AFP: Canada’s Nesbitt skates to gold in 1,000 metres
CALGARY — Christine Nesbitt may be a jazz aficionado, but there’s a undeniable jigger of Jagger and the Rolling Stones to her mental outlook. Just pop in a CD or put on those iPod headphones and listen to that lament about sat-is-fact-iiiiion.
“I was happy with the way I closed. But just a so-so opener,’’ she griped mildly, dissecting her third Essent ISU World Cup 1,000-metre speedskating win on the run. “It was only a tenth of a second off my personal best time. And it wasn’t as if I felt ‘Wow! I skated the perfect race!’
“To win and be able to say that is a good feeling.’’
Not that she’s her own worst critic, exactly.
Or an compulsive flaw-finder, precisely.
But if Christine Nesbitt had painted the Sistine Chapel, you get the feeling there’d be a brush stroke somewhere in the Creation of Adam panel that didn’t quite meet the required standard. If she’d sculpted the Venus de Milo, well, a crying shame about those arms.
“What she is,’’ says her coach, Marcel Lacroix, “is a perfectionist. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Because Christine combines honest self-analysis with perspective. Not out of control; not overly self-critical. Not at all. She’s just very honest.
“With maturity, with the understanding of how good she really can be, she’s reached that level where an athlete asks ‘What can I do to be better?’ She’s not looking at me, her coach, and asking: ‘What can YOU do to help me?’ It’s gone beyond that. And that’s big.’’
Her skill-set is big. Her upside is big. Her ambition . . . even larger.
“I’m a very competitive person,’’ says Nesbitt, whose 1:14.03 clocking easily outpaced Annette Gerritsen of the Netherlands in the 1,000. “Even if I’m not the most talented person, I think my drive can carry me through.’’
With three World Cup triumphs in succession, she’s begun to store confidence like a squirrel hoarding acorns before the chill of winter sets in. Later Sunday, not so very long after the medal ceremony for the 1,000, she collaborated with Kristina Groves and Brittany Schussler to post a world record time in the women’s team pursuit, at 2:55.79, eclipsing the German standard of 2:56:04 established four years ago here at the Olympic Oval.
“It’s great, but at the same time it’s something that last year we were doing well in the team pursuit, especially toward the end of the season,’’ said Nesbitt. “I knew we could do it last year and I’m really happy we did it today. It’s something we all knew we could do and it was just a matter of putting the race together and doing it.’’
While admitting the formalities of creating a cohesive whole in team pursuit can “be a struggle,” Nesbitt now says: “The three of us just compliment each other well. I don’t have the endurance the other two girls do and they maybe don’t have my top-end speed. It’s just a very good mix.’’
The two golds and a world record, along with the silver claimed in the 1,500 Saturday, made for yet another statement weekend for the London, Ont., native via Melbourne, Australia.
Unquestionably, Christine Nesbitt is at this moment in time the roadrunner to chase in the 1,000 at the Richmond Oval come February. Ever since winning the world single distances championship at the distance in March, she’s gone from strength to strength, discovering new, further boundaries within herself that keep the wins piling up, the times low and the expectations mounting.
“I deal with pressure better now,’’ she analyzed. “I’m more able to cope with the ups and downs, ins and outs, emotionally. I felt pressure today, going for my third 1,000 in a row. And there’ll be pressure next week (in Salt Lake), trying to win four. But if I do or if I don’t, I’ll be able to handle that, too.
“Being back training with Marcel and these guys has really helped. With Denny (Morrison) and Lucas (Makowsky). They’ve helped me with my top speed, helped me with my outlook.
“It’s so much fun.
“Everything’s easy when its fun.’’
Lacroix will vouch for that. Coaches, believe it or not, can have fun, too, particularly when an athlete they’ve helped nurture reaches a developmental stage where all the tumblers begin to suddenly click into place.
“My job with her is pretty easy right now,’’ he admits. “Because she does so much of the work herself. She sees on the video what needs to be adjusted. She picks things out. She isn’t asking questions so much as looking for answers. There’s a reason I take the skaters to Cirque du Soleil. Because Cirque is all about performance on demand; about the discipline and to be your best when the lights are on and the crowd is waiting.
“It’s no different in skating. It takes great discipline.
“You can be the strongest person in the world physically, but if you’re not psychologically strong, not emotionally strong, as well . . . nothing. Done. Finished. There’s a comparison we always use: With a starting gun, there’s smoke, right? A lot of athletes, when that gun is fired, they go up with the smoke.
“Not athletes like Christine.’’
No. They just smoke whoever’s unlucky enough to be standing on that start line beside them.
