Wednesday 11 December 2013

Whistler training camp

World Cup season started off down in lillehammer, Norway last weekend. I personally did not have a great start, I think this time my nerves took over and I wasnt able to give my best performance. But that is now done and I have learned my lesson from that.

The day after we came home from Norway we flew down to Vancouver to get some quality training in at the Whistler Olympic Park. 

First day this morning jumping and WOW the hill is in perfect condition! nice ice tracks, dead wind, nicely groomed landing hill. Could not have made it any better and I would just like to thank all the hill workers and volunteers that made this happen for us! THANK YOU SO MUCH :D

The best part is we (myself, Alexandra, Taylor) just the 3 of us get this facility all to ourselves this week!! how awesome is that!? 
we have amazing people helping us to prepare for the Sochi Olympics and I think this week will definetly help us out in the long run seeing that we can take as many jumps as we want and we dont have to wait around for other jumpers because the hill is just for the 3of us here.

This morning my jumping actually went pretty good! The technique is getting there I just need to find a way to use my legs more so I can get a better effect off the take-off. 






Well I am off to the gym now for some weight training! will keep in touch :) 


Monday 2 December 2013

So far in Slovenia....

Day 3 now in Slovenia, and I have been pretty busy down here. 
First day was mostly travel and fighting the jet leg.. Well unfortunately I am still fighting jet leg but day 2 we got to sleep in,so I did just that! 
In the afternoon my team went down to the centre of Ljubljana, where there are castles, old homesteads and churches as well as a few small shops. Beautiful architectures all around the centre, it's amazing to just come back and see it all again. 
I also met up with an old friend, he is a Slovenian Skijumping coach that temporarily coached me for a few weeks. It was great seeing him, along with his wife and baby Sara! She was so cute and just like any other baby she was SO energetic after she ate hahaha
That's her in the picture! 

By night we went to a gym to do an aerobics class with Bine's wife (Bine is our men's coach). It was exhausting but so much fun! The aerobics steps were fun after we got used to the rhythm and right after we got into a lot of TRX excercises to strengthen our core. 



Now today was a whole different story.......
First thing in the morning we headed over to the Dali factory to get fitted into our Skijumping suits. Our teammate Mckenzie picked out the color and material for us which turned out great!
Than we visited the Elan ski factory, Toni the boss man hooked us up with some Elan swag :) 

AND THAN IN THE EVENING.....






WIND TUNNEL TIME!!!

It was everyone's first time in the wind tunnel today, we would always hear stories about and see pictures of other athletes using the wind tunnel but it is so amazing to actually get the chance to go and use it myself. There is so much I learned today from this experience, I can not wait to get on the actual skijump and test out some of the things we worked on. 

I just want to thank Akrapović.com as well as Bine who hooked us up with them and let us use the wind tunnel facility. It was a great experience and I am thrilled at the opportunity. THANK YOU SO MUCH! 

Here is a picture of me in the wind tunnel :D










Thursday 28 November 2013

New Sponsor

A great news for myself as well as my team!!!
SPORTCHEK has become my new personal sponsor as well as an outerwear sponsor for Ski Jumping Canada. 
This is a fantastic addition to my journey to the Olympics and I am so thankful for everyone from Sportchek as well as the FGL Sports staff. 
Seeing that Sportchek became the new Canadian Olympic Team sponsor this year it seemed the chances were slim, but wow! I was so happy and excited when I first heard the news. 

Last week I met up with a FGL Sport manager at Crowfoot Sportchek (also the store I work at) and went on an Adidas gear shopping spree, and today my team was able to experience the same shopping spree! 
There were a lot of smiles and I am so proud to be representing both Canada and Sportchek!!! 

THANK YOU SPORTCHEK :)



Tuesday 26 November 2013

Ski Jumping Canada jersey

Our club came up with a cool idea to sell Ski Jumping Canada logoed hockey jerseys to raise some money for our club.

You can choose between a Ski Jump Canada jersey or a Nordic Combined Canada jersey. 
And you can get either a national team athletes name, your name, or any name on the back of the jersey.
The price for the jersey is $165 each and 100% of all the earnings go towards the club. It's a great chance to help out our club as a whole.
Just click on this link:
http://www.altiusnordicskiclub.org/resourses/payment-page/

If you would like to help me individually than please click here:
http://atsukotanaka.blogspot.ca/p/joi.html?m=1



Monday 18 November 2013

Mondelēz Canada new COC partner launch

Mondelēz Canada, makers of world-famous brands like Cadbury, Dentyne, Oreo and Ritz, has partnered with the Canadian Olympic Comittee (COC). 
To help spread the word Mondelēz Canada reached out to a few Canadian athletes to help launch this news virtually. 
Fortunately, I was one of those athletes and recieved a nice gift of goodies. 
The coolest thing ever was the personalized Dairy Milk chocolate bar that had my name right on the packaging as well as a "good luck" message! 
I am honored to be apart of this launch and so stoked on the goodies! #prideandjoy 




Thursday 14 November 2013

back on snow!

so that time of the year has rolled in to start jumping on snow! Drove all the way down to Park City, Utah with my team to do a short training camp before we head out to Norway for our World Cup opener early December. 
So far we have had 3 days of jumping and all I can say is I MISSED THIS. 
We only have a couple more days here, unfortunately the weather is warm so the jumps are the only place with snow but thanks to the hard work the Park City crew put in we are having great training here. 


