Cindy says she might come back for more

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This article was published 25/02/2010 (5736 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — Boy, it sure didn’t sound like Cindy Klassen’s last race at the 2010 Olympics was her swan song.

Heck, it might not be her last race of the Vancouver Games.

"I would just know whether it’s time to shut it down or to keep going," Klassen told reporters after a 12th-place finish in the women’s 5,000 at the Richmond Oval on Tuesday. "Because I still love the sport. It’s great being an athlete. It’s a healthy lifestyle. You meet a lot of neat people and get to travel around the world.

"The whole spirit of sport is really exciting, seeing people rise up to the challenge," the six-time Olympic medallist added. "There’s heartbreaks. There’s days where you triumph over challenges. Sport is great for life learning experiences."

The downside? "I’m 30," she smiled, "so I’m getting a little older. Maybe it’s time to finish up my school — I’ve put that off for awhile now — and maybe settle down, I hope, eventually."

But Klassen might continue competing, perhaps with an eye on the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, for the same reason she’s been unable to perform in Vancouver as she did in winning a Canadian-record five medals in Turin four years ago: double knee surgery last spring that took longer than expected to heal.

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The year before, Klassen’s World Cup season was cut short when she came home to be with her family after sister Lisa was seriously hurt in a car accident.

"Yeah, the last four years haven’t been ideal for me," she conceded. "I haven’t had a full season since the Olympics (in 2006), so it would be neat to see what I could do if I could train the next four years leading up to that. So I haven’t ruled that out. But I’m not saying I’m going to keep going, either. I have to decide that."

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca

Randy Turner
Reporter

Randy Turner spent much of his journalistic career on the road. A lot of roads. Dirt roads, snow-packed roads, U.S. interstates and foreign highways. In other words, he got a lot of kilometres on the odometer, if you know what we mean.

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