The program establishes a reciprocal agreement where David corresponds with the school and speaks at assemblies to share his experiences as a Canadian Olympic athlete hopeful and, in return, the Mayfield community offers some much needed fundraising support.
Having made great strides in the last year, Dave is now in Calgary preparing for the 2009 National Championships and is in need of a state-of-the-art sled that will help him in reaching his latest goal of 140 km/hour…head first!
Through the generous support of G&A Corporate, a local promotions company, a dedicated website has been established where families can visit and order from a variety of products just in time for the Christmas holidays. A portion of the sales will go to support David’s cause. Items will be purchased online and then conveniently picked up from Mayfield S.S. prior to the holidays. Check out the Group of Seven Prints, sports memorabilia and sporting goods apparel and much more!
Hello Mayfield Staff and Students,
Just a little update since the assembly back in May. Over the summer I was employed by Greyhound driving buses around the West Coast. From Calgary I would head North to Edmonton and beyond to Fort McMurray, South to Creston BC, East to Regina, and West to Vancouver. It was tough to get in my training with all the driving, however I was able to find random gyms along the way which let me work out for free or for a really good discount. They seemed to be interested in my bus driving or skeleton sliding stories (probably the latter) and were happy to help me out.
I started up with a new sprint coach. He is very technical and has helped me make some good improvements to my starts. The fitness testing went pretty well this September considering my night drive back from Kamloops allowed me to have only four hours of sleep. I was also able to convince Greyhound to give me three weeks off so I could go out to Whistler for training and the first part of our selections. We had two condos rented out for twenty of us by the Whistler Sliding Centre. It was pretty close quarters and along with the sliding, it made for an ideal reality show. Maybe next time. We also had a Thanksgiving turkey cook off against the girls that ended up taking a really long time. In the end we were too hungry to care who really won so we called it a tie.
I made some progress since the last time I was in Whistler. My starts last year were around the 5 second mark and during our selection race it was brought down to 4.76 seconds. My down times improved by 2 seconds compared to last year. My best was 54.20s compared to last years 56.25s. It may not seem like much but when the track is only 1450m long, 2 seconds is a lot. I was also happy with my maximum speeds. Last year it was about 132 km/h and this year I was able to reach 137.4 km/h. Next time my goal is 140 km/h which is what the world cup sliders reach. I survived the track without incident, however a few of my teammates were sent to the medical centre following their spectacular crashes. They were okay. There were also some black bears that made a daily inspection of the track. This would delay our sliding, but a delay was better than hitting them in a corner or having them chase us up the finish. I ended up 4th in the development selection race and was fairly happy with the result. Being one of the newer sliders it was a good achievement for a years worth of sliding experience.
I am now back in Calgary and we are currently preparing for the 2009
National Championships. I am also in the process of purchasing a different sled. It’s like purchasing a used car as they can get up to $10,000 depending on the market. It was decided that for me to develop and reach the next level a newer sled was needed. It will help me keep good form and stay quiet on the sled. I'm excited to see my next progression, but I am taking it one step at a time. - Dave Greszczyszyn