Go Trudy!

TRUDY'S EYES ON BEIJING

The Geelong Advertiser July 25 2006

Lara's Trudy McIntosh is back in training for the Beijing Olympics. It was the high-flying beauty of aerial skiing that Trudy McIntosh fell in love with.The freedom of flip-twisting high above a snow-capped mountain and the exhilaration of a perfectly straight-tipped landing.

But it was the moment that was meant to inspire the sport's next big thing on to her greatest heights that would eventually turn McIntosh away.

In her second year out with a painful knee injury, Mcintosh, from the loungeroom of her Lara home, watched aerial skiing queen Jacqui Cooper finish a disappointing eighth at this year's Winter Olympics, when she realised that all the pain just might not be worth it.

"Jacqui was the best jumper out there she should have won Olympics but she didn't because the sport is so unpredictable,'' McIntosh said.

"It was a soft landing and her ski dug in, plus wind conditions and it just got taken away from her. But the public don't understand that, they just think she bombed out and I just didn't want to ...''

McIntosh, 21, was one of seven women on the Australian aerial skiing team to have blown her knee.

For almost two years after tearing her cruciate ligament on a practice jump in China she says she woke up in pain, clutching her knee, wondering when she'd again be able to walk without a limp.Now, after three operations, a marathon rehabilitation, some serious soul-searching and the hardest decisions of her life, McIntosh has turned her hand back to gymnastics.

Finally pain-free, the smile has returned to her face, there is spring back in her step and an Olympic medal in her sights.

And, after just three months back on the mat, she is already a strong chance to represent Australia at the 2006 World Championships this October.

It has been a dramatic backflip, but one she is loving and extremely good at.

"My whole body just clicked backed into action and knew what it was doing after just one week,'' she said.

"It's very fast, I know, but if I keep going the way I am, who knows?''

As remarkable as the transition has been, it should come as no surprise to those in gymnastics that McIntosh has made such a successful return, given at 13, she bagged two gold, one bronze and a silver medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. Two years later and she was the youngest member of Australia's Olympic team in Sydney, and one of only a handful of women in the world able to pull off her signature move - the McIntosh vault - a full-twisting front layout.

But, tired of all the training and routine, the teenager quit the sport three weeks later in search of a normal life, where she could hang out with friends and eat ice-cream."I put on 12kgs in three weeks after the Olympics,'' she said, taking her 39kg frame to a still small 51kg.

Basically, her final years of gym weren't fun. It became more of a chore than a passion.

But this time around things will be different. Her training hours have been cut in half, meaning workouts are less rigorous and, importantly, there is more time to play.

And with her sights set on Beijing 2008, the pocket-rocket from Lara is determined to enjoy her next Olympic experience a lot more than Sydney.

"Back then I knew nothing different. I thought it was just what happened, but now I look back and think, bloody hell, I was 16 and been to an Olympic Games and travelled the world and experienced only what people can dream of and to think I can do it again is pretty exciting,'' she said.

"I'm really going to appreciate it now. Back then I was just too young to know what was going on.''

Still craving the thrill of elite competition after giving up gymnastics, McIntosh soon began aerial skiing and within four serious competitions, was ranked 10th in the world. But then came the fatal landing in China the day before competition that would turn a sportswoman's world upside down, as she came to terms with a two-year knee injury that wouldn't heal.

"Sport was my life and it just got taken away from me and I had nothing,'' she said.

"Every morning I'd wake up in pain thinking, when is this going to go away? I thought I'd never be able to do sport again. I was miserable.''

She saw almost every knee specialist around, without luck, when an off-chance meeting with Geelong soft-tissue therapist Shane Hamill gave her new hope of returning to the world stage.

"The first time I saw him, I was like, what are you doing mate, no one can fix my knee,'' she said.

"But afterwards I did a squat for the first time without pain and I burst out in tears and gave him the biggest cuddle."I said to him `you have changed my life, you have no idea'.''

Within six months McIntosh was running again and now the knee, with which she shares a love-hate relationship, is stronger.She can bounce, turn and flex quicker than previously.

But it has been a painful two-year journey and the scars still show.

But she is adamant the whole experience has made her a stronger person.

Now, McIntosh is more hungry, more desperate to make the most of her opportunities and enormous talent.

"It teaches you everything. I don't think I would be the person I am without having gone through it all,'' she said.

"Now I've got a clearer head, I know exactly what I want.

The pursuit of her Olympic dream, part two, means more early-mornings, more hard work, and more sacrifices.

Her goals are set and her eyes are fixed.

A renewed passion and steely resolve have taken hold and McIntosh is determined to go straight back to the top of a sport where she says there is unfinished business. "I've always had a bit of unfinished business with gym, so, yeah, in the old days I was there to do bloody well, but almost just to make it was good enough. But now I want to really challenge myself,'' she said.

"I don't want to sound arrogant but somehow I was born with some kind of gymnastics talent, or aerial awareness that not many people have, so I've just got to use it.''