edited from an e-mail Kyle sent to friends & family afar

Aug 11, 2004

Hey Everyone,

Thanks so much for all of the emails that I received
after the first edition of my Olympic Email. I am glad
to hear that everyone is doing good.

Things have continued to be very busy here. We have
settled into the village now and it is starting to
feel like a home. It usually takes me a couple of days
to figure out where everything is and how everything
works, but I think I finally have a good idea of
what's going on.

I know how long it takes to takes to get to the dining
hall (10 mins), how long it takes to take
the bus to training (20 mins) and how long it takes me
to walk to the internet and laundry building (5 mins).
Those are the essentials here.

I have been walking a lot while I have been here and
it is starting to take it's toll. My legs are getting
tired! There are only 3 more sleeps until our
competition so I think I need someone to carry me
everywhere I go! Or maybe I should request a special
golf cart to drive myself around...that would be fun.

I think that one of the biggest changes about staying
in the Olympic Village compared to home is that you
have to walk a far distance to get anywhere. This
place is so huge. I am used to getting up and walking
5 seconds to the kitchen for breakfast, not walking 5
minutes and then taking a bus for another 10. Oh well,
I am not complaining...I am just being lazy. I think
my McDonald's stepometer is at about 400,000 steps
now.

One thing that you don't want to happen when you are
in Athens in August is for your air conditioner to
break down. Well...guess what happened to me and
Sasha? Exactly that! We had our air on and then it
started to drip water, but just a little bit. Then we
went to training and we put a towel under it, but when
we returned we had a swimming pool in our bedroom. I
offered the swimmers an extra place to train, but they
didn't go for it. Anyways, we had 2 hot days and then
finally someone came and fixed it up. Now are room is
like and icicle, but that's alright because outside it
is an inferno. We are experiencing both ends of the
hot and cold spectrum as soon as we open and close our
balcony door.

Yesterday evening we had our official flag raising in
the village. It was fun. Basically all of the Canadian
athletes assembled in an outdoor auditorium and we
sang our national anthem and the Olympic organizers
raised the Canadian flag. Canada has such a great team
full of super nice people so it was a good experience
to take part in.

Before the flag raising we actually had a "Team
Canada" dinner with the new minister of sport, Stephen
Owen ( I am pretty sure that was his name...). Many
athletes were present and we were trying to push the
issue of increasing the federal budget towards sport.
I think that having dinner with us and seeing Canadian
Olympians up close and personal made a huge impact on
him. At least I hope so. We are all such amazing
ambassadors for sport and for Canada and I think that
the government would be doing something good with
their money if they spent at least some of it on us.
Let's hope they do.

Enough about politics, moving on to more important
things.

My training has been awesome! I am feeling great. We
had our podium training today and it went well for me.
Podium training is where we have a training in the
competition gym in sort of a competition format. We
are allotted 20 minutes per team on each event and we
can use it as we please. Our team chose to use it for
a model competition. We warmed up and then we competed
in the same order that we will compete on Saturday.

We started on vault. I landed both of my vaults and so
I was happy. My legs felt a little tired (obviously
because of the walking...haha), but I was happy with
the vault horse and spring boards. The gym is
absolutely amazing and you feel so small when you are
out there on the podium all by yourself.

After vault, the team went to parallel bars. I am not
competing this event here because the other team
members are stronger than me on this event.

Next for me was high bar. I had a good warm up and
then a so/so routine. I made it through, but I wasn't
completely satisfied. I went after all of the guys
were done their routines and took a couple of extra
turns. I got a better feeling for this apparatus after
this and I feel very confident on this event. It is
kinda weird when you jump up to the bar because there
are bright lights and you almost can't see the bar
when you are looking up at it. I am glad that we had
this trial of the equipment today because I learnt a
few things about the gym that I wouldn't have known
otherwise.

After highbar was floor. This is definitely the most
important event for me here. I needed to get a good
feeling for the floor and I needed to really
understand the timing. I think that I achieved this.
It was definitely different than I had expected, it
was a little harder than normal, but I adjusted
quickly and I am satisfied. I need to make a few minor
adjustments in my approach to this event, but this
will be no problem. I need to be a little bit tighter
and faster when I am tumbling. As long as I have
energy than this is no problem for me. I went through
a great routine today and I felt like all eyes in the
gym were on me.

After floor the team moved to pommel horse and rings.
I am not doing pommel horse here, but I am doing
rings. Today I felt strong and stable, but for me
rings is less important. My score shouldn't count for
the team if everything goes according to plan so all I
have to do is hit my routine and hold my strength
elements. I am not worried about this event at all.

So, with 2 more sleeps left until we compete in the
Olympics I am feeling awesome. I need to take good
care of myself in the next couple of days and make
sure that I am fully energized for Saturday's
competition.

I did some interviews today after the competition and
they really put things into perspective for me. One
reporter asked, "are you feeling a lot of expectation
going into this competition?". I answered, "of course
I am, but I am honoured that I have earned this
expectation. No one expects great things from people
that haven't showed that they are capable of achieving
them. I am very prepared and excited to compete and
all I can do is be my best."


This really sums it up. I am relaxed, focused,
prepared and extremely excited to compete.

Make sure to watch on Saturday August 14th for our
competition!


Love Kyle.