Nordic skiing
Age: 39
Local Club: Chelsea Nordiq
# Paralmpics: First
By Michael Lapointe
When Caroline Bisson started feeling shoulder pain in March 2007, it took a number of doctors, and years of tests, before she was told she had contracted a rare form of bone cancer.
After multiple surgeries needed to save her life over the span of seven months, and the eventual loss of her entire left arm and shoulder, Bisson decided to strap on her cross-country skis once again to help take her mind off everything her body was going through.
Five years later – and just two years into training for international competition – Bisson will represent Canada in both cross-country skiing and biathlon at the 2014 Paralympic Games in Sochi.
“I would go out and ski between my surgeries as a way to stay healthy and keep control of my body and to recover,” the 39-year-old recounts. “After that, I just kept on skiing recreationally.”
Bisson was an active person before she ever had designs to compete in international sport, running half-marathons and playing on a semi-competitive ultimate Frisbee team. Learning a new sport, with a different body, presented a major challenge, she notes.
“To be honest, I’ve been skiing for two years competitively, and on the technical front, I still have a lot of work to do to have better technique – I am not where I would want to be,” highlights the Francophone athlete who grew up in Ottawa’s Lowertown neighbourhood. “Any skier that trains to go to the Olympics trains for 15 years to get the perfect technique.”
Bisson says that keeping her balance remains the most difficult hurdle. She uses a lot of visualization to get a sense of what’s happening with her body. Coaches have helped her learn the technical aspects of the sport, but figuring out precisely how she should move her body remains somewhat of a mystery.
“I’m missing 15 pounds and I weigh 105, so it’s almost 15 per cent of my body weight that I’m missing,” Bisson underlines. “Skiing is all about weight transfer, so that’s my biggest challenge is to be able to execute the movements properly.
“The other element – your body works in symmetry, where if you swing your arm back, your leg goes forward, so moving my left leg forward is my second biggest challenge.”
Although her athletic pursuit is still a bit of a work in progress, Bisson managed to qualify for the Canadian Paralympic team thanks to her performance at a December World Cup event in Canmore, Alta., where she recorded sixth-place finishes in both cross-country ski and biathlon races.
She calls qualifying for the Paralympics her “biggest milestone” to date.
“For me, with just two years of training, I’ve progressed so much,” emphasizes Bisson, an Elections Canada communications advisor. “2014 is an achievement to be able to go [to Sochi], but it’s just an experience for me at this point because of the challenges I’m still facing.”
Sochi sked
Sat., Mar. 8
3 a.m. ET
Biathlon 6 km, standing
Mon., Mar. 10
5:55 a.m. ET
15 km classic, stand
Tue., Mar. 11
6 a.m. ET
Biathlon 10 km, stand
Wed., Mar. 12
3:57 a.m. ET
1 km sprint free, stand
Fri., Mar. 14
5:30 a.m. ET
Biathlon 12.5 km, stand
Sun., Mar. 16
4:23 a.m. ET
5 km free