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An unlucky year ends with 13th place and tears for Owens

DAN SILKSTONE February 25, 2010
(Article from: The Age)

IT TOOK the longest time for Jenny Owens to leave the snow after her quarter-final of the women's ski cross yesterday. She had crossed the finish line, that much was clear to all. But was she at the end?

For a year she had told herself - and with good reason - that she was a medal contender at these Olympics. In recent months and again in recent days her body and her fickle sport had conspired jointly against her.

Long after all the other competitors from her race had left, long after the unlucky losers from subsequent heats had scarpered, she stood and waited and watched those who had made it past her. The semi-finals. The final. The winners.

''I wasn't ready to come and face the media yet,'' she said later. ''I didn't want to cry.''

Of course, she did anyway.

Her first words and first thought were more than 30 minutes in the making but brutally curt. ''Crap, crap year, really,'' she said.

Six months ago she had been a legitimate medal threat here, notching impressive results in her adopted sport and thrilled that ski cross - the frenzied roller derby with planks and poles - would make its Olympic debut in 2010. Then everything went wrong.

She fell and seriously injured her knee last month but put off surgery - again. Intensive treatment and crossed fingers got her to Vancouver in surprisingly good shape. On her first day at training last week she tore the knee again.

The past week she hardly left the athletes village, her life reduced to ice baths and physiotherapy. She has needed a full knee reconstruction for two years but pushed it aside because of her desire for a medal.

''My goal was to come here and podium but this year has just been one disaster after another,'' she said. ''This has been my hardest year ever.''

In the past five months alone she has had two knee operations, a concussion and a never-ending series of flus and colds. ''I think I'm just really exhausted,'' she said. ''I'm worn out and my body is just breaking down.''

She is 31 and facing a long lay-off after surgery. She was clearly shattered yesterday. Would it fire her to keep going or convince her to retire?

''I can't go out like this,''she said. ''I would never feel satisfied.''

In sport, most times, the most engaging athletes are the ones who say what they really think and feel.

When Canada's Ashleigh McIvor held her nerve and avoided all the trouble ski cross can throw up to claim the gold medal, the 26-year-old's response was immediate and simple. ''Wow.''

It was what the whole stadium was feeling. This was a win that played well in the grandstands. A local woman winning unexpected gold after several days when each golden expectation would prove a disappointment.

The host nation had three good medal chances but Frenchwoman Ophelie David was the clear favourite. Unfortunately for her it wasn't a clear sort of day.

All Games there has been no snow at Cypress - suddenly there was too much. In a heavy snowstorm the gold medal favourite and six-time World Cup champion took off on a jump and landed badly, missing the semi-final. Canada had the second, third and fourth best skiers in the world. All of them native British Columbians, raised on these slopes.

McIvor seized the opportunity, pulling ahead in the middle section of the final and sending the crowd into raptures.

She had been partly responsible for this stage even existing, having written an essay arguing for her sport's inclusion in the Games that went to skiing's governing body. Now, at home, she was a champion.

''Skiing in the back country and just racing your friends from the top to the bottom, that's what ski cross is about. And who can represent Canada better than a girl from Whistler?'' she said.

The Australians had done well to get out of their heats but both could not muster the speed needed to break into the top two in their quarter-final. Katya Crema - the younger of the two - finished 15th. ''I'm still happy,'' she said. ''First Olympics, finished top 16, it's amazing.''

Owens felt differently about her 13th place but said she was lucky even to have made the start line.

''I'm skiing better than I can walk, I'm having trouble going up and down stairs. It will just be good to get home and have some time off it.''

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Sun shines on our best winter Olympians

Nicole Jeffery | October 24, 2009

(Article from: The Australian)

CAS strange as it seems, Sydney's northern beaches have become a nursery for winter Olympians.

The sun and sand may seem far removed from the domain of snow and ice, but an unusually high number of Australia's potential Olympic team members for February's Vancouver Games call the beaches home.

They include Australia's two best male snowboarding prospects, teenaged half-piper Nathan Johnston (Mona Vale) and snowboard cross veteran Damon Hayler (Dee Why), skeleton slider Emma Lincoln-Smith (Narrabeen) and ski cross gun Jenny Owens (Freshwater).

The siblings that started the trend were former world slalom champion Zali Steggall and her snowboarding brother Zeke, from Manly.

Owens, 31, can't really explain why so many of Australia's best winter athletes hail from a place better known for sun worship, but she's pleased to be one of them.

She is about to embark on her second Olympic campaign, after making her debut in 2002 as an Alpine skier.

She and Steggall (bronze medallists in 1998) are the only Australians to secure a top-10 finish in the Alpine events at the Games.

But five years ago Owens switched to skiing's wild side, the emerging discipline of ski cross (think roller-derby over an obstacle course on skis) which will make what is expected to be a crowd-pleasing debut in Vancouver.

The related sport of snowboard cross debuted in Turin four years ago to much excitement, providing a signature moment when American Lindsay Jacobellis blew the gold medal by trying to do a showy grab of her board on the penultimate jump while way out in front. She fell on landing and her rivals went past her to claim the medals.

Ski cross promises just as many thrills and spills and Owens has emerged as one of the world's best exponents since she left the haughty Alpine world. She has won three World Cup medals in the past two seasons.

"I was always a very competitive person and when I retired (from Alpine skiing) that side of me wasn't being fed," she explained.

"I was really getting itchy feet and I have never been good in team sports, so I went overseas for a season and decided to do ski cross.

"It's so different to what I had done in the past, it was way more relaxed in the atmosphere and I really enjoyed it. I ski very well when I am under pressure and when you have people next to you on the course, it really challenges you. It's more fun than racing the clock.

"At the start you really have to be fast and explosive and I have always been better when there's people around pushing me.

"It's a nerve-racking sport and sometimes you have to make some gutsy moves to get ahead. It's a bit like motocross or BMX racing, but even more crazy."

Because of the physical jostling involved in the sport, particularly at the start, Owens has had to become stronger in the upper-body, incorporating more gym work and cross-training such as board-paddling.

"I've also been practising getting knocked," she said.

"My physio told me we should start training with a rugby team but I already have enough injuries. I already need a knee reconstruction but I don't have time to do it before the Olympics.

"So I do things like balancing on a ball and having someone push me on the side, or having balls thrown at me. I do gymnastics and trampolining because it's all about body control and controlling your body in the air.

"I am not very comfortable being in the air, I prefer to be on the ground, but we are practising a lot of jumping to get me out of my comfort zone."

Owens is also determined to have fun at the Olympics after becoming caught up in the medal chase last season. "I know I can medal at the Olympics and I have been so focused on that I lost the fun and forgot why I was doing it and why I was good at it. I want to get that back this season."

The Australian team for Vancouver is shaping up well with a broader and deeper range of medal contenders than ever before.

Turin moguls skiing gold medallist Dale Begg-Smith, who grew up in Vancouver, will once again spearhead the Australian challenge after recovering from knee reconstruction surgery earlier this year.

The women's aerials team retains its traditional strength, led by the ageless former world champion Jacqui Cooper (lining up for her fifth Olympics) and the current World Cup champion Lydia Lassila.

The snowboarding ranks are equally strong, led by twice Winter X Games half-pipe champion Torah Bright and including world championships silver medallist Holly Crawford and World Cup medallist Nate Johnstone.

Other prospects include Damon Hayler and Alex Pullin in snowboard cross, Siberian-born speedskater Tatiana Borodulina and skeleton sliders Michelle Steele and Emma Lincoln-Smith.

Australia will send about 35 athletes to Vancouver. The team's best previous medal tally is two, achieved at the past two Games in Salt Lake City and Turin.

Link - http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,26251430-2722,00.html

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Owens down but not out - 11 August 2009 - www.Olympic.com.au

Winter Olympic medal hopeful Jenny Owens has had a scare after a high-speed accident at the Australian National Ski Championships at the NSW ski resort of Thredbo.

Owens, a multiple World Cup medallist in the new Olympic discipline of ski cross, was leading after the first leg of the giant slalom on Monday but lost control at the second last gate in the second run.

The 31-year-old slammed her head, grazing her neck and bruising her hands and fingers. She will have a cognitive test on Tuesday to determine if there was any concussion but she was cleared of any broken bones.

"I just kind of got stuck on my tail in the softer snow and slipped and fell through the finish," she said.

"I'm banged and bruised and I hit my head really hard.

"But I'm a tough cookie and yet to break a bone touch wood, so hopefully it will only take a week or two to get over it."

Owens, an ex-racer who still competes in the alpine disciplines in Australia as part of her training schedule, hopes to be OK for the national ski cross event at Victoria's Mt Hotham in two weeks.

From there she will compete at the New Zealand Winter Games where a strong international field is expected to gather as a lead-up to February's Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Ninth in the combined event at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Owens gave up the sport before taking up ski cross in 2005.

She picked up a second and fourth on the World Cup ski cross tour in 2008/09 and is considered an outside chance of a medal in Vancouver.

http://corporate.olympics.com.au/news.cfm?ArticleID=10285

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Motocross on skis - 31 May 2009 - Sydney Morning Herald

JENNY OWENS has placed herself $100,000 in the red to pursue a sport, which, at the most recent World Cup finals, left about half the field seriously injured.

"There's a blown knee or a concussion or something at every single competition," Owens says of ski cross, a new Winter Olympic sport best described as motocross on skis.

"I had a bit of a fall and was knocked out for a few minutes during one race this year, and spent the night in hospital. At the World Cup finals this year, out of the 16 girls who competed, there were two serious concussions, a broken leg, a blown knee, a back injury and a couple of smashed faces. Yeah, it can be pretty full-on."

Apart from the blood and broken bones, ski cross is a demanding and explosive, high-energy sport that fits in perfectly with the International Olympic Committee's goal to regenerate the winter Games program to make it appealing to young people.

Ski cross began to grow about 10 years ago. It involves heats of four competitors charging down an obstacle course and fighting their way to the finish. The heats are based on times. The final is first-past-the-post. In between the big jumps and banked turns at about 70kmh, there can be pushing, shoving, biting and tripping. OK, maybe not the last two.

"It can be quite rough," Owens says. "There's definitely a few girls that I know are pretty dirty, and I'll try to stay away from them. I'll generally try to pick a start gate away from anyone I know will do things they shouldn't. But the sport is still very new, so there are still a lot of grey areas about what's allowed or not.

"In soccer, they allow two people to push and shove a bit if they're going for the ball. It's the same in ski cross. It's hard to not push back if someone's pushing up against you. But you do have to be careful because you'll get disqualified if you physically push someone over or pull them back or do anything blatant like that."

Owens is our top-ranked ski cross competitor and is seventh in the world.

But compared with the top-ranked woman, French skier Ophelie David, her balance sheet looks a bit bare.

"If I was European, I'd be laughing - Ophelie David would earn over $100,000 from competition, plus about the same in sponsorships," says Owens, who works at the NSW Institute of Sport, and is studying to be a television presenter between training for the Olympics.

"This is the first time I've had support, from the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia and NSWIS, so it's the first time it hasn't cost me. But over the past three seasons I paid for everything, so I'm about $100,000 down."

Owens hopes to perform well at the Games in Vancouver, Canada, in February.

"There are some sports that are fading out and people are losing interest," she says.

"But there are some new sports coming through which are really interesting. Whereas alpine skiing is having a lot of trouble keeping viewers because it's so repetitive, ski cross has a lot of action, a lot of falls. It's a lot more interesting to watch.

"Realistically, if everything goes well there's no reason why I can't win at the Olympics. But there is a lot that can happen, you can't really plan too much in this sport."

Article by David Sygall

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Aussie Owens fourth in ski cross World Cup - January 11 2009 - Sydney Morning Herald

Australia has enjoyed another solid weekend of winter sports results with Jenny Owens finishing fourth in a ski cross World Cup in France and Alex Pullin placing sixth in the third snowboard cross event of the season in Austria.

The results come a day after skeleton athlete Michelle Steele raced to fifth place in a World Cup in Konigssee, Germany.

Owens qualified in second place in the Les Contamines ski cross event, then fought her way through the four-woman head-to-head quarter-final and semi-final rounds, finishing second each time to defending World Cup champion Ophelie David of France.

But the 30-year-old Perisher Blue skier got a poor start in the final, and despite several attempts to pass, had to be content with fourth place.

Hedda Berntsen won the gold medal from David, with Katrin Offner of Austria taking the bronze.

Meanwhile in Bad Gastein, Austria, Olympic Winter Institute team-mate Alex Pullin raced to his second top ten result for the season.

qualified in seventh place, then won his finals round of 16 head-to-head encounter.

The 21-year-old Mt Buller rider finished in second place in his quarter final, but could only manage fourth place in the semi-final round.