With a gold medal in Torino in 2006 and a world championship title defence her priorities, Alisa Camplin has decided not to compete in the Alpine Exposure World Aerials at Mt Buller, her home round of the FIS World Cup tour, in September.
With a gold medal in Torino in 2006 and a world championship title defence her priorities, Alisa Camplin has decided not to compete in the Alpine Exposure World Aerials at Mt Buller, her home round of the FIS World Cup tour, in September.
After a two year period where she has won every prize the sport holds, the 29-year-old has opted to take a much-needed break from training and competition in order to recharge her energies.
But as Camplin steps back temporarily, three time World Cup champion Jacqui Cooper will make her much-anticipated return to competition as the 2004/05 World Cup season gets underway at Mt Buller.
“My priority is defending my world championship title in March 2005 and ensuring I have the best possible preparation next year to get ready for the Olympics in 2006,” Camplin said.
“I’ve been competing since 1996 and that’s a long time and I haven’t really had a break from being a fulltime athlete at all in that whole period.”
“I’ve had two or three years now where I’ve tried to win absolutely everything and its taken a lot out of me.”
“And I now realize I can’t maintain that pace all the way through to Turin and expect to have the right sort of energy and focus that will be required to win again.”
“While I am taking a break it won’t be a traditional break where I’m doing nothing at all. I will be doing a lot of acrobatic training and strength and fitness work and also water and on snow training.”
“It’s just going to be on a reduced scale with the emphasis on less competition to ease the pressure and intensity on me mentally.”
Camplin will skip the first half of the World Cup season and rejoin her Flying Kangaroos team-mates in training at the start of January.
“I’m a competitor at heart so it’s a tough choice to accept that I’m not going to try to defend my World Cup title at all by missing half of the events. But I also realize that if I had to put my foot to the floor right now to start preparing for the Olympics I’m just too tired to do it and unfortunately Buller is right at the beginning of the competition schedule."
“If I could have done it I would have because it’s my home event and one of the best on the circuit."
"But to be safe for that I would have to train in advance of the competition and that would mean I wouldn’t get any time in the summer off. It’s unfortunately just the way the timing worked out."
"I think it's one of the sacrifices I have to make right now. One of the things I have to recognize is that finding new ways and smarter ways of doing things might be to my advantage."
"I want to make sure I am refreshed, focused and hungry when I need to begin my training for the Olympics. So I think I have to pick and choose what I want to win now rather that run the risk of suffering burn-out at some later stage."
Camplin will maintain her involvement with the event as an expert commentator for the Seven Network’s coverage of the World Aerials, and will also act as a guest commentator on diving and gymnastics for the Network at the Athens Olympics.
Cooper will return to the World Cup circuit some two and a half years after her disastrous training accident at the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Games.
“It’s been a lot of hard work to get back to this point, and there’s still a long way to go,” Cooper said.
“I’ve only been back on snow training since December, and I’m not ready to do the big jumps I used to do yet.”
“But I’m very excited about the prospect of competing again, and doing it at Mt Buller where I obviously feel so much at home.”
The Alpine Exposure World Aerials will take place at Mt Buller on September 4 and 5. It will be the seventh year that the International Ski Federation World Cup circuit had kicked off in Australia.
After a two year period where she has won every prize the sport holds, the 29-year-old has opted to take a much-needed break from training and competition in order to recharge her energies.
But as Camplin steps back temporarily, three time World Cup champion Jacqui Cooper will make her much-anticipated return to competition as the 2004/05 World Cup season gets underway at Mt Buller.
“My priority is defending my world championship title in March 2005 and ensuring I have the best possible preparation next year to get ready for the Olympics in 2006,” Camplin said.
“I’ve been competing since 1996 and that’s a long time and I haven’t really had a break from being a fulltime athlete at all in that whole period.”
“I’ve had two or three years now where I’ve tried to win absolutely everything and its taken a lot out of me.”
“And I now realize I can’t maintain that pace all the way through to Turin and expect to have the right sort of energy and focus that will be required to win again.”
“While I am taking a break it won’t be a traditional break where I’m doing nothing at all. I will be doing a lot of acrobatic training and strength and fitness work and also water and on snow training.”
“It’s just going to be on a reduced scale with the emphasis on less competition to ease the pressure and intensity on me mentally.”
Camplin will skip the first half of the World Cup season and rejoin her Flying Kangaroos team-mates in training at the start of January.
“I’m a competitor at heart so it’s a tough choice to accept that I’m not going to try to defend my World Cup title at all by missing half of the events. But I also realize that if I had to put my foot to the floor right now to start preparing for the Olympics I’m just too tired to do it and unfortunately Buller is right at the beginning of the competition schedule."
“If I could have done it I would have because it’s my home event and one of the best on the circuit."
"But to be safe for that I would have to train in advance of the competition and that would mean I wouldn’t get any time in the summer off. It’s unfortunately just the way the timing worked out."
"I think it's one of the sacrifices I have to make right now. One of the things I have to recognize is that finding new ways and smarter ways of doing things might be to my advantage."
"I want to make sure I am refreshed, focused and hungry when I need to begin my training for the Olympics. So I think I have to pick and choose what I want to win now rather that run the risk of suffering burn-out at some later stage."
Camplin will maintain her involvement with the event as an expert commentator for the Seven Network’s coverage of the World Aerials, and will also act as a guest commentator on diving and gymnastics for the Network at the Athens Olympics.
Cooper will return to the World Cup circuit some two and a half years after her disastrous training accident at the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Games.
“It’s been a lot of hard work to get back to this point, and there’s still a long way to go,” Cooper said.
“I’ve only been back on snow training since December, and I’m not ready to do the big jumps I used to do yet.”
“But I’m very excited about the prospect of competing again, and doing it at Mt Buller where I obviously feel so much at home.”
The Alpine Exposure World Aerials will take place at Mt Buller on September 4 and 5. It will be the seventh year that the International Ski Federation World Cup circuit had kicked off in Australia.
