Gearing up for 2010

My name is Sven Winter. I’m a skicross racer with a goal of winning the Olympics. One way or the other I’m going to bring home the Gold and my goal is to make my Olympic debut in 2010 in my hometown - Vancouver, Canada.

In this blog I will share with you the trials and obstacles I’m overcoming as I move towards an Olympic Gold, as well as tips and tricks that I use to help me move from being a ‘good’ athlete to becoming the best in the world. For you, I will also be getting my world-class trainers and coaches to share with you some of the high performance edges they have shown me to help me improve my performance.

Just to give you a little background of myself, I am a 100% committed athlete and I am now ranked in the top-10 in the world for my age. I am the leader of the British Columbia Skicross team (provincial team) and I have my foot in the door to qualify for the 2010 Olympics even though I’m only 21 and the average age in my sport is 28. In December, I have a European cup race in Germany to help move me into the final Olympic qualification stage.

This week, as I’m three weeks away from starting my competition season, I would like to go over the biggest obstacle that took me from a 16 year old junior racer to starting my first world cup this winter. Funding of all things has been the most difficult. It comes down to this: In amateur sports, and even professional sports, unless you are one of the top 3-4 (at least in Canada), you just don’t get the funding you need to compete. When I was 16, I launched my own website and started to do some fundraising (keeping in mind my winter season alone averages around $40,000 in expenses).

If you're an athlete looking to raise money, feel free to copy one or both of the fundraising campaigns I am running:

Send Sven 2010 Campaign: