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\£ Sports Scene Kreiner addresses PSS athletes by John Lynn Kathy Kreiner is a winner. That was ob- vious to the world at the 1976 Winter Olym- pic Games in Innsbruck, Austria where Kathy, with her giant slalom skiing victory, won Canada's only Gold Medal of the games. According to Kathy, however, you have to be a winner before you can win, And being a winner is precisely what the Canadian Sports Hall of famer came to the Penetanguishene Curlinhg Club last Thursday night to tell the ESPSS Athletic Banquet guests about. As a role model for Ontario's Best Ever pro- gram, Kathy told thye athletes and coaches that winning is derived directly from one's attitude. The first of five criteria she listed for be- ing a winner in sports as well as life, was the ability to be aware of yourself. Secondly, she said "You have to feel good about yourself. The stronger you feel about yourself," she added, "'the less little things will bother you." A third important quality was the desire to win. To be self motivated, because motiva- tion is the force that moves us to do something. Her fourth point was to have a positive self image. "'It's also important to focus on what to do right and not on what could go wrong." For instance, she continued, "before we would go down a race course we always took a few minutes off to the side, closed our eyes and imagined ourselves running the course and seeing ourselves doing it properly. If I imagined myself slipping on a piece of ice or catching my ski on one of the gates, then sure enough that would happen. And the final point was discipline. ""You have to get out there and practice and you have to do the same thing over and over again until it becomes automatic, a reflex so that you don't have to think about it anymore.". Kathy recounted one example of her own discipline as an 11 year old ski racer she got up in the morning before school started and ran five miles. This was Kathy's routine three times a week. She did her weight training on the other two school days. By following these five criteria of being a winner, Kathy promised major benefits. Other than the financial rewards which are becoming a more and more obvious benefit of cuccess for athletes, Kathy addressed the more personal gains of winning such as: recognition from family, friends and com- munity; feeling better about one's self; feel- ing healthy; opening doors to things in life such as the opportunity to travel and meet new people; and most important of all, a sense of accomplishment. Kathy is a perfect example of a winner who has benefitted from her success. At the tender age of 13 she had made the Canadian Na- tional Ski team. A year later, Kathy was the youngest competitor in the 1972 Winter Olympic Games at Sapporo, Japan. In a sport where competitors rarely reach the World Cup level before the age of 18, and where most competitors are in their twenties, Kathy won her first World Cup at 16. The self ac- claimed highlight of her racing career was the Gold Medal at the 1976 Olympics. In 1977 she was ranked 4th in overall World Cup giant slalom standings. She was Canadian Champion five times. As an outcrop from her winning ex- periences, Kathy was named Ontario's Outstandingt Athlete of the Year in 1976, she was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, and is a member of both the Cana- dian and American Ski Halls of Fame. Among the benefits of her success, Kathy has earned credibility for her current occupa- tions as a ski coach and as a colour commen- tator for CBC's Sports Weekend. She has travelled out of her small town home of Tim- mins, Ontario to destinations across the country and around the world. And she has met many new people and made many friends that she would never have known if not for her success in the sport she loves. Pro- ving once again that it is a small world, Kathy Kreiner and Angela Schmidt Foster were roommates at the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake-Placid, New York. The two athletes were reunited at the Curling Club Thursday night. Kathy's goals for the future include polishing her skiing commentary, and obtain- & World champion Kathy Kreiner, right, with five-time World Cup winner, Ken Read endorsing ski pro- ducts for Saloman Sports Canada at Hockley ing a masters degree in sports psychology in which she wil be applying her winning criteria this fall in Ottawa. Long before Sport Psychology was used as a form of coaching on the National Ski team and before Kathy was conscious of it, she was using the winning philosophy she shared Thursday night to be a successful ski racer. Kathy's goal to win the Olympic Gold Medal, began when her father, the team doc- tor, came back from the 1968 Winter Olym- pics where Nancy Green made Canada pro- Valley Ski Resort in February of this year. Kreiner addressed the athletes at the PSS Sports Banquet last week. The photo was ud with her Gold Medal performances. That year Kathy was 10. "He came back with home movies and stories about the games," she remembers. "'And I guess then | realiz- ed that: Boy! nothing would make me hap- pier than to stand on the podiu, to receive the Gold Medal, and to hear the national anthem playing and know that Canada was proud because a Canadian had won and that's what sports are all about. And it was never loos- ing sight of that goal that kept me going. taken and kindly supplied by John Lynn of Midland. Brooklea's Bumper Day by Ed Pearson I threw the old Sunday bag into the trunk and joined more than 300 Brooklea Bolf Club members to try out the new south course. I had a 9:27 a.m. tee off time. Russ Howard was directing operations from his new cir- cular desk in his swish new pro shop, he shoehorned our foursome into the holding pattern. Russ is proud of the new set-up. it ti Limbering up Jim Hughes at Little Lake Tennis Courts puts his young charges through the paces last week in the junior program. Several young hopefuls have signed up for instruction and Renee Mullard of London is the course designer and the superintendent, Neil Acton, has the course in immaculate shape. Automatic irrigation has been installed so watering can be done outside of playing hours. Inaugurating the new south course has added 900 yards, the revamped champion- ship course which now totals 6,500 yards. > competition. The courts have recently undergone several improvements and the club is making some inroads in improving the quality of the game locally. The view from the second tee, over rolling countryside to the east, is breathtaking. It is the high point of the links and pretty as a pic- ture. The benign view is deceiving. A better than average shot off the tee will put you in a position to carry Deadmans Gulch to the green if you catch it right. If not, your ball will find a watery grave in the gulley or you will be faced with a towering chip to the green. You have five tranquil holes to get over the intimidation of it all and then you find the tail end of the monster waiting to bushwhack you as you tee off from the eighth. A good hitter has nothing to fear, but or- dinary mortals like myself will suffer afew pangs of trepidation. Water comes into play four times on the new section. The course is a challenge, but it is fair. It will punish the guilty and reward the virtuous. Russ is a confident that waiting time will be cut down and estimates that he can han- dle 70 more players in the same time. Work on the new executive course is on schedule and will please the busy golfer who has about an hour and a half to invest. The new facilities are very impressive and should satisfy the most demanding devotees of the game. The gracious management hosted a plea- sant reception in the lounge after the open- ing day and gave the members a chance to mingle and lie a little about their scores. Tuesday, June 2, 1987, Page 15