"“Every
day, ordinary people achieve extraordinary results."
-Lori-Ann
Muenzer
One
of Canada’s top performers at the 2004 Olympic Games, Lori-Ann Muenzer
captured a gold medal in Athens with her outstanding performance in the
women’s Match Sprint finals. With her Olympic victory, Muenzer became the
first Canadian to bring home a gold medal in cycling.
Apart from reaching the top of the podium in Athens, Muenzer has captured
several medals on the international stage including two silver and two
bronze at the World Track Cycling Championships and a total of one silver
and two bronze at the 1998 and 2002 Commonwealth Games. She made her Olympic
debut for Canada at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.
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Steen's Track Bike
My bike had been shipped off to
France to be repainted in Canadian colours, so in the meantime Steen Madsen
(my coach, training partner, and friend) lent me one of his bikes. I wanted
to capture a different perspective of a track bike but I still wanted to
make it recognizable to everyone.
A track bicycle is different
from a road or a mountain bike: it has no brakes, only one gear (so you can
not stop pedaling and coast!), and you have toe straps which “lock” you into
your pedals making it almost impossible to come out of when training or
racing.
In March of 2000 I took a
walking tour of Maligne Canyon. One of the most spectacular spots I found
on this winter wonderland tour was this piece of “shelf ice”.
For safety reasons,
tour guides will check and break through the ice on a river so that they
know that it is safe to walk on. There are sometimes different levels of
ice and the ice that I was walking on was a good two feet lower than this
piece of shelf ice! The snow on the right hand side shows yet another
couple layers of the frozen riverbed.
If you say the word “England” or “Great
Britain” to me, this is the visual picture that I get: it was
cold, the fog’s just starting to set in, and it was starting to
drizzle. If you notice the roofs, there are a couple different
styles: the typical clay roof and an old and a new thatched
(straw) roof.
This was definitely a
“must see” spot on my list of places to visit and every time that I have
gone back to see this spot it has been cold and raining!
Salisbury was the first town
that I stayed in when I went to England in 1989. I had been
corresponding for over 10 years with the daughter of a friend of my
Mom’s and I decided that on my next holiday I would go and meet her.
Our friendship still continues to this day and whenever I am racing in
England we get to meet and catch up again.
There was a picnic table to the left of
the Old Mill that’s not in this photograph where we had a pint of
Guinness and a traditional English meal. This building is very
“British” with the brick siding and the clay roof. If you notice
the window dressings, each one has a mother duck with her babies in tow!
As well, the fence on the right hand side restricts you from falling
into a small stream!
With good friends I couldn’t think of a
better place to stop and have lunch at.
After the 1998 Commonwealth
Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia I took a holiday and went up north to a
friend’s cottage to relax and unwind from a successful season. Ontario’s
colours are nothing short of spectacular in the fall and it was that “time
of year” again when they were just starting to change.
One morning, when I got up, I
looked out the big picture window onto the lake. The view that I saw was
absolutely breathtaking: the lake was like glass, the morning mist was
rising off of the water, and the sun was starting to come out. The colours
of the lake front trees were brilliant against the dark silhouette of the
taller ones. It was where time stood still and I made only one photograph.
Once the shutter had been
clicked I knew that I had just captured a moment where everything stood
still.
This old Rambler was on a
friend’s acreage just outside of Edmonton and was really old and rusted
looking. I took my flashlight and “painted” only some parts of the
Rambler. If you look closely at the photograph the entire hood is not
visible, nor is the right hand side of the car, but you can just barely make
out the driver’s side mirror, some snow on the hood and only parts of the
front chrome bumper, as well as the snow and grass that was on the underside
of the car.
I definitely needed
some hot chocolate to warm me up after making this photograph as it was the
middle of January and -15ºC!
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