Nathan Smith won a silver medal at the 2015 World Championships in Finland and quickly followed up with a gold at a World Cup in Russia two weeks later. He is the first Canadian male to win a medal at World Championships in biathlon! Nathan's words after his first big win were: "It was a break through performance for me. I am very proud and also happy to share it with our team after all the hard work everyone has put in."

The legacy of the 1988 Winter Olympics is benefitting athletes training in Calgary. The Luge program continues to develop world class athletes. Results at the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, although heartbreakingly close, were the best ever. The team had three fourth place finishes, just off the podium.

Building off of these best ever results, the 2015 season was a positive first year of the Olympic quadrennial leading to the Pyeong Chang Games in 2018. Alex Gough won a bronze medal at this year's World Championships as well as three silver medals on the World Cup circuit. The relay team also won two bronze medals in World Cups this season. Three-time Olympian Sam Edney contributed with his first Gold medal at the World Cup in Calgary. At that same competition Arianne Jones achieved a podium result winning a bronze and Tristan Walker and Justin Snith won bronze in pairs.

The athletes are a big part of their own success, but today's sport reality also involves a professional support team. Jeremiah Barnert, strength and conditioning coach and Ryan Morrison, physiotherapist travelled with the team for the 2014- 2015 competition season. Barnert says that the Integrated Support Team and the coaches work together closely and its impact on the day-to-day training is substantial. Gough notes that having Barnert travelling with the team helps maintain a consistent level of expertise. When traveling Barnert also assists in analyzing Luge starts which are critical to a good run.

The 2014-2015 season also had its challenges. Gough and Edney had to adapt changes in the schedule. After Sochi Games, Gough decided to focus more attention on working towards her Engineering degree. Edney was recovering from a back and hand injury. With the help of the IST they were able to manage training and perform at their best during the competition season.

Looking forward, Barnert notes that there is still work to be done. He says that the luge athletes need to learn from every training session and maximize their recovery with excellent nutrition and rest when there are significant loading phases during the training year.

The 2014-2015 competition season is now complete and the athletes are now in a rest and recovery phase. The IST and the coaches however are evaluating the past season and putting their plans together for the World Championships in 2016 and the Pyeong Chang Olympics in 2018.

Canadian Sport Institute Calgary: @csicalgary

Photo by Dave Holland: @csicalgaryphoto

What's next? The question comes to mind quickly after an athlete performs at the Olympic Games. Rudi Swiegers, Figure Skater and Olympian, decided to take a year off after skating in the Sochi Olympics in 2014. He wanted time to evaluate what was next after achieving one of his lifetime goals – performing at the Olympic Games.

In 2008, the men's Water Polo team made history by qualifying for the Beijing Olympics. They had hoped to continue that trend but narrowly missed out on London 2012. Since then, rebuilding the team and qualifying for Rio 2016 has been the goal. Changes were made at the beginning of the four year cycle after London with a younger group of players centralizing in Calgary. An additional group of eight veteran players are currently playing in Europe in professional leagues and join the centralized Calgary group for major competitions. Canadian Sport Institute Calgary have had a long term relationship with the Men's Water Polo team. Strength and conditioning coach Jeff Osadec notes that as the current centralized team is relatively young, he had to build the players using fundamental techniques to develop their training base. Early results have been positive as the combined group of veterans and young players won gold at the recent test event for the Pan American Games by defeating Brazil, considered a top world team, in Toronto last month.

Robin Randall, goalie and veteran on the team has remarked "It was an incredibly exciting match at the new facility in Markham, Ontario. Our captain, Kevin Graham, said it best when he told us that the Pan Am Games start with this test tournament. Winning helps us with momentum leading into the Pan American Games in July, which is our Olympic qualifier." Canada and Brazil also earned a berth for this summer's FINA World Championships in Russia with their top-two finishes at the test event in Toronto.

In the next few months as the team prepares for the Pan Am Games, they will continue working with dietitian Kelly Drager to maximize opportunities to fuel and recover their bodies from the grueling training. They train up to six hours a day and burn a large number of calories making nutrition critical. Their intake needs to be around 5000 calories. Many of these athletes are also full time students so finding time for proper recovery can be a challenge. Drager's job is to help them manage their recovery between training, at school and competitions. Food logs are used to track caloric intake at specific times during weeks of training. Input from the medical and integrated support team ensures that even with both heavy training and travel, the athletes can recover and maintain their body weight. Randall also says that "having CSI support year round, is a huge benefit to our athletic careers. I can't thank them enough for the resources they've given me personally to achieve excellence both in and out of the pool."

With just a few more months before the Pan Am Games, the players will be engaged in blocks of heavy training and competitions to maximize their opportunity for qualifying for the Olympic Games in Rio.

Canadian Sport Institute Calgary: @csicalgary

Photo by Dave Holland: @csicalgaryphoto