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Forsyth encourages para-alpine athletes

Team’s dryland training camp is last time they will be in Whistler before Paralympics
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Every workout counts. Every moment visualizing the course counts. Every minute on skis will count for the men and women of Canada's para-alpine team as they countdown to the race of their lives in 2010.

At least, that's the message from retired skier Allison Forsyth.

Forsyth knows what's it's like to be a ski racer just eight months prior to the biggest race in the world. She knows about the ever-building nerves, about the gathering pressure of the competition.

And Forsyth knows, perhaps more than anyone else, how important every day of training is between now and then.

"You guys are all within eight months of your Games," she told para-alpine team members who were in Whistler for a dryland training camp last week.

"You have a very, very small window... Right now, capitalize on that window of opportunity."

For the self-described retired athlete "jonesing for competition," she sees opportunities ripe for the taking for these Canadian athletes.

On the World Cup circuit for 12 years as a member of the Canadian alpine team, Forsyth is a five-time World Cup medalist. It's a feat, she admits, that was only possible because of her commitment to dryland training.

"I do, and I did, lack talent," said Forsyth, who moved to Whistler when she was 14 years old to capitalize on the ski program, which was then run out of the Pemberton High School. "I never came by that at all naturally."

She also knew that she would never have the skiing background and the inborn confidence of the Austrians and the Swiss, who were blowing past her that first year on the World Cup. It was 1997 and she was the only girl racing technical events for Canada at the time, placing 35 th or 36 th .

"I never made a second run," she said. "It was very discouraging."

So Forsyth made a choice. She would be the fittest skier in the world, she decided. And so it began.

With her singular focus, Forsyth hit the gym at the University of Calgary at 8 a.m. every morning. Three hours of training was followed with a few hours of study, and then back to the gym for another two to three hours.

Then she would get to her car, go home, eat and go to bed. Every day was like this.

"At the time I didn't realize how fit I was becoming," she told the para-alpine team members. And then she beat all the Calgary Flames in a fitness test. The training was beginning to pay off.

The true test, however, was in her first World Cup race in France. She came fifth - almost 50 spots ahead of her spot the previous year.

"Just because of the dryland training," she said.

"It all comes down to the details... Every single workout counts."

That year Forsyth moved from 52 nd to third in the world in giant slalom.

Seeing the payoff of the training, Forsyth made it her mission: she was always the first one on the mountain and the last one off. She never skipped a run, even if it was scheduled on the heels of a podium win.

It was a workout mantra that spilled over to her teammates who began to train like Forsyth with a mission of seeing their increased fitness translate to big payoffs on the mountains.

"We started to gain that reputation as a whole team," she said.

In the lead up to the Torino Olympic Games in 2006, Forsyth had gained 40 pounds of pure muscle mass - a hard pill to swallow for the petite skier from Nanaimo.

She knew she had pushed herself to her physical limitations. She was at her peak. She was ready.

And then came the devastating crash on her first training run, dashing her 2006 Olympic dreams.

True to form however, she took the same commitment to rehab that she brought to training.

Despite the motivation, the drive and the commitment to rehab, Forsyth decided to retire in 2008.

She said she won't go down in the history books as one of the best skiers in the world (bear in mind that Forsyth is ranked in a tie for 10 th all-time among Canadian women) but she thinks she will be remembered for giving it her all.

"I walked away knowing that I was respected for what I did," she said.

So it's not with any remorse or anger or sadness that Forsyth talks about hanging up her skis.

She can dust off her hands and hold her head high knowing she gave it her all.

That was her message to the para-alpine team this week:

"It's now time to buckle down, focus and get your job done."

This is the last time the para-alpine team will be in Whistler before they meet here to compete in the 2010 Paralympic Games.

The para-alpine team hits the snow in Chile next month. The Word Cup season will begin in Austria in January. The Paralympic Games take place March 12 to 21.