Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

The Psychology of Downhill Skiers

Aired February 24, 2002 - 07:29   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Apolo Anton Ohno was disqualified in the 500-meter speed skating event after he collided with a Japanese skater. Instead of an expected four gold medals, Ohno has to settle for one gold and a silver, but an awful lot of talk about him. And he's probably going to be happy about that.

American Rusty Smith ended up winning the bronze and the Canadian team skated past the Americans to take gold in the 5,000-meter short track relay, which, to me, looks an awful lot like roller derby, but that's just me.

And it's bobsleigh not bobsled, don't you know? Americans won both silver and bronze medals in the four-man race. Bobsleigh, that just doesn't work for me. Anyway, that ends a 46-year medal drought for the U.S. bobsleighing or bobsledding, whatever you want to call it.

(LAUGHTER)

O'BRIEN: Congratulations. All right, and these and other races are made just the hundredths of a second difference between gold, silver and bronze. CNN's Carol Lin has gotten to know something about the need for speed and what it takes to achieve it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Winning means getting down the mountain fast, first, alive at breakneck speeds of 100 miles per hour. Are they nuts? The U.S. ski team does have a staff psychologist.

CHRIS CARR, PSYCHOLOGIST: The first year I worked with the ski team in 1993, one of the athletes said to do this well, you have to be on the edge -- the edge of being in total control and the edge of being out of control.

LIN: Whacked-out speed is normal for world class skier Eric Schlopy.

ERIC SCHLOPY: That's why you have to start so young is because you acquire that feeling for speed and an awareness for speed at such a young age that it just becomes second nature.

LIN: I'll show you what Eric's doing in just a moment. But first, consider that he started skiing when he was only 18 months old.

(on camera): It' like these guys have never known fear, which might explain some of the weird things world class skiers do to train, like mounting racks on the roof of a car and strapping themselves in and asking the driver to take off down a dirt road at 90 miles an hour. It's supposed to help them get used to the wind speed.

(voice-over): Whatever gives the edge in downhill racing, where winners and losers are made in one-hundredths of a second. At breakneck speeds, Olympic skiers literally take flight on the course. The athlete's balance, not speed, keeps them in the race, which brings us back to Olympic slalom skier Eric Schlopy.

SCHLOPY: The appropriate set of training, it's like balance training. And it's strength and stabilization all at the same time.

LIN: This is as difficult as it looks. Schlopy had me help show how he trains and how balance starts in his feet.

SCHLOPY: My body is always searching for balance. And that's the little sensors in my feet going into my brain. So same thing happens when you're skiing, going over bumps. You're going 80 miles an hour, going over hills. And you don't want to have to think about that. You want your body just to react naturally.

LIN: React naturally in a dangerous sport. Every elite skier has a story to tell.

SCHLOPY: From my personal experience, I flew 220 feet, going about 70 miles an hour. And I broke my back, my ribs, punctured a lung.

LIN: But Schlopy was back on the slopes in six months. Are they nuts? It depends on how you define what's normal.

Carol Lin, CNN, Salt Lake City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com