparation, walking the course, going and looking at the course, understanding every single curve, what you're going to do when things go wrong, realizing all the failure of it, thinking about how you're going to recover from it. And optimizing all the things you're going to do."
The race itself, he added, is irreversible. There's no do-over.
"You have to execute. You have to do whatever it is. The best you can, given the set of circumstances."
To read the entire story pick up Pique this Thursday or read it online at www.piquenewsmagazine.com.
