Marie Corriveau began her cross country skiing experience with her parents. They introduced her to the sport and since then she has never looked back but rather ahead of her. Since her beginnings Marie has gone from strength to strength and is now aiming for higher sporting summits. Marie admits her greatest challenges are to push back her limits, both physically and mentally. Physically, Maris has always said that “ you can always improve technique et go faster”. Mentally, she says that “ you have to push back your pain threshold”. But out of all this what Mary finds the...

Manon was proverbially born into judo by her mother who practiced when she was young. Manon was brought with her younger sister and brother to the training sessions and after a month Manon was also training. Her brother and sister have both given up Judo but obviously Manon continued the family trend. The greatest challenge in Manon’s opinion is that in judo you have to combine every aspect of one’s abilities. “ You need strength, technique and you have to be mentally strong”. These assets are extremely invaluable and make a big difference to a judoka. Before the competition Manon...

When I started to learn about how to become more mentally tough by self-talk I found out that I am able to push my body to limits I didn’t know existed. Eventually and unfortunately, I discovered the negative symptoms of pushing yourself that I didn’t even know existed. Looking back, I must have been crazy to push myself to the limits that I did. I neglected my body for months at a time and as a result, it had failed on me. My  mind wanted to push more but my body pulled the handbrake. Injuries were the least of my...

Nina started Judo in 1992 as a hyperactive child with parents quibbling as to what to do with her. Her parents turned towards Judo as a potential solution. Nina was a self proclaimed “muscle head” when she started judo and just used her raw strength, however once she met her current coach Jim Hrbek, technique started to kick in. Nina is a unique judoka because she has 50 % bilateral hearing loss. This is highly unusual and yet she has hearing aids to help her during her day to day life. However she cannot wear them on the mat to...