Elephant Scientist

An Elephant Scientist. Yup, that was the ‘best’ answer I heard last week when 50 boys between the ages 4-6 were asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. The boys were attending a Beaver’s Sleep Over event with their parents. The process of finding out what these kids dreamt of becoming was wonderful and reminded me to keep my mind open to all of life’s possibilities.

I never know when inspiration will hit or what triggers it but there are certainly moments that guide our lives down paths we never expected. As I’m now committed to the path of rehab, I’m looking for what opportunities will arise, what will be the next thing to change the course of my life. Who knows, perhaps I’m destined to be an elephant scientist…although I plan to win a few more World Cup Medals before that happens!

Olympic Update:

Although I won’t be competing in the Olympics I will be participating from a different perspective. I will be working with CTV as their Alpine correspondent going over what happened that day and what to expect in upcoming events. I will be a part of the afternoon and evening shows that highlight and update the days’ activities. I’ll be working with Michael Landsberg during the day and Jennifer Hedger during the evening show. I’ll slot into the shows when it fits and likely have about 5 to 10min of air time twice a day. I’m very excited about this opportunity and look forward to learning. Although I’m nervous since this is out of my element (I prefer have two boards strapped to my legs going 130k/h) I do look forward to embracing this incredible opportunity.

Degree Watch:

Drum Roll Please….(this sounds so much better in my head)…….53 degree of flexion!!! Two weeks ago I was at 25 degrees so I’m extremely happy with the progress. I have a long way to go before I’ll reach my goal of heal to butt, but at least I’m making progress and this keeps me motivated through the long and often painful exercises.

Articles:

Below is an image of the article the Globe and Mail did updating their readers on my progress. I’m continually shocked to see the exposure I’ve been getting since my injury. Of my last 4 physio appointments I have had media in attendance for 3 of them: CBC, CTV and a local paper. Having this kind of interest and support has helped me realize how many Canadians care about me and follow my career. I can think of no better motivation as I make my way back to the hill.

This was a nice Q&A that was done prior to my injury. I thought you may like to check it out:

http://canski.org/kelly-vanderbeek-qaa

Thoughts:

As I’m now preparing for the games as; Team Canada’s #1 Fan; TV personality (I’m not sure I’m quite a personality yet but hey, I just may be crazy enough to fit the title); Corporate hostess; etc. I’m learning that I love more than ever what sport brings out in people, organizations, communities, and in a Nation. Chilliwack, my community, is preparing for the Torches arrival here on February 7^th. I can feel the buzz and the excitement as the Games near.

Yes, the Games is a two week plethora of sporting excellence, but it’s also so much more. It has a quality about it that brings people together, connecting us in ways that few things can. Although I will not be competing at these Games, I am still honoured to be a part of this event that will indelibly mark Canada’s history and that will touch millions of people’s hearts in ways we can only imagine.

Till next time,

Kelly

I let my knee rest in a streched position using this wedge to help increase it’s range of motion.

The scars are healing well. In this image you can see the two largest of the six scares.

I haven’t taken many pictures (since I can’t move or get around much) but I am practicing and learning a lot about my equipment and photo software. David’s Dad, Gary, stayed with me for a week helping me get around and do my exercises. He also is an avid photographer so I learned a lot during his stay.

2.5 Weeks Post Op

There have been some rather ironic things that have happened since my knee injury. One such instance was when we had two items delivered to our home at the same time. One item was the Olympic tickets I’d purchased to my events and the other was my ice machine to help rehab my knee. It’s moments like these that give me pause. I’m on a new path and fully committed to my rehab, but my Olympic passion and spirit still burns strongly inside me. That part of me is still adjusting to my new reality and learning to let go of a dream I held so close to my heart for so long. This emotional wound will take a while to heal but I still love my life and feel like one of the luckiest people alive. (An odd contradiction in these unlucky times) But, this is how I know I’ll be just fine and I look forward to the new and different opportunities that I’ll have over the next 8 months of rehab.

