It is not unusual for professional athletes to have coaching changes, but with 5 weeks until the Olympic Games, this one has people curious. Patrick Chan the Canadian figure skater has split from his coach of 3 years, Don Laws. Patrick Chan prefers to train in Colorado Springs, where there is a specialty coach for computer analyzing. Meanwhile his coach Don Laws has taken on a full time role at the West Palm Beach skating facility. This commitment makes full time training very difficult, and it would be pretty impossible for it to work out. The National Championships start on Monday, January 11th, in London Ontario, and I suspect the media is going to be all over Chan. The young athlete is at the top of his game right now, people are saying this is the best he's ever looked, but it will be interesting to see how he copes with the mental and emotional aspects. With only 5 weeks to go you'd think they could have waited until after the Winter Games, but I guess they had to do what was best. So I wish Patrick Chan all the best of luck. Having a home crowd, is probably going to be great for him too!
Paralympic Athlete of the Day: Andrea Holmes is a 27 year old from West Vancouver. She was born without her lower left leg, but that didn't stop the young girl from playing sports. When Holmes started got older she started to see less opportunity for her to continue sports, so she began to give up. Then in 2002, while watching the Salt Lake City Paralympics, she was inspired by a one legged skier. She then had her mind set on going to the Paralympics, and nothing would get in here way. She competed in the 2004 Athens Paralympics for long-jump where she placed 8th. Now Andrea has moved onto skiing, she is not guaranteed a spot on Canada’s Paralympic alpine ski team, but that is her goal. She's been working at it for a while, and with her motivation and ambition, I have absolute faith that she will get there.
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