On apprend ensemble: The Leader in Me

Clique sur le kolach. Le kolach est un pain Ukrainien à Noël.

Look, Cover, Write and Check - This website by Ambleside Primary, in England, allows students to practice their SPELLING ONLINE. Although there are prepared lists in English, our students can simply enter their French dictée words by double clicking on each of the words in the main list and typing in a new word to replace it. Students can set up their spelling list and then click "GO". Students look at the word, read it, and spell it aloud. Then click "COVER". They then type the word into the box provided and click "CHECK". If the student has spelled the word correctly, the next word on the list will be given. If not, it will ask the student to try again.

Zina at the flower ceremony when she was 4th in Pokljuka before Christmas.

Dear Family and Friends, First of all, thank you so much for all your endearing and amazing support. I may be the one doing the physical training but without the various pillars of support that you have all given me throughout the years, I wouldn’t have made it here today! The Olympics are going to be extremely exciting for everyone watching at the venue, at home, and for us competing. There will be nervousness, tension, excitement, happiness, huge disappointments and huge celebrations for athletes, teams and Canadians. A home Games is such an incredible opportunity because of the energy from the country and the friends and family cheering us on. I can already imagine the excitement and feel the energy of so many of you in the stadium and on the course cheering us wildly! While your support means the world to me, and I can honestly say that I’ll be drawing upon your strength as I train and race, I need you to understand that there is a very strong likelihood that I won’t be doing much communicating with you during the lead up to the Games (and during the Games themselves). The next few weeks leading up to the Games is a vital part of my preparation and will require a more disciplined focus than I’ve ever had to give before. During the Games my teammates and I will be living like hermits in the athlete village until February 23rd when I compete in my final race (the women’s relay). After that race is over, I will “resurface” once more and change my focus to soaking up everything possible and re-open communication with my friends and family. While it might seem like I am taking extreme measures to cut myself off from the people who have given me so much support over the last few years, I hope you will understand my decision to hunker down and hide from the distractions of my normal life. For 4 years I have committed everything for this chance of competing for Canada on home soil at the Olympics. I can think of no greater honour and no greater opportunity for a Canadian athlete. It is for these reasons that I want to be absolutely certain that I could have done no more to be ready. If things don’t go the way I hope (in terms of race results) then at least I will know that I did everything possible to be ready. So if you send me an e-mail or text or leave me a voicemail in the next few weeks, please understand if I don’t reply. For those of you who will be attending the Games, again I thank you in advance for your support. I am so thrilled you’ll be there to soak up the atmosphere of the Olympics. You have no idea how much it will mean to me knowing that you are out there cheering me on. And if I somehow leave the range for the last time and have a chance for the podium, I will be thinking of every one of you as I dig deeper than I’ve dug before to push through the pain and reach the finish line! But again, I will be “all business” as I prepare to race, so if you see me or shout to me and I do not acknowledge you before a competition, please know that I am not ignoring you but focusing intensely on the task at hand. Also know that if I do see you, it is truly hard for me not to acknowledge you, or give you a hug, or stop and chat. But on race day, all my efforts from the moment I wake up to the moment the race is over will be on doing one thing: reach the podium! So I am saying THANK YOU now for your support, and hope that you will not hold it against me if I seem a little aloof during the Games. When my final race is over I’ll give each of you all the time and attention in the world! Thanks again for your amazing support, and for your understanding. Big hugs! Yours in sport, Zina

