Breaking Through My Limits: An Olympian Uncovered by Alexandra Orlando

Author:Alexandra Orlando [ORLANDO, ALEXANDRA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781469086873
Publisher: Gildan Media Corporation
Published: 2013-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6:

There’s Always a Reason to Smile

Retiring at twenty-one was always the plan, but I knew going from working out for a living to a normal university student would have a huge change on my body. I wasn’t exactly ready for it, but I knew that I had to handle it as best as I could and stay healthy. Yes, I lost muscle. Yes, I gained weight. Yes, I wasn’t happy about it. No, I didn’t waste my time and energy worrying about it anymore. I had big plans to stop training and stay really active. I was a sports girl who loved to be out there running around in the summer and hitting the gym. I figured I would never lose that drive to be fit and active. After seventeen years in the gym, I gave myself a vacation and stepped away from the daily, disciplined regimen I was used to, and gave my body a rest. A few months of lapping up as many sleep ins and big meals as I could, especially those home-cooked meals from my mom, and I was ready to get back into shape. I wasn’t fully healed up, I had knee and ankle problems still, but when I put my mind to something, I do it, and I stick by it. I have always tested my limits, and I carefully pushed my ankles every day, getting stronger and doing a little bit more in the gym.

January rolled around and a few girlfriends and I headed up north to a cabin for my birthday. To be clear, I snowboard, not extremely well, but I definitely don’t ski. This was me convincing myself that I was coordinated enough to ski. It would be embarrassing if I couldn’t, so I thought I’d just go and have fun with my friends. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The weekend turned into a disaster that would throw me right back into my dark little world that took over a year to climb out of. Everyone thought that if I knew the basics I could probably ski down a blue hill (like I knew what that meant), and be fine. First off, I fell off the chairlift. With my ego bruised and confidence shaky, I shook it off and thought, “How much worse could it be now?” Throughout the course of the day, I fell over thirty times, broke two ski poles, body checked my friend twice (who was just trying to help me), cracked my ski mask, and became officially known as the girl who couldn’t get off the chairlift. It was the most frustrating day of my life, probably the most embarrassing as well, but I really wanted to get it right and kept going until I got down that run without falling. Hours later, I finally did it, and I’ve never felt like I’ve accomplished a bigger feat. Funny for an Olympian to say that, but it’s true. So I was skiing! There we all stood, exhausted and snow happy, wondering if we should do one last run.

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