Torch Update:

Teck, my title sponsor, has just told me that they have purchased my Torch on my behalf so that I may have this keepsake forever. I was so touched by their generosity and the symbolism that this gesture took. Truly an exceptional organization and one that I’m proud to represent.

Introducing….drum roll please….‘Degree Watch’:

What’s this? Well, degree watch is my new measuring tool of my knee’s progress. The number of degrees I reach is how far I’m able to bend my knee. To help explain, my leg totally straight considered zero degrees. My goal is to be able to bend my knee so my heel touches my butt – this goal is just shy of 180 degrees.

So, current Degree Watch progress sits at 25 degrees. A long way to go, but at least I’m now working at it.

For the next 3 to 4 weeks I’m only allowed to bend my knee while lying flat on my stomach. This is a position where my PCL is most protected. I’m doing this work 3 times a day with the help of a physio or David (I’m sure David didn’t read that part in the fine print when we got married). David and my family while I was in Ontario have all been amazing and vital help in all I do – I can’t thank them all enough.

New Hobbies:

As you can imagine, I have lots of time on my hands. (Although it’s not nearly as much as I expected since request have been pouring in as our country is in Olympic Fever…..my favourite kind of fever!) So, what’s keeping me busy? Well, I’ve been a long time photography buff at heart and I finally jumped in and bought myself a great SLR camera. I had some old lenses and equipment from when I jumped in as a teenager (but this was pre-digital so it’s mostly just been collecting dust). I’m now all set up and learning SO much. It’s been wonderful to get back to this passion of mine.

I’m also working towards improving my German. Although I have to admit…I’ve been procrastinating about working on this. I will though, in my sport having French, English and German would be amazing!

Till next time,

Kelly





ET Canada came to my Parents’ house in Kitchener to shoot a piece that will air in early February.








The knee is healing well from the surgery and is on track with expectations. Where I’ll struggle the most will be with flexion since I’m having to keep it straight for so long. In the picture beside you can see where the three incisions were made, there are also three arthroscopic incisions on the other side of the knee.

Post Op

Well, I hope I can now truly say that the worst part is behind me. Although I know recovery will be grueling and often painful, I’m hopeful that the hardest and most painful parts are in the past.

The Surgery

The surgery went well and in my opinion it was a huge success. I say this because my knee was downgraded from a fairly catastrophic knee to a bad knee. In my opinion, this is great news! They left the IT Band to re-attach on its own, the fracture was well lined up and will also heal on its own, and they repaired my MCL and my PCL. My LCL and my ACL were both strong enough that they left them intact! The surgery was still 3.5 hours in length – this is because two ligaments still take a long time but also because the PCL is so hard to get to and hard to fix. I woke up an hour after surgery freezing with my teeth clattering away. As soon as I saw Dr. Litchfield who did my surgery the first thing I asked was how many ligaments did they have to fix. When he told me it was only two instead of the possible 3 or 4 I was told earlier, I was so happy!

The Following Week

The day after the surgery I was in rough shape. I didn’t expect it to hurt so much and struggled with the pain that first morning. We were able to ‘catch’ up to the pain after about 6 hours and then I was more comfortable and started to improve with each day. I spent 3 days and 2 nights in the hospital. I hope I won’t have to go back anytime soon. However, I was treated extremely well and I have to say that good nurses make ALL the difference. Wow, they can truly be a godsend.

Once back from the hospital (on a drive that made me feel rather nauseous) I did a lot of sleeping in the first few days – averaging 16hours/day. I’m now staying awake more and getting more energy with each day. My appetite since falling has been rather small but after the surgery it took me about 4 days to get back to more normal eating. Since the fall I’ve lost around 15lbs – a shocking amount of weight to me…although I guess my leg’s muscles probably weighed something in that category.

Surprise Visit

On Thursday night a huge crowd who’d walked from Chicopee Ski Hill surprised me on my parents’ doorstep. When I got to the door they broke out singing O Canada. I was extremely emotion at this show of support and hearing the anthem – I had hoped I’d be singing it in Vancouver.

