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From dust to ice for Torino Skeleton hopeful

 

From dust to ice for Torino Skeleton hopeful

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Nicole Apps spent last week sewing a paddock for a barley crop on her boyfriend’s farm...

Nicole Apps spent last week sewing a paddock for a barley crop on her boyfriend’s farm at Quandialla near Young in country New South Wales.

When she’s not working on the farm she teaches at the local Quandialla Central School.

Next February she hopes to trade the dust at “Quandi” for the snow and ice and the spectacle that is the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy.

“I’m the only country athlete trying out for the Skeleton team” she said.” But I don’t see living out here as a disadvantage, it’s a state of mind thing and you need mental toughness”.

Nicole is one tough competitor.

As part of her training she lies on an old car bonnet and is pulled around the farm behind a ute doing 100km an hour.

“It is very good for the muscles in your neck” she declares. “It builds up core body strength and gives me a good feel for what the event is like. It gives me an edge”.

Skeleton involves sliding head first down a mountain on a tiny sled at speeds of 120 kilometres and hour.

Seven girls are vying for the honour to be the first Australian to compete in the sport at the Winter Olympics.

Nicole does her sprint training on an old conveyor belt she obtained from a coal mine near Newcastle.

Four of her competitors are part of an AIS squad which has access to wind-tunnel testing and other high tech equipment. But Nicole was born in Young and loves the environment at “Quandi”.

She always wanted to be an Olympian. She pulled a hamstring 10 days before the start of the track and field trials for the Sydney Games in 2000. She then competed at the World Student Games in Beijing in 2001.

“I saw Skeleton as an opportunity to use my speed and power and overall track skills. Plus it is a great adrenalin rush”.

Friends who have witnessed her flying along in the dirt on the car bonnet say she’s mad.

And Nicole is the first to admit “you need a bit of craziness to succeed in Skeleton”.

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