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Canada’s Paula Findlay goes Saturday in women’s triathlon, not knowing how her hip will hold up
With a triathlete such as Canada's Paula Findlay, their ridiculous will is almost taken for granted. But the reality of a sport that requires pushing the body so hard is that sometimes it won't respond the way one wants it to.
It's doubtful anyone can avoid the wear and tear. Helen Jenkins, Great Britain's "warm favourite" for Saturday's women's tri at London 2012, had her progress slowed by a skein of injuries. Findlay isn't betraying any notion of how her nagging right hip will respond on Saturday morning — or how she's going to respond if it does not fully co-operate. On top of that, it's Findlay's first time at the Olympics. Her success in 2010 and '11 and subsequent misfortune makes her more of a lightning rod than Canada's more experienced contestant, Kathy Tremblay.
We can casually read the stories and follow the comebacks, but living it — as a 23-year-old returning champ in your first Olympics — the pressure to make that climb back is daunting.
While feeling fit, she says: "I've been telling people how nervous I am and how incredibly stressful this is.
"I've heard from a few people, that's a good thing, because (it means) I really care about it." (QMI Agency)
Findlay's situation underlines how tough it is to count on anything happening in an Olympic endurance race. As Canadian Olympic history remembers it, Simon Whitfield, of course, was lightly regarded before winning the inaugural men's tri in Sydney in 2000. As far as overcoming a seemingly Olympics-wrecking injury goes, Silken Laumann is always the gold standard in Canada.
Findlay thus, in the on-the-fly insta-storyline way the Olympics works, becomes a wild card.
"I think people have it in the back of their minds that I did have some success last year and won a few races. But that was a year ago and that was a long time ago. [I'm] kind of an unknown to myself and to everybody." (Globe & Mail)
That was past performance, but it does give Canada and Findlay a beacon of hope — depending on how rehabilitated that right hip really is.
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.