Monday 28 October 2013

CBC National News

Last night on the CBC National News, Peter Armstrong ran a story about the facilities at WinSport Canada and how it is building Olympic athletes and how the facilities are being used to train athletes.
Luckily I was able to be apart of his story.

One of the facilities at WinSport are the big ski jump towers. They are hard to miss! and Peter and his crew stopped by to do an interview.
If you missed it and want to take a look at the story here is the link!

----->  http://www.cbc.ca/sports-content/video/#id=2414663968  <-----

Wednesday 25 September 2013

Looking back on the Summer season

Finally the summer season has come to an end.

A lot has happened for me, a few ups and downs, but overall it was a great summer. Started off strong, training in the gym went smoothly.
Training camps in Park City, and Hinterzarten, Germany went well and I was feeling confident for the Summer Grand Prix competitions.

Both Germany and France, Team Canada placed 4th in the mixed team competition which consists of 2 male jumpers and 2 female. Both times we were so close to getting onto the podium but there were no regrets because we all did our best out there, all we know is that we will get on that podium next year!

Russia and Kazakhstan was a good trip for me. In the second competition day in Russia I got my new personal best result after finishing in 5th place.
Than moving over to Kazakhstan, also in the second competition there I landed another personal best, this time ending up on the podium with a 3rd place finish!
It was a great day for me, the previous day I got very sick and was not feeling strong or ready but I am glad I pulled things together for the second day of competition.
My last podium in an international competition was back in 2008 where I won the competition in Baiersbronn, Germany. So really its been a long time coming and it feels awesome to be back on the podium.
Also after the Summer season I am now ranked 4th in the World Ranking, which I am super excited about! :D
I've worked hard to get to where I am now, and its pretty good timing as well considering the Olympics are so close. My goal now is to keep up this performance, become more consistent with every jump I take, and perform my best on the Olympic stage.

Saturday 14 September 2013

Nizhny Tagil, Russia

Friday and Saturday we had competitions on the normal hill in Nizhny Tagil, Russia. I was jumping fairly well in the official training but couldn't seem to do the same in the first day of competition where I placed 10th. 

I reset and refocused for the second day of competition. 

The second competition compared to the first day was a little different with wind conditions, my first round jump ended up a little late but was able to adjust myself pretty well entering the air and caught some head wind near the end which helped me fly further leaving me in 7th place after the first round was complete.

Second round than came along, got held on the bar for a while, and when the light turned green my coach didn't flag me till the last few seconds which I knew in my head that wind conditions were not ideal. But I jumped my best, and held on till the very VERY end, which probably wasn't the brightest of ideas because I failed to land in a telemark position. Oops! 
But I did end up having the least amount of headwind out of almost all competitors which gave me extra points added to my total score and in the end had my best GrandPrix result at 5th place! 

I am very happy with my result but there is still more room for improvement so I will be training harder and hopefully improving more in future competition results!

Lastly, thank you everyone so much! I have received many kind words and I am so grateful to have such amazing supporters. I love you guys so much and I hope I can keep making everyone as well as myself proud!
  

Saturday 31 August 2013

BBQ

My closest Japanese families gathered together today for a fun BBQ!
It's a super nice day, the sun is shinning and the birds are chirping and the steak is cooking!

I've known all these families since forever ago and it's always nice to get together and exchange stories and share some laughs :) 
Although its always a little awkward when some of the parents mention how they've changed my diaper way back when...... Hahaha but they are all great supporters of mine and I'm so happy to have them in my life, they always have my back and are always cheering me on, on my journey to the Olympics.
Love them all <3 

Thursday 29 August 2013

New Job :D

Finally found a great place to work that is willing to work with my busy schedule!
I've been applying to a bunch of different places and get through the interview, but once they take a look at what my schedule looks like for training and competition, the interview is as far as I get :(
BUT this time it's different! HURRAY!!!
Thank you so much SportChek. Looking forward to working with all of the amazing staff. Everyone please stop by and and come shop at SportChek, we have a great selection of brands in store that you are going to fall in love with :)

Friday 23 August 2013

New tracks

Today I took my first jumps on the Calgary's K90 since they rebuilt the inrun tracks. It's a lot smoother an has a longer curve coming into the take off. 
I'd like to thank everyone at WinSport who put their time and effort into making these new tracks!