Page 2 - On the Road to the Canada Winter Games

ISSUE : Issue 44

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1987/1/1

warmed up again for that. I didn't realize how important a warm up was, till I had that great race. Some races you're sort of slack in your warm up. Say, "Oh, I'll save it for this race," you know. And I couldn't believe it--how fantastic it was. A lot of people think skiing is boring. And it's hard to get kids around here interested in the skiing, Geez, if they could feel that! There'd be line-ups for the ski trail there! It's hard to explain. As soon as I took off from the starting gate, I knew it was going to be a great race, I went up this hill that I used to have a lot of trouble skating up. It's a long steep hill. And I used to find it hard to go up all the way on a fast pace. I went up it in this race-- it's like I was skiing on a flat. Not one pain. No strain at all. There was a skier who's one of the better skiers on the Nova Scotia Team. When I was at the bottom of the hill, he was halfway to the top. When we got to the top, I was just behind him • The coach, he saw me. I came to the bottom of this hill. He saw me coming along. And he knew. 'Cause he's felt this before. He knew what I was going through. And he just cheered me on, and I went by. It was neat. It was because of (the Caper Games) that I decided to ski. It was a month before that CAPE BRETON AUTO RADIATOR co. radiator hoses repairing cleaning * recoring complete cylinder head service 518 Grand AUTO * TRUCK * INDUSTRIAL Sydney Lake Road "we Help You Keep Your Cool" 564-6362 race I started skiing. The Caper Games were designed to get athletes to go to the Canada Winter Games. It was to get Cape Breton athletes doing a sport. And if they were good enough, they'd make their provin? cial teams. And if they made the top 4 of their provincial team, they'd be in the Canada Games, (So the Winter Games have not only given athletes a chance to compete with one an? other, but it's almost fair to say that the Games helped people find out they wanted to be an athlete,) Yeah, I always loved sports. When I was in New York, and then when I was in Little League here, I lived baseball, I mean, I played ball all the time. And I was a great ballplayer. There was no doubt. I had an instinct for the ball. (But skiing didn't interest you.) My moth? er started skiing. And you know, I saw this sport as people going out looking at nature. It didn't seem like a real sport. And then I realized it's about the tough? est sport in the world, physically-wise. (Who do you train with?) Myself. I don't have anyone to train with. There's no one in Cape Breton, really, that's really ser? ious about training, as serious as I am. Which is all right in cross-country skiing, 'cause it's what they call a loner sport. See, you have to develop being out there by yourself, 'cause when you're in a race, you're by yourself. You have to, learn how to push yourself, and that sort of stuff. I want to do well. Get more of those sensa? tion races. Like as far as winning races, This is about winning. "Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing". "It isn't whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game". 'If you don't win, you lose"... and on and on and on. Ask a dozen people today what it means to win or what it takes to be a winner, and chances are you'll come up with a dozen or more answers. At Xerox, we have our own ideas about winning and winners. To begin with, we believe winning is a team effort. Maybe that's because we've never met a winner who in some way hasn't been trained, coached, encouraged or just plain influenced by another human being. ' "li''' '''' believe that winning is 1st aW fundamentally a by-product of character. ' To win at anything of value requires the 'overcoming of obstacles. Often, the k greatest of these obstacles is a wavering faith in our own potential. To win, in 'our opinion, is to go the distance. It is the ability to endure and persevere. I Winning, as far as we're concerned, is the ability to stretch oneself and be better for the effort. In the final analysis, winning is anything but easy It is, however, the ultimate recognition of our struggle. lleamXerrac a registered trademark of XEROX CORPORATION used by XEROX CANADA INC. a:

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