Athlete Profile: Melisa Hollingsworth

It’s mid-December at PN HQ, and we’re looking forward to winter and snow descending upon us. In Canada, many people have happy memories of afternoons spent sledding down hills, with cold fingers, red cheeks, and big mugs of hot chocolate and marshmallows afterwards. Whether young or old, it’s hard not to have fun barrelling through the snow on a Krazy Karpet.

Growing up on a ranch in Eckville, Alberta, Canada, 28-year-old Mellisa Hollingsworth certainly never dreamed that she’d find true happiness tobogganing down icy tracks at 120 km/hour. But that’s exactly what happened when she became a skeleton athlete.

Mellisa was introduced to skeleton and the dream of competing at the Olympics by her cousin, two-time World Skeleton Champion Ryan Davenport. It seemed to be a perfect fit for Mellisa, a former provincial level competitor in track and basketball. Her natural speed and power helped her win a silver medal at the 2000 World Championships.

With her eyes on the prize, Mellisa felt that if she could just go to the Olympics and win a medal, success would bring happiness. When she didn’t qualify for the 2002 Olympic team, Mellisa considered quitting. Although she came back to win her first World Championship in 2006, earn a bronze medal at the 2006 Olympics games in Torino, Italy, and become the first skeleton athlete ever to finish in the top three for the remaining races of the season, she didn’t feel inspired. Despite being at the top of the podium, Mellisa’s feeling of fulfillment in the sport and in life was bottoming out.

In Ghana with Right to Play

After a year away from the World Cup circuit and a strong comeback season, Mellisa sees now what competing in her sport brings to her life beyond wearing a medal around her neck. She’s had some amazing experiences with her sport, from her Olympic experience to traveling to Africa with Right to Play. Now she appreciates the pleasure she gets from simple things. With a new focus and drive to get the most out of life, Melisa still feels she has not yet realized all of her competitive goals, and has stepped up her nutrition and training. Her goal: gold on her home turf at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.

Melissa’s success as a skeleton athlete is all about how fast and hard she can sprint, push, and slide herself down the hill. In the off-season, Mellisa trains much like a track and field athlete would: she spends 3-4 hours/day focusing on sprinting, jumping and strength training, along with several hours of therapeutic treatments to foster recovery. When the competitive season starts, she spends 3-5 hours a day at the sliding track, on top of her regular dry land training and therapy. Equipment tune-ups, video analysis with her coach, and much-needed recovery naps round out her days.

Though she’s a little embarrassed to admit it, before the 2006 Olympics, Mellisa’s idea of eating well meant a quick stop at Quizno’s. In the spring of 2007, when she decided to make nutrition a bigger priority, Mellisa went cold turkey (so to speak). She ate an egg for breakfast, then four meals every 2-3 hours consisting of five ounces of chicken breast and a very small serving of a few select vegetables. The pressure of such restricted eating led Mellisa to become obsessed with food. She was always thinking about it, constantly wanting to break the rules. Eventually she found herself binging, only to break down and feel defeated, both physically and emotionally.

When Mellisa realized that her behaviours and attitude towards food were not healthy, she sought out direction and advice from Dr. John Berardi of Precision Nutrition. He provided a plan flexible enough to incorporate a wide variety of foods that were both healthy and beneficial for her performance and body composition. Since starting to eat the PN way, Mellisa’s noticed a big change in her energy and body composition, and no longer feels the need to restrict certain foods.

Sticking to a loose routine with her eating has helped Mellisa stay on track with her nutrition. A “scrambled mess” is Mellisa’s breakfast of choice: eggs with garlic, green onions, green and red peppers, tomatoes, avocado and cheese. She’s had it every day for the past 1 1/2 yrs, as it’s an easy way for her to get in some protein and she can change up the types of peppers and cheese. (But, she says, she never leaves out the garlic!)

Mellisa takes BCAAs before and during training sessions, and always has a post workout shake of whey protein and Gatorade. Lunch is usually something simple, such as a salad and cottage cheese, or a meal from the Main Dish, a local restaurant in Calgary that supports Mellisa’s athletic endeavors. Her favourite “Main Dish” is the grilled chicken breast and cheddar broccoli salad. Mellisa finds that salads work well for her because she can change the ingredients as she likes, and get all the nutrients she needs in a single portion.

Beef is a natural dietary staple for a girl raised on an Alberta ranch. Dinner is often a steak salad with apples, cranberries and nuts for some toppings, or meatloaf with carrots or squash. She tends to stay away from starchy carbohydrates like pastas, rice, potatoes and bread, as they leave her feeling bloated and lethargic, and she tends to gain weight quickly with them in her diet. The same goes for pre-competition. Mellisa generally opts for chicken or ground beef as she finds it digests quickly and doesn’t leave her feeling sluggish.

When there’s room to treat herself, Mellisa orders in salmon sashimi, edamame and a dynamite roll for dinner, or has her favourite bedtime snack: Triscuits and melted cheddar cheese with chocolate milk.

With the help of her coach, Stu McMillan, Main Dish and Precision Nutrition, Mellisa now feels the best she’s ever felt. Though she’s focusing her efforts on 2010, Melissa knows that she can’t expect an Olympic medal to complete her. Just as the Chinese proverb says, “The journey is the reward”. Mellisa is learning that there is much to enjoy on the path to the podium. She’s confident she is headed in the right direction and enjoying the trip, even if the final destination is unknown.

Stay on top of Mellisa’s and the rest of the Canadian Skeleton team’s schedule and race results at www.mellisahollingsworth.ca and www.bobsleigh.ca.

Mellisa Hollingsworth profile at Bobsleigh.ca

More about skeleton

The first skeleton runs were natural tracks, built in Switzerland in the late 19th Century and capitalized on the recreational popularity of tobogganing. Straight downhill courses were modified by adding curves to make the runs more interesting and challenging. The first official toboggan race was in 1884 and the first known skeleton event was in 1887. In fact, it was skeleton racing which laid the foundation for the sport of bobsleigh.

The modern era of Canadian participation in skeleton racing began in 1986 with the opening of the Calgary track. Sliders had much to learn about technique from the much more experienced European competitors.

Canadian women have been prominent in the sport, since the first officially sanctioned women’s international race was held in Konigssee, Germany in 1996. Michelle Kelly won her first race later that same season – the start of many successes for Canadian women. At the first ever women’s World Championships, in 2000 in Igls, Austria, Mellisa Hollingsworth captured the silver medal.