Une lettre de Zina

Dear Ecole Mountview Elementary School, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas break and holiday time, and is now well settled back into the start of 2010! In fact we are into the month of February and only days away from the start of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games! I have been very busy training, preparing for Vancouver and competing in World Cups in Germany and Italy. I returned home for 2 ½ weeks over the Christmas holidays after having my best result so far this year. The day before I flew home for Christmas I shot 20 for 20 in the Pursuit competition and placed 4th! It was incredibly exciting for me because the day before I had placed 10th in the sprint. I started 10th in the pursuit competition – 1 minute and 43 seconds behind 1st place. I knew I needed to shoot very well in order to move up during the race. I was extremely focused that day and shooting happened automatically. You could say that I was “in the zone!” During the whole race whenever I became too excited or distracted, I repeated the words “stay calm” and “breathe.” It worked perfectly! After I left the final shooting bout, I was ecstatic, and blew out of the range hoping to catch 3rd place. I could see the Russian ahead of me and was starting to catch her on the first uphill. But I did not have the stamina and strength to close the 20 seconds gap. Nevertheless, I was extremely happy to have shot 20 for 20 and be so close to the podium. I have never shot 20/20 in a World Cup before so this was a huge accomplishment for me, and felt like gold! When I returned home for Christmas, I did not have a vacation! We had to build our endurance and strength back. So we did long ski sessions in Lake Louise, Kananaskis and at the Canmore Nordic Center. It was wonderful to sleep in my own bed and spend time with my family and friends because suddenly it was time to fly back to Europe again. First we went to 2 different locations in Germany. In Oberhof, my teammate Jean-Philippe and I arrived the day before to race the mass start competition. Only the top 30 in the world can compete in the mass start. It is 12.5km (5 laps of 2.5km) for the women and 15km (5 laps of 3km) for the men. We start in 3 lanes of 10 athletes side by side, with a 50m of double poling sprint at the sound of a gun. After the 50m we can start skate skiing. I started in the 2nd row, number 20. The mass start is a lot of fun! It is very important to stay relaxed in the first lap as it can be very chaotic. Everyone is trying to get to the front. Sometimes an athlete will fall on a corner or downhill and cause others to crash, or an athlete will step on your ski or pole… the track is wide but not wide enough for 30 athletes! In Oberhof the weather was typical… windy, foggy and 100% humidity. With over 30,000 fans coming to watch the race, and the millions of European TV viewers, cancelling the race was definitely not an option. The shooting results of both the women and men were terrible! I missed 9 for 20 and finished in 25th position. The next week we drove to Ruhpolding, Germany, which is in the south in Bavaria. We raced a sprint competition on the Wednesday, a relay competition on Friday and I raced the mass start on Sunday. I was 30th in the sprint. Our team was 16th in the relay and then in the mass start I ended up 17th. Both Oberhof and Ruhpolding are Biathlon Mecca’s… the towns live for the World Cup biathlon competitions! On Monday, we drove to Antholz, Italy. Antholz is located in the Dolomites, a mountain range in the north east of Italy. It is beautiful there and the food is amazing! In Antholz, I did well in the sprint and pursuit placing 15th and 14th. After that week we flew home for a week of recovery and training. Then it dawned on me… it is time for the Olympic Games! I was suddenly nervous, anxious and incredibly excited! Last week we trained in Mt. Washington on Vancouver Island, doing our final preparation and training for the Olympics. The weather and snow is very similar to Whistler so it is a perfect place for training… except that I missed the Alberta sun! It was very foggy and snowed every day! Mt. Washington received 12 m of snow there this year… isn’t that incredible? The German, Swedish, Chinese, Czech Republic, French, and American biathlon teams were also training there. Everyone was doing everything possible to do the best they can at the Games. Which leads me to another point that I haven’t told you about… the other day CCES came for a visit. CCES stands for Canadian Center for Ethics in Sport. Just as it is not fair when a friend cheats in a game of monopoly, it is not fair when an athlete uses a drug that makes them ski faster. This is not sports man-like behavior. And unfortunately in endurance sports like biathlon and cross-country skiing there are athletes in the world that use drugs which affect blood levels, and enhances their athletic ability. And therefore, Canada has an organization that strives to guarantee that Canadian athletes are clean and not doping – ie. they are drug-free. There is also a world-wide organization called WADA – World-wide Anti-Doping Association. Both organizations are connected and now require all National team athletes to record their daily whereabouts online. We have a program that we must fill out for every day the week and we must give a 1 hour time slot that gives 100% availability for the organization to find us. Randomly CCES will come and test us. So the other day, 2 people from CCES arrived at our condo and requested that our team be tested. How are we tested? We have to pee in a cup in front of one of the CCES workers! This is to ensure that it is our own sample and we are not tainting the sample with a masking agent. Then we have to seal our sample in a safe locked container, which is transported to a lab to be tested. One of my sport heroes, Beckie Scott (Olympic Gold medalist in xc skiing) has been fighting for drug-free sport. She won gold in Salt Lake Olympics because 2 Russians who had placed 1st and 2nd were taking sport-enhancing drugs and were caught after the competition. It is a serious offense and the Russian athletes were stripped of their medals and were not allowed to compete for 2 years. It would be wonderful if all athletes played fair and sport was drug-free… it is much better than it used to be, but could still be better. However, I must focus on what is in my control – to ski fast and shoot clean! Now it is only 2 days away to the opening ceremonies to the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games! I have so much to tell you… like how the Athlete village is extremely cool! And how the Canadian team has electric bikes to wiz around the village! (All the other countries are so jealous!) But it is going to have to wait until after. I am ready, prepared and focused to do my very best over the next 17 days! Paint the Town red Ecole Mountview School! Have fun cheering and celebrating one of the most exciting moments for Canadians! Dream big, because one day it could be YOU! Zina (and yes Sumi is with me!)