Here is a link to that story which was covered by CTV:

http://swo.ctv.ca/news.php?id=6548&PHPSESSID=f8f4f91bc1df6d238ec2fd9f9306681c

Franklin School Visit

On Friday morning I visited my old school who’d adopted me for these Olympics. This too was an amazing event and so wonderful to see all these kids…and even a few teachers who I’d worked with when I was a student there. There were about 500 kids awaiting me cheering a chant they’d made up! It was great to be there and let them know that I will come back from this. CTV and ET Canada were both in attendance so it was quite the show - even though it was a short talk since I’m still not up for too much just yet.

http://swo.ctv.ca/news.php?id=6549&PHPSESSID=f8f4f91bc1df6d238ec2fd9f9306681c

Torch Relay Update

I have the information for when I’ll be running (or wheeling) the Torch in Vancouver on February 9^th:

Community:	New Westminster
You will be carrying the Olympic Flame for a distance of approximately 300 metres. Your segment details are:	Starting along: 8th Ave
	From: Moody Park Arena
	To: 5th St
	On: 8th Ave
Approximate time of your segment:	10:55 AM PST

I’d love to see some of you there is it works out with your schedules!

Many Smiles,

Kelly

Still Smiling

I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful Christmas and Holiday season. I spent a relaxing Christmas at our home in Chilliwack with David’s family. It was wonderful to be surrounded by loved ones and to read all the well wishers coming in through e-mail, facebook, website guest book, media, etc. Thank you to everyone for their support – it will be needed to help me through this road to recovery.

Torch Bearer

First, the exciting news. John Furlong called me on Monday, December 21st to offer me the last available spot along to Torch Relay. Obviously, I accepted enthusiastically. Therefore, on February 9th, somewhere in New Westminster Vancouver I’ll be carrying the torch 300metres on its journey towards the opening ceremonies.

Knee Update

Again, let’s start with the good news. The pain and swelling in my knee has reduced dramatically which has been good to see (and a colourful process with the bruising!). Now, the bad news, the MRI results are in and after I spoke with my soon to be surgeon Dr. Litchfield the dirty truth came out. I have completely severed the ACL, MCL, and PCL. The LCL is also in bad condition and may need to be replaced but they won’t know for sure until they get inside my knee. The Tibia Plateau is fractured and my meniscuses need work. My IT Band has also come off at the insertion point just below my knee. What this means is that I must have dislocated my knee during my crash in Val D’Isere and there isn’t a whole lot more damage I could have done. The good news, they are great and putting knees back together!

My surgery will likely take around 5 hours and will happen in London, Ontario. I’ll be staying in the hospital for 1 to 2 nights then sticking around the area for about a week. The date for the surgery isn’t set yet but it I’ll know more soon.

Ok, that’s it for the bad news and here is the best news of all; the knee will only get better from here.

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!!!!!!!!! May it be filled with Smiles and Good Health.

Still Smiling,

Kelly

Out for the Season

First off, thank you for all the e-mails of support and sympathy.

As many of you have heard by now, I suffered a season ending injury yesterday morning to my left knee in the DH training run at Val D’Isere. This followed the loss of my teammate, Larisa Yurkiw, to virtually the same injury the day before. At first they thought I had severed all 4 ligaments in my knee, but now it appears I may still have one. In the coming weeks the MRI, Doctor visits, and consultations will give me more details and I will be able to update you then with more information.

In the short term, my job is to try and reduce the swelling as quickly as possible, work on range of motion, and do my best to have my muscles in the best shape possible before surgery. Since the injury is so severe, I was not a candidate to do the surgery soon after the fall. My reconstruction will likely take place in approximately 3 weeks.

As many of you may share my broken heart, it is at a time like this that I feel at a loss for words. I accepted the possibility of such an injury many years ago in order to be able to ski with as little inhibitions as possible. It is for that reason that the injury itself saddens me, but I knew and accepted it was a very real risk. However, losing my chance to start in Whistler is hard to understand and accept. In my gut, I truly believed I was going to walk away from Whistler with a medal – sitting on the sidelines will be a challenging alternative.

