| Klassen put her whole self into speedskating after switching from the sport of ice hockey when she was cut from the Canadian Women's Ice Hockey team in 1998. She trained six days a week. Her daily training schedule consisted of two and one half hours on the ice in the morning, lunch, a nap and two hours of either cycling or weight training in the afternoon.
Her strenuous efforts paid off! Then her lifelong dream of making it to the Winter Olympics was realized.
"The World Championships can be pretty amazing, but the Olympics takes this to a new level," said Klassen.
"For a time in Salt Lake, the pressure was getting to me," she admitted. "I wasn't sleeping, I couldn't eat, I was so nervous."
Klassen competed in four events in Salt Lake - the 1,000m, the 1,500m, the 3,000m and the 5,000m races. When the time came for the 3,000 meter race, her anxiety sky-rocketed.
"But that very day," she recalls, "I received an e-mail from the students at my old high school. It was packed with notes of encouragement, telling me they were cheering and praying for me."
"And that's when it hit me," said Klassen. "This is just another race. God knows the outcome. All I can do is use what He's given me. All I can do is do the best I can. So, that's what I did."
Suddenly it was all over, and Klassen found herself standing on the award stand. Her "best" had been good enough for an Olympic bronze medal.
Since that day in Salt Lake, Klassen has risen to the top in her sport. In 2003 she became the first Canadian in 27 years to win the overall title at the World Speedskating Championships.
Klassen now recognizes that, despite being rejected by the Olympic hockey team, "God was lead me. This was His plan all along. I learned by getting cut. As a believer in Jesus Christ, even when you want things...if it's not in God's will, it's not going to happen. I've learned to go along with that."
"Right now in speed skating I'm having the time of my life, but I have to be ready to move on if He wants me to do something else. It's my relationship with Jesus that gives me true significance."
"I've won a medal, but that's nothing compared to the crown I'll get in Heaven. I see a lot of people in sport who think when they reach a certain level they've got in made, but really, you can only find happiness in the Lord."
|