Les nouvelles de Zina Kocher novembre 2009

Dear Ecole Mountview Elementary School, Have you ever heard the saying “you are what you eat”? To be an elite athlete it is very important to eat healthy. What we put into our bodies is what we will be able to get out of our bodies for energy and power. When I am in a huge training week, I will easily consume almost 4,000 calories each day. If I do not consume enough food, I will not meet my caloric needs and will lose body weight. During hard training, this is not a good idea. You need to eat to be strong! Healthy food replenishes and rebuilds our tired muscles so that we can become stronger. What do I eat to be strong? Lets start with breakfast… My favorite meal is breakfast! I could practically eat breakfast 3 times a day! I love oatmeal with yummy additions such as: berries, banana, nuts, flax seeds, and raisins then topped with low fat natural yogurt and cottage cheese. I also have 1 or 2 soft-boiled eggs for more protein. When I have more time in the mornings I love to make whole-wheat banana pancakes with strawberries and maple syrup. After a long hard ski or a strength workout, I have a protein shake which helps to provide instant energy and protein to my muscles so they can recover as fast as possible. Then I have lunch very soon after my training. I make sure to have lots of vegetables, good carbohydrates and protein. My lunch might be something like this, a spinach salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing, and a bowl of whole-wheat pasta with homemade meat sauce, and an apple. In the afternoon I will have a healthy snack before my training. I may have yogurt, cottage cheese and fruit, or blend it into a smoothie; or sometimes I have a peanut butter and banana sandwich on grain bread. After my afternoon training, it’s time for another healthy dinner! One of my favorite grains is quinoa. Quinoa is from Peru, in South America and is an excellent source of carbohydrates. It can be red or white and each grain is small and round. When cooked it kind of looks like fish eggs! But it has a wonderful nutty flavour. I often make it into a salad with almonds, chicken, apples, currants, red pepper, spinach and carrots with a mint curry dressing. Yum! This can be made into a complete meal… Quinoa as the carbohydrates, chicken as the protein, red pepper, spinach and carrots as the vegetables. Yes, you are probably wondering if I ever have junk food like chips and candy? Well, I do enjoy sweets once and awhile! Dark Lindt chocolate is my favorite sweet. But I enjoy sweets, cake and junk food occasionally and in moderation. I avoid potato chips, and other types of chips, candy bars, store bought cookies, pop and other junk food because they lack nutritional value and mostly contain only fat, which would increase my body weight and not make me a stronger healthy athlete. What is your favorite healthy snack? When I am in Europe, there are new foods that become my favorite snack. In Sweden and Norway, for instance, I love their traditional type of cheese, sometimes made from goat’s milk instead of cows, and which is made mostly from whey (a bi-product of cheese making). It is strong, sweet and a bit strong with flavors of caramel and goat’s milk. In Canada you can find it in some stores under the brand name of SkiQueen! In Norway it is called geitost. On Saturday, after excellent training and preparation in Canmore and Lake Louise, I departed for Europe. It is the start of my race season! I had to pack all my equipment (14 pairs of skis, poles, 3 pairs of boots – 2 skate and 1 classic, running shoes, ammunition, a rifle) and my ski clothes and casual clothes. I have 3 pieces of luggage… a ski bag, a rifle case, and a duffel bag. (And yes Sumi is with me and perched on my bed!) I flew from Calgary to Frankfurt. Then switched planes and flew from Frankfurt to Stockholm. Then we had to switch to an eighteen-passenger plane to fly to our final destination – Sveg, a tiny town in the middle of Sweden. However, all the snow had melted in Sveg so Monday morning we drove to a tiny ski town called Bruksvallarna. It is puking snow in this winter wonderland! There is a little T-bar downhill ski resort, a biathlon range, and lots and lots of cross-country trails. In Norway, Sweden and Finland, there are lots of sport schools with huge cross country ski teams. Here in Bruksvallarna, there are 2 biathlon and cross country sport schools on a camp from 2 cities in Norway. There are about 50 young high school athletes training here this week! There is also a development Czech National biathlon team training here too. Our team is staying in 2 different log cabins on the downhill area. The women’s team unfortunately, is the highest cabin partway up this downhill run… in fact it is not even accessible by vehicle. My coach had to ask a man with a skidoo and sled to haul our entire luggage up to our cabin! I wish I had a sled because it would be a breeze to fly down the steep hill to breakfast, lunch and dinner! In less than a week, I will compete in my first World Cup of the season in Ostersund, Sweden. It will be a 15km Individual competition on Wednesday. Training and preparation for the season is complete and it is time to put our hard work to the test! I am nervous… but very excited! I can’t wait to see what is possible in the months ahead! I will update you all very soon on the results of our first competition week. All information and results can be found on “No expectations, no limitations!” Talk to you soon, Zina