Although it’s hard to see silver linings at times like these, I am lucky I wasn’t injured any further. I was blessed with very strong knees and I knew if I ever did anything to them it would take a big crash – which it did. Sadly, I almost recovered twice before going down. I won’t go into much detail since even writing about the crash itself brings tears to my eyes. I did watched the crash last night – I figured I’d get that experience out of the way, and start my recovery process right away both mentally and physically. I take comfort in knowing I felt good on my skis yesterday, I had fun in warm up and I was challenging to the line to see what I could do come race day. I had some beautiful jumps that made me smile, and carved some turns that felt fantastic. I will try and remember those moments, before the crash, and know that I still love what I do.

Upon leaving my team, I joked with them saying this may have actually extended my career since now more than ever I have unfinished business on the hill. I also made sure the girls knew how much I believed in them, their abilities, and wished for nothing more than for them to find joy on their skis (which we all know leads to fast skiing as well). With how well my training was going and with how much fun I was having on my skis I will truly miss skiing over this next stretch.

In Val D’Isere I was taken very good care of by the hills medical group (who know the Canadians far too well) and by my team’s Doctor Tim, physio Gen, and all the coaches, staff, and athletes. Heck, I was eating a crepe, on morphine, with a beer by mid afternoon – they certainly knew how to take care of me!

I’m writing this from my airplane seat with Lufthansa, half the staff knew who I was and a few had seen my crash on the news last night. So here too, I am being well taken care of. However, home is where my heart is and where I know I’m looking forward to a massive hug from David.

We will heal together and this too shall pass.

With Love and Thanks,

Kelly

Curve Balls

I can’t really talk about Lake Louise and the opening World Cup races without also talking about the passing of my mother in law, MegAnne Ford. Although I hadn’t intended on letting everyone know about her passing, I simply broke down in the finish area after the final training run unable to finish the interview I had started; I had to explain what was happening. My husband David drove to Calgary to fly to Victoria to see his ailing mom, but unfortunately he missed her passing by about an hour. Her death left us both shaken and stricken with grief. I was happy when David returned so we could share in this grief and support each other threw it as best we could. David did an amazing job of supporting me through these races; given his emotional state he was truly remarkable.

Racing:

Racing was certainly challenging as I did my best to control the grief that was always so close to the surface. Friday I found myself quite numb to it all but by Sunday, at least on the hill, I felt more like myself and as though MegAnne was there with me in some way. It was a solid weekend of racing finished 13^th, 13^th, and 11^th but it was a very strong weekend for the team. The weekend was certainly highlighted by Emily Brydon’s two podiums and in the Super G when all six girls starting the race finished in the top 30. It was wonderful to see the team rise to the occasion and to know that all our hard work this summer is paying off. Knowing I finished 11^th on the day of the SG with a costly mistake at the bottom is extremely promising as well, and finishing 13^th in the 2^nd DH with ice blinding one eye for the bottom half of the course was also a strong indication of how I’m skiing. Even with a few curve balls I’m in the mix.

I was asked in an interview how I thought this weekend would help me during the Olympics in February as a type of ‘trial run’. I answered by saying that the Olympics is a massive undertaking that can throw any number of curve balls our way. This week, was certainly filled with such curve balls and that will only make me stronger moving forward. I also saw my team step up in ways I don’t even think we expected – it was great to see and very promising.

After the races:

About an hour after getting in the car to leave Lake Louise, when the day’s race adrenaline wore off, I broke down into deep sobs. The grief had been so strong but mostly kept just below the surface for the weekend. It was in the car that I finally let myself feel everything that had been there all along. As MegAnne’s family and support network told me though, it’s these tears that will carry her into the next world. David and I hit the road driving back to Chilliwack on Sunday after the race then rose early Monday morning for the funeral in Victoria. MegAnne was a pioneer in many aspects in her life and that was continued in her death with a green burial (she is one of the first in Canada to have a green burial – as of now Victoria is still the only place that offers this as an option). It was a beautiful ceremony performed by women who made up a large part of MegAnne’s spiritual network. I, along with 7 other women, carried MegAnne to where she will rest. The ceremony included some chants, shared stories about MegAnne, and many tears as we said goodbye. To end the ceremony everyone had one flower which was crushed and placed on her body before being lowered. I would encourage anyone who is interested to look into Green burials, it was remarkably spiritual and, at least for MegAnne, it certainly honoured her connection with the earth and it’s energy.

