Cross-Country Skiing

As Sara Renner crouched at the start line amidst the driving snow of a blizzard in Slovenia, a two-year-old voice drifted through the wind and broke the tense pre-race silence.

"Go mom go,'' said the veteran cross-country skier's daughter Aria, who was perched on the shoulders of Renner's husband Thomas Grandi before the December race.

It's the kind of moment that keeps Renner sane in the tense and self-centred world of international ski racing - and it might even give her an edge in the Winter Olympics.

"It's hard to measure the effect on performance, but I feel like my heart expands when Thomas and Aria are around... so it must be a good thing,'' says the 33-year-old from Canmore, Alta.

Renner, a silver medallist in the 2006 Turin Games, is hoping to once again challenge for a podium spot at the Vancouver Olympics and believes that her rambunctious little girl is part of the homesnow advantage that will help her push into the lead pack in the distance races.

The birth of Aria on Feb. 1, 2007 caused a reworking of Renner's racing life as she took a year off the World Cup circuit for a year.

Her 2008 comeback was an exhausting odyssey as both she and Grandi - a former national team alpine skier - struggled to balance the needs of an infant with their ski tour lifestyle of jet lag, changing hotels and winding bus rides through mountain passes.

Grandi, 37, said it was a tough year.

"There's not a lot of mom competitive skiers,'' says Grandi, who retired in 2008. "The two don't lend themselves easily. It takes some sacrifice.''

This winter has been Renner's alone to hit the circuit, and the benefits are showing, though she says she's slightly behind where she'd hoped to be.

"I had hoped for more in terms of results in the leadup to the Games,'' she says in an email.

"At the end of the Tour de Ski, I felt my form start to return and for whatever reason, this season it took me longer to race myself into shape.''

Her best race was a 10-kilometre classic mass start where she finished 14th in Val di Fiemme, Italy, and was within seven seconds of the win.

Grandi, with the help of his mother-in-law Barb Renner and a live-in nanny, stayed home to look after Aria, allowing Sara a complete focus on what the little girl calls "Mommy's job.''

However, Aria will be present at the races in Whistler, and will once again be cheering at strategic points on the gradual climbs.

The ability to push through pain is a key to the kind of racing Renner envisions on Feb. 19, when she races the 15-kilometre pursuit and on Feb. 27 in the grinding 30-kilometre mass start race.

The veteran of the Canadian women's team, who was once considered a force in power sprinting, will forego the spring events in 2010, and focus on the longer distance races.

After a training session at the Canmore nordic centre earlier this season, she said she her greatest chance is in the historic 30-kilometre classic.

"It's pretty much balls to the wall from the get go,'' she says of the race strategy. "You hang on as long as you can, and then go for it at the end.''

Prior to the 2006 Games in Turin, Renner had enjoyed a string of successful World Cup results in sprinting, and went into Italy with high expectations in the shorter and middle distance events.

Her success came in the team event with partner Beckie Scott, where she powered through three, 1.6-kilometre legs at a gutsy pace, touching her partner in time to allow a sprint for the silver. The race made headlines after a Norwegian coach passed Renner a pole to replace the one she had broken.

However, the event that made her famous has switched over from the classic skiing style - in the past Renner's strength - to the skate skiing style. In addition, no skier has emerged yet to fully fill Scott's role.

Now Renner cites Czech skier Katerina Neumannova, also a racer with a young daughter, as an inspiration for this set of races.

Neumannova won her final Olympic race in the 30-kilometre freestyle mass start event, becoming the oldest winner in the event, and creating one of the touching moments of the Turin Games when her young daughter greeted her exhausted mom at the end.

Renner has the mother-daughter moment as her computer screensaver at home for inspiration.

"Moms who return to sport come back and win the 30-kilometre race. That's my self fulfilling prophecy,'' she says.

However, Renner will be challenging European women who are also experienced and with stronger recent records on the World Cup circuit.

They include Poland's Justyna Kowalchuk, who has won both sprint and long-distance races last year, and the Slovenia powerhouse Petra Majdic.

The Canadian thinks she has a chance of catching these leaders.

"I feel like I'm right back where I was, if not stronger,'' she says. "I feel prepared. I think I have a calmness and a confidence that comes with many years on the circuit.''