Zina Kocher

Dear Ecole Mountview School, Thank you so much for hosting me last week! It was wonderful to see you all again and to feel the excitement and support from ALL of you! You definitely had me believing I can achieve anything! Can you? As well, thank you for Sumi (who will definitely be snuggled into my suitcase), the Mountview T-shirt and hat. The COURAGE T-shirt sparked the idea for my update to you this week… COURAGE. What does that mean? As an athlete, as a student, as a business leader, or anyone wanting to pursue excellence in his or her field… You truly can do nothing worthwhile without courage. Do you know that, the English word courage comes from the French word coeur, which means “heart”? To develop and discover our talents, to display courage, our hearts will be tested continually. You don’t have to be famous to become a person of courage. You just need to really want to reach your potential and push beyond your limitations. Winston Churchill once said, “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” It can be difficult to do something you fear, or say something you believe in but are not sure if it is right; but it can be equally difficult to listen to an unpleasant truth. In order to grow, and improve we need to face truths about ourselves too. This weekend I had a very difficult shooting training because I was very tired from the previous day’s roller ski interval training. My coach told me that I needed to focus more, that my shooting was not good enough right now; and if I wanted to be a champion I needed to pull up my socks! Not settle for misses, even when I am exhausted. In order to move forward and excel, I have to continue to push farther reaching beyond my comfort zone and bravely keep striving. I need to understand what I am doing wrong, take action and use it. This is learning, a change in behavior! And this requires courage. “Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.” – George S. Patton Today I have max intervals on a big treadmill at the University in Calgary inside the Olympic Oval. This treadmill is about 3x larger than a running treadmill. The speed skating and Nordic teams use this treadmill because we can skate on it! The speed skaters use a skate similar to rollerblades and we use our roller skis and poles. We are connected to a harness though because it can be easy to fall when pushed to your maximal speed. If you fall over, the harness catches and you swing in the air like superman! Interval training on the treadmill is very difficult. My treadmill speed for today is at a slight incline at 16km/hr and I have to maintain this speed for 2 and a ½ minutes 6 times. 16km/hr doesn’t feel very fast when you are driving but on roller skis it is pretty fast! I have to focus very hard on having strong powerful pushes with good technique and tell myself that I can finish another 10 seconds! Every 10 seconds longer I stay on the treadmill is making me stronger! And this requires courage! To find courage, look inside yourself and decide to be courageous! Strive to be true to who you really are. Take small steps, just like small goals, to be courageous everyday! If you are willing to take risks, explore your limits, face your shortcomings and fears, and sometimes even face defeat you will go farther than if you take the safe path. Have convictions that are stronger than your fears! I will leave you with one last quote from a great cowboy John Wayne – “Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.” Be courageous! Zina

Saturday, November 7, 2009

The Leader in Me