43 Days to Go
It seems the place to be for Calgary-based athletes is Sports Medicine at the University of Calgary. This afternoon, I sulked into the treatment room with its beds lined up one beside the other, people getting treated for this and that, and found an empty post beside one of my younger teammates. Matt McLean was getting his body fixed from an unfortunate spill on his motorized bicycle (that’ll teach him for not having to pedal!) and was chatting With Brock Miron who has been dealing remarkably well with the aftermath of a severed Achilles tendon from last year. We all compared aches and pains when the crème de la crème of the clinic walked up to say hello. If there was a gold medal for remarkable recoveries, this guy would win it hands down. I’m talking about Kyle Shewfelt.
For those of you who don’t know, Kyle broke both of his legs last year just days before the World Championships in China. Apparently, he was performing what has been hailed as perhaps the best tumbling routine EVER, when he landed a little bit off, and….well, the rest is history. I’ve seen Kyle from time to time since: on TV in a wheelchair, on the track beside our skating track at the Olympic Oval barely able to walk but gritting it through a painful shuffle, in the weight room trying to get some kind of muscles back into his little legs. Kyle has been to hell and back with this injury and many people wrote him off with less than a year to go before Beijing. Those of us who know Kyle, knew that this would be nothing less than a remarkable comeback story when he got through the injury and flying through the air with twists and turns unimaginable to even the trained gymnastic eye.
So what did Kyle say when I asked how it’s going? “I have 43 days. I think that’s enough!” Matt and I looked at each other and just shook our heads. Kyle told me about the trials being held at the University Gym the next week, “you should come and see- it’s going to be quite a show.” Seeing the glimmer of love for what he does in his eye made me believe even more that indeed, he will be ready. And yes, 43 days is all he needs.
Go Kyle!
And, of course, it made both Matt and me stop whining about our aches and pains. After Kyle left the Med Center, Matt recalled a time recently when he and the other sprinter guys were stretching in the gymnastic s center. Kyle was trying to stretch out his Achilles tendon with some difficulty, looked over at Matt and said with a smile, “that’s what happens when you break both of your f***ing legs!”
