Skeleton

The Winter Olympics haven't just tugged at Mellisa Hollingsworth's heartstrings. They've yanked on them, tied them in knots, left her in a ball of conflicting emotions - emptiness, sadness, shock and elation.

It happened first in 2002. She didn't qualify for the Salt Lake City Games, missing the skeleton event cut just three weeks before the opening ceremony. Still, she drove to Utah from Alberta and stood in the snow alongside the track and cheered on her teammates. Then, she drove home.

Four years later, Hollingsworth entered the Turin Olympics as the undisputed queen of skeleton. She botched corner 14 in her first run; botched it again in her second. Figuring she'd lost all hope of a medal, the Canadian wound up with the bronze when a German rival miscalculated her final run and finished fourth.

"My coach was yelling, ‘You got it,'." Hollingsworth recalled. "I still get goose bumps thinking about it."
And now comes the most stressful Olympics of all: the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver/Whistler, where the home team is expected to do what it couldn't 22 years earlier in Calgary - namely, win gold medals.

For Hollingsworth, a justifiable gold-medal candidate, this will be her wildest ride yet. Already the pressure is greater; the stakes higher; the track more demanding. So how does the Eckville, Alta., native deal with it when the past two Olympics have teased and tormented her?

"By simplifying it. That's definitely the theme," Hollingsworth said during a recent break in training. "So many people say, ‘Oh, you're going to be in the Olympics in February.' I don't know that for sure.

"It doesn't matter what I did in [Turin] or what I did last summer, I know I need to work the hardest I can this summer. I'm trying to focus on training, nothing more."

She's 28, an ace on ice and in the prime of her athletic career, but Hollingsworth is taking nothing for granted when it comes to her third go at the Olympics.

She's changed her training regime so she can workout exclusively with teammates Jon Montgomery, Sarah Reid and Darla Deschamps. Hollingsworth is spending extra time sweating on high-speed treadmills and perfecting her body position on the sled so she can be as aerodynamically clean as possible, a bullet cutting through air. There's also a new coach (Willi Schneider) and new sled blades to practise on.

And, finally, there's her attitude. Through all she's endured, and whatever lies ahead, Hollingsworth has learned how to frame the Olympics so it's not only about the gold. It's about other things, like seeing a Greek father muscling his way through a crowd so he could watch his daughter compete at a Winter Games. It's about embracing the ideals of dedication and persistence and giving back through Right To Play, the international humanitarian organization that works with underprivileged children. Hollingsworth has donated her time to the cause in Ghana and enjoyed it immensely.

It's also about being a good teammate - and Hollingsworth is insistent that even if she doesn't qualify for Vancouver 2010, she will be there to cheer on her fellow sliders.

"For the women, as long as we're in the top two nations in [World Cup] points, we can have three women race [at the Olympics]. If we're in third, it's only two," Hollingsworth said. "If I'm not named to the Olympic team, I'll volunteer to be a forerunner. I'll do whatever I can to help. ... That's a no-brainer to me."

Nathan Cicoria was Hollingsworth's coach at the Turin Olympics and is now the national skeleton team's program manager. He has talked to the team members to "give them a perspective on the enormity they're about to face" and to remind them how they're all in it together.

"Everyone has a role to play, whether it's to be supportive or be a forerunner. We've got a whole other generation to nurture here," Cicoria said, noting it hasn't been difficult getting Hollingsworth to buy in. "She's helped the developmental athletes and even passed along equipment to them. She's a great person, a giving person. She's continually refining her strategy."

After the disappointment of the 2002 Olympics, Hollingsworth considered quitting, only to rededicate herself to her sport. After earning bronze in 2006, she took a year off to unwind. Her teammates and coaches noticed "a new Mel" when she returned. She was confident inside and outside her racing skin and in knowing what it took to be successful.

"What's important now in my career is the mental game. You rehearse it and visualization is key. On your sled, you have to find that state of being," Hollingsworth said. "I'm a visual slider. I can pretty much see everything. I can smell everything, too. In Altenberg [Germany], I can smell the mini-doughnuts at corner 9. They have a mini-doughnut stand near there. At the curves, I can say, ‘There's my coach' or ‘There's the U.S. coach.' As you get more comfortable you can see all that.

"When I'm in that frame of mind - very relaxed, very present - I know anything is really possible."
In her heart and on the track.