Music: {allcanada} DECORATED CANADIAN SPEEDSKATER KLASSEN FINDING FORM AGAIN

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

{allcanada} DECORATED CANADIAN SPEEDSKATER KLASSEN FINDING FORM AGAIN

CALGARY -- Her knees will probably never be the same but speedskater Cindy Klassen is regaining some of the power that made her Canada's most decorated Winter Olympian.

The 31-year-old from Winnipeg is rebuilding a stellar career derailed by the double knee surgery and near-tragedy in her family that cost her almost two seasons of racing heading into the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C.

Klassen won an incredible five medals, including a gold, at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge dubbed her "the woman of the Games." Add her bronze medal at the 2002 Olympics to her medal haul and no Canadian athlete has won as many medals at Winter Olympics.

The turns her life took after Turin prevented her from being race-ready in 2009-10. She was a longshot for a medal and didn't finish in the top 10 in any race in Vancouver.

Klassen stepped back onto the World Cup podium this season for the first time since 2008. She was second in the 3,000 metres in the season-opener in Heerenveen, Netherlands. She was second and third in a pair of 1,000-metre races in Berlin, Germany.

"I'm surprised at how some of my power has come back," Klassen said Wednesday at the Olympic Oval. "There's still things I need to work on. My sprints aren't there and that's because of my knees. I can't open as fast as I used to. I'm hoping that can come back with more practice."

Klassen was preparing Wednesday for the Canadian single-distance championship starting Thursday at the Oval.

This could be the final year of speedskating for the world-record holder in the 1,000, 1,500 and 3,000 metres. A devout Mennonite, she's left that decision to a higher power than herself.

"My faith is the biggest thing in my life," she said. "I believe God has put me here for a purpose and I think this is his plan for my life, to be a speedskater. As long as he keeps pushing me in speedskating, I'll keep going.

"I'm taking it one year at a time and being prayerful about it and really listening to God and see how he leads me."

Klassen's sister Lisa miraculously survived when her car slid on ice and plunged 15 metres off a bridge into Winnipeg's Red River on Feb. 5, 2008. Klassen rushed home from Berlin to be at her sister's side and took the rest of the racing season off.

That summer, Klassen had double knee surgery, which wiped out the 2008-09 campaign for her. Klassen could no longer rely on her power and had little time to find speed in her technique before the Olympic Games.

"There's been some rough days, especially last year and the year before because I couldn't do the things that I wanted to do," Klassen said. "Even now, jumping and doing stuff in the weight room is hard on my knees.

"For the most part, I can do the hard training on the ice and cycling is always good."

Her knees hamper her starts, so it's a measure of the power Klassen still has that she's collected two podium finishes in the 1,000 metres.

"After 200 metres, sometimes I'm over a second behind," she said. "That's a lot of ground to catch up."

Klassen doesn't know if competing in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, is realistic. It's a lot to ask of her knees to keep racing until she's 35. In the meantime, she's enjoying her return to the world's racing elite and looks forward to racing in Calgary at the world all-around championship Feb. 12-13.

"I'm very grateful for how the season's been going," Klassen said. "I was pretty happy to get on the podium. That's something I never expected."