Not many individuals can claim to have a car bonnet embossed with an image of their head. In fact can anyone?
Not many individuals can claim to have a car bonnet embossed with an image of their head. In fact can anyone?
There is one and this charming young Australian is currently in Park City in the United States ahead of the second World Cup of the season. She is a determined and modest young woman, who is striving to compete at the 2014 Olympic Games in a sport she describes as “very freeing”.
Lucy Chaffer first set eyes on the sport of skeleton as a 23-year-old. Like many of her prospective Olympian teammates, she came from the beach and was a specialist flags sprinter at her local Surf Life Saving Club in Perth.
“It is hard to describe my initial impression of skeleton, it was something so far from any sport I had seen that it intrigued me,” the West Australian said.
“The speed and grace the sliders had made me want to try it. I love the feeling you get when you have a corner right and come down a straight going over 120km/h. It is very freeing and feels like nothing I have experienced before or probably will again.”
The quick decision making and crouch start skills, which Chaffer acquired on the sands have benefited her well in a winter sport that sees athletes plummet head-first down a track on tiny sleds reaching speeds of up to 135km/h.
“In flags there are always other people and outside influences that you have to consider in a short amount of time, skeleton is much the same,” she said. “No two runs will ever be the same so you always have to adjust and make correction as you go down.”
“In both you are in a crouched position for the start. In flags because it is so short you never really get time to get into a full upright sprint position. This is the same in skeleton. The start is a crouched position having to drive yourself forward and then dive on the sled much the same as you would dive for a flag.”
It is a sport which is very technical and in some instances bizarre. The sled sits on two runners while gravitational G Forces hold athletes on the wall of a banked turn. Brakes are not part of the equipment but a helmet is mandatory and anyone attempting to slow down is disqualified.
“There is a lot of science in skeleton knowing where the pressure is in the corner and how the shape of the ice will change what you have to do in there to get the best line,” Chaffer said.
“This is one aspect I am really interested in - learning how to read the ice, how hard or soft it is, if it is shaped a certain way. These are all things that I have developed through the years and am working hard to understand.”
Chaffer narrowly missed out on selection for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and chose only to focus on the positive of the missed opportunity.
“While I was an outside chance to make it, it was still a major disappointment,” she said. “It showed me where I needed to be if I wanted to make the next Games so there was a positive to come from it.”
This quadrennial to improve her chances of qualification, Chaffer has changed her training, limited work and immersed herself among the best skeleton athletes in the world.
“Each year I try to push the boundaries of my sliding, trying different runners or rock, putting myself in situations on the track that will challenge my driving so I know how to fix things if I go into corners not where I want to be,” she said.
“I also decided this year not to work and only focus on training for the Games. I spent three months in Europe training with some if the best push athletes in the world because I know that has been one area that has let me down.”
“I put a big emphasis on the push start this year and have been rewarded so far with personal best pushes.”
Last weekend Chaffer competed in her first World Cup of the season and finished in 9th place. She was delighted with the top 10 result as well her push times.
“I did two PB pushes,” she said. “I broke my PB by .2 of a second which is a huge amount of time to us so I was so so happy that all my training is paying off.
Equally, Chaffer would be very excited to make the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
“It would be a great reward for the years of work I have put in to become a slider worthy of representing Australia in skeleton,” she said.
Should Chaffer make the Games, she will have a large fan base of school students across Australia supporting her. She is a teacher at a high school in Perth (now currently on leave) and also participates in the AOC’s Chat to a Champ program, which links athletes and students in web video chats.
“My school in Perth is very supportive of me, both the staff and the students,” the 30-year-old said.
“They all ask how I am going and wish me the best whenever I am home. It really helps to know you have a large supporter base that will be happy for you no matter what.”
Chaffer thinks the Chat to a Champ program is fantastic and only wishes it was around when she was at school.
“It is great to be in contact with students from all around Australia and is a bit surprising how much they know about me.”
The charming and modest young woman is keen to encourage others to follow their dreams.
“I hope I can inspire some of the students I teach or talk to, to keep active and find something whether it be sport or something else they love and pursue it and see how far they can go,” she said.
“If it is anything like my experience it is beyond anything they could have imagined.”
And that includes having an image of her head embossed on a car bonnet.