What’s Happening Now:

I am now at the end of a long trip back to Europe. Going; Abbotsford-Calgary-Frankfurt-Munich-Shuttle to Innsbruck-then Driving to Sulden, Italy; it made for a long day. I’m now hoping to get back to some normal sleep patterns and a few days of good training before we hit the road for Val D’Isere’s World Cup events next week.

Thank you to everyone for your e-mails, support and love. I hope you all know how much I cherish family, friends, and the network that I find myself so blessed to be a part of.

Recent Media Links:

This was an article printed after my first training run in Lake Louise:

http://olympics.thestar.com/2010/article/733264--perkins-olympics-don-t-scare-one-skier

I am also a highlighted athlete in this month’s West Jet Up! magazine:

http://www.up-magazine.com/story/map/kelly-vanderbeeks-favourite-spots

Till Next Time,

Kelly

The Time is Coming!

The time is coming; the nets are up, the snow is falling, and the days are passing quickly. Yes, race season will start before we know it.

As the season gets closer I`m feeling more excited, confident, and passionate. But before I get ahead of myself, I`ll give you a quick update on what I`ve been up to.

Since returning from Austria the days have been filled. With one rest day that was all about the laundry and unpacking it was back to business in a hurry. Training throughout this period was filled with a lot of power, jumping, and lactic intervals. I made a three day trip to Trail, BC with my title sponsor Teck. This was for an employee recognition event but I was also given the honour of touring the smelting facility where the Gold and Silver and being produced. It certainly felt real seeing this metal and knowing this is the process all the metal in the medals went through. I had many interviews and events to attend during this short block at home as well. One being the Peak to Peak Gala in Vancouver that included a special guest John Furlong. I first met John about 9 years ago and we have stayed in touch since then. Seeing him made me realize how long and challenging the roads we have travelled to get here have been. Still, when John speaks I hear the passion in his voice and it reminded me that I too feel exactly the same way. When everything is stripped away it`s our passion that keeps us going.

I then flew to Calgary and jumped right into fitness testing that evening. Fitness testing continued the next day, with a press conference and interviews afterwards, then back to the University to complete our fitness testing. Testing went well and I`m excited to put the bulk of that work behind me and get back onto my skis. Right after testing we hit the road for Nakiska where I am now and will be for the next two weeks of training.

On a side and rather fun note, their filming a movie here and Leonardo DiCaprio is staying at our hotel. Eating dinner he was 10meters away and consequently putting the women`s team into giggling fits. Pretty funny.

I have now had three days on my skis here in Nakiska. With a new high speed quad and cold weather the training is as good as it gets. We were training GS the last two days and we`re now moving into more speed. I`m feeling great on my skis and moving towards race mode. I love this time of year, the anticipation is exciting and the bulk work done. Now, I just need to go fast….the fun part.

Till next time!

Many Smiles,

Kelly





We call these the Moon Boots. This is a new recovery system that we`re trying out, it uses compression to help flush out our legs.











Larisa, Emily and I having a laugh doing team photos at Nakiska yesterday.











A rare hour of quiet I enjoyed up at Cultas Lake while David was on the water training in early November.








David and I with the Olympic Mascots at the Peak to Peak Gala in Vancouver. In order to actually spend time together David was great, hitting the road with me for all the events I had on tap.








In Trail, BC I visited Teck`s smelting facilities before speaking at the employee recognition event. That is a SOLID bar of 99.9% pure silver, weighing about 70lbs. We saw lots of gold as well in its final stages before being melted down into a bar. Very cool stuff, it certainly made me excited to see where the metal for the medals is coming from.