Short Track Speed Skating

VANCOUVER - She has competed at three Winter Olympics but that doesn't mean Tania Vicent doesn't feel nervous as she tries to qualify for the short-track speedskating team going to the 2010 Games.

"They are always very nerve-racking,'' Vicent said Thursday as she prepared for the Olympic selection trials which begin this weekend. "We're such a tight team everybody has a chance to make it.

"There is a lot of depth in the girls. It is going to be hard to make it. You are always nervous. If you're not nervous, it's time to get out of there.''

At 33-years-old, Vicent will be the oldest short-track skater looking to punch her ticket to Vancouver. If she makes the team, she will be 34 by the time the Games begin in February.

"Just turned 34,'' laughed Vicent, who celebrates her birthday Jan. 13.

The native of Vercheres, Que., would love to end her career with an Olympics in her own country.

"I want to make the team,'' she said. "To finish your career at home, and going to your fourth Olympics, would be something very special to me.''

Coach Sebastien Cros said Vicent's experience gives her an edge over the youth of some of the young skaters competing at the 10-day trials.

"I think this is an advantage to be able to stay focused during the 10 days, to deal with good or bad days,'' he said. "I think that experience will be a big part of the capacity to make the team.''

The trials begin Sunday at the Pacific Coliseum, the same building that will host short-track speedskating at the Games.

Canada can send five men and five women short-track skaters to the Olympics. Charles Hamelin, who finished third overall at this year's world championships, has already secured a spot.

That means 32 skaters will battle for the remaining nine spots.

Three races will held in each of the 500, 1,000 and 1,500-metre distances. The best two results for each athlete will be used for ranking at that distance.

Anyone who wins two of the races in one distance earns a berth on the team.

A discretionary committee will also select one woman and one man to go to the Games. That allows consideration for athletes who have an injury or are sick during the trials.

It also gives the committee a chance to pick a skater that may not excel individually but would help the relay teams.

Vicent has won three Olympic medals in relay and was fourth in the 1,000 metres at the 2006 Olympics in Turin. She'd rather earn a spot on the 2010 team with good results rather than be awarded a discretionary nod.

"You don't want to leave your fate into someone else's hand,'' she said. "You want to have it in your own hands.

"You want to place yourself in the position where there is no doubt in anyone's mind you are going to make it.''

While Vicent may be the sentimental choice for a discretionary spot, she would still need solid results to be chosen.

"You need the strength, you need the endurance, you need everything combined,'' she said. "I don't think they would send me just based on my experience.

"If they send me it's because I'm meant to be there and I'm strong enough to be there.''

Vicent required hip surgery after the Turin Olympics and missed the 2006-07 season. She returned for the 2007-08 season and helped the relay team win a silver medal at the world championships.

Injuries sidelined her for much of last year. She didn't compete in any World Cup races and failed to qualify for the world championship team.

The frustration Vicent felt stoked her Olympic flame.

"It was probably one of my worst seasons ever, which is good because it was the kick in the butt I needed,'' she said. "At the age I am at, where you are close to retirement, you need stuff to help you decide why you are still there and why you are doing this.

"The fact I didn't go to worlds was the extra kick I needed.''

Many of the other women on the team - some who are over a decade younger - look up to Vicent as a role model.

Valerie Maltais said Vicent is always willing to offer advice.

"She has some technical points that is good to know,'' said Maltais, who was just eight-years-old when Vicent skated in her first Games at Nagano. "She is generous.

"She doesn't keep it all to herself. She helps us a lot.''

Vicent doesn't hesitate to help the younger skaters, even though it could lead to one of them beating her out of a spot on the team.

"I am confident in myself,'' she said. "I will give my advice any day.

"When you can give advice about your strength, and still beat the people you give advice too, that just makes you stronger.''

This will be Vicent's last Olympic hooray. She plans to retire at the end of the season whether or not she competes in Vancouver.

She seriously considered retiring after the 2006 Games but the draw of competing in an Olympics on Canadian soil was too strong to resist.

"I didn't want to feel guilty, sitting on my coach and go 'Oh my God, I should have tried,''' she said. "I didn't want to have that feeling.

"I'm giving it my all to be there. If I am sitting on my coach (at home watching), I at least know why I am sitting on my coach.''