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‘I think I’m done with skiing’ Emily Brydon plans to quit racing after 2010 By Rebecca Edwards Free Press Staff
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ernie-born skier Emily Brydon plans to hang up her ski boots at the end of this ski racing season, after Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and the 20092010 Ski World Cup. “I think I’m done,” she said in an interview with The Free Press at the base of her home ski hill Fernie Alpine Resort. “I will have done three Olympics, I’ve been on tour for a lot of time, I just think I’m ready to try a different part of life and quit skiing while I still love it.” Brydon added: “I’m
tired. I have a lot of energy this year because of the Olympics, they are such a huge event and something that just inspires me but I think after the Olympics when I go back to Europe for the World Cup it is going to be a hard part of the season. “I have to get enough energy to finish them and then I think that is how my racing is going to end. “I told my sports psychologist the list of reasons I don’t want to ski next year, and told her that if I ever say I do want to ski, she has to read them out to me. “You can get so affected by results and I never want to ski for that. I also want to enjoy an active life for the rest of my life – I always want hiking and mountain biking to be part of my life, but my body’s getting a bit old and achy now.” Brydon said she has not yet decided what she will do after she finishes ski racing – partly because she wants to see what oppor-
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Emily Brydon says she will retire from ski racing at the end of the 2009-2010 ski season. Submitted photo
Emily Brydon at Fernie Alpine Resort this summer.
tunities arise from her contacts in the sports world. “I hope to have a career that is fun and inspiring, maybe one where I use my mind as well as my body. “There are a lot of things that I want to do, but I am trying to leave it there, to see what turns up. I would like to live in England for a few years. “I will see – there are so many things that have the potential to happen so I don’t want to narrow it down and shut out something else that might come up.” Brydon joined the national ski team aged 18, fresh from graduating from Fernie Secondary School. She took her first World Cup bronze aged 20 in St Moritz, Switzerland and won her first gold on the
same course in 2008. She came close to quitting in 2006 when – struck down by injury – she became disillusioned with the sport. However she decided to go back for one last Olympic cycle after starting work with the sports charity Right to Play and starting the Emily Brydon Foundation to support youth in the Elk Valley. Her first World Cup race will be in Lake Louise in December and her first Olympic race is on February 14. Brydon is aware she now faces a new hurdle unknown to most athletes – compiling her first resume. “My school work experience was at The Free Press when I wrote a column, I worked as a barista at Second Cup in Calgary
Photo by R. Edwards
when I had an injury because I wanted to have a ‘real’ job to put on my resume. “I worked at Alpine Canada for a little bit too, and I founded the Emily Brydon Foundation. “I suppose that’s four things for my resume. “My mom was bugging me the other day about this – she said, ‘Don’t you think that ‘worked as a barista’ is going to look a bit strange next to ‘founded a foundation’?’ “We get a lot of opportunities through sport, like public speaking, we have a lot of work experience without having worked in a nine-to-five job. “Anything to do with injuries and blood I’m not good with but I’m sure I will find something that I’ll enjoy.”
“I want to go to the opening ceremony – but I know I should get an early night instead.” Read more from our Emily Brydon interview in The Valley inside this edition