Pablo McCandless Olympic Hopeful

I am sitting in bed now after an easy day. I only paddled once, early in the morning at 8 a.m. I must admit that it was a bit early for me; usually we paddle around 10.

I woke up, took a shower, found some clothes on my floor, went to the river and paddled well. I was not expecting the paddling to be good because of the early morning session, so it was a nice surprise. I have been feeling good and looking forward to the next two days of training. Then the race is Friday, and all I can say is that I am ready.

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So, first the broken boat: It's fixed and does not matter any more. It feels no different and I am glad to be back in it. Next problem -- on Friday, I started getting a cold. Saturday, I felt horrible and did not paddle. On Sunday, I skipped my first morning workout and tried to paddle in the afternoon but I was still weak from being sick and so my paddling was painful, which means could have been better.

Finally as I am writing this on Sunday night I feel actually great and I am looking forward to a good workout tomorrow at 10. I have technique workout with the guys, I should be able to handle this. First the boat, then the sickness, maybe it's because I am a little nervous for the big race, maybe it's just my luck. Well, that's all for now. I will try and get to bed, its a bit late. After resting so much today trying to recover from the cold, I am up with lots of energy.

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Broken boat

So, over the weekend, I broke my brand new boat that I was scared I would never get because of the price. But thanks to some help I received, I got the boat, and what happens? Well I was paddling on what we call the big drop at the whitewater center and I did an ender in my boat, which is when the bow goes straight in the air. My stern sinks deep and hits the bottom of the river and breaks.

Well, it's not so bad after I fixed it. The only bad thing about my break is that the boat just does not look as good as it did before.

Other than breaking my boat, I have been paddling great, well maybe not all the time but most of the time. I am going today to pick up a paddler from Ecuador at the airport and I have a Brazilian staying with me currently. I have an important workout today and I will let you all know how it went later.

Until next time,

Pablo "Chilean Wonder" McCandless

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Qualifying for the Olympics (4/3/08)

My sport of whitewater slalom kayaking involves racing down class three rapids with a start and finish line, much like slalom skiing, but on water. There are poles that hang from wires above the river and two poles make a gate which we must go between without touching them with any part of our boat, paddle or body. Some gates are colored with green stripes which we must maneuver through in a downstream direction. Other gates are colored with red stripes which we must negotiate in an upstream direction. Each run for the fastest boats takes an average of 90 seconds depending on the venue and course configuration. You get a two second penalty for touching a gate and a 50 second penalty for missing a gate. For a race, you make two runs which are added together for the final result.

During the last weekend of April, the US Olympic trials will be held here in Charlotte. This will consist of three days of racing and include, the Pan American Championships, which I will be racing in and the Canadian Team Trials. Everyone competes on the same race course; but at the end of the day, the results are split up according to country. As for myself, the first day of racing, the 24th of April is a qualifier for the finals the next day. That day, the 25th of April, will determine if I make it to the Olympics.

I have been competing since I was 15 years old in the Washington DC area, where I grew up, Western North Carolina, where I went to school, and now in Charlotte at the US National Whitewater Center. In 2003, I started representing Chile in the World Cup race series, (I have dual citizenship because my mother is from Chile and I lived there until I was 8 years old.)

I went to Athens to qualify for the Olympics in 2004, but missed qualifying by one spot. I have been racing these last four years on the world cup circuit in Europe and South America. My main goal has been to be more consistent because in many of my races I have had one great run and one not so good run.

If I can put together two goods runs on the 25th of April, I will have a very good chance at qualifying for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. For the first time in my racing career I have taken off from work and am training full time. For the last two months, I have competed at many races in the US in preparation for the Olympics trials. I have travelled to Texas, Western North Carolina, Maryland and also raced twice right here in Charlotte. I have won one of these races which was on the Nantahala River. As for the other races, it was mixed results but with some very fast runs, close or faster in time to the top US guys. So I am almost where I need to be and will continue to train hard for the next few weeks and hope to put it all together when it counts. I will post blogs about my progress for the rest of the month leading to the last weekend. You can learn more about me at www.ChileanWonder.com.

Until next time.

Cheers,
Pablo McCandless

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