Podium is sweet ‘relief ’ for Valjas

Toronto skier shares gold at World Cup

Ain Calgary s an elite cross-country skier growing up in Toronto, Lenny Valjas went to extreme lengths to train on surreptitious night runs at Uplands Ski Club in nearby Thornhill, Ont.

“I would go with a headlamp and just ski up and down a couple of times and avoid the groomer so I wouldn’t be seen,” he told Postmedia this week from Seefeld, Austria. “I don’t think he was too thrilled with me wrecking his trails at 10 o’clock.”

The path from the urban wilds of Toronto to the national ski team is a meandering one given the lack of wide-open spaces in Canada’s largest metropolis. And even after Valjas moved west to train at the serene Canmore Nordic Centre in Alberta, the 28-year-old experienced more downs than ups in the hunt for success.

On Sunday, the 6-foot-6, 190-pounder finally landed on the World Cup podium for the first time since 2013 with gold in the team sprint alongside Alex Harvey in Toblach, Italy.

The victory officially ended more than three years of torment for Valjas since what was supposed to be routine knee surgery before the 2014 Winter Games.

“It’s a relief,” Valjas said of the first World Cup gold in his career. “It’s so nice to be finally rewarded and what a way to do it with a teammate.”

Valjas arrived at the Sochi Olympics as a dark horse for a medal with five World Cup podiums on his resume. He ended up in 36th place in the men’s skate sprint.

In the year that followed, Valjas walked downstairs sideways. His left leg simply couldn’t withstand the load.

“It got to the point there for a while where I didn’t know if I would ever get back to the level where I was at,” Valjas said. “Sometimes it was tough to motivate myself year after year.

“I can honestly say now this is the first year that my knee is totally pain-free. I can train as hard as I want.”

With the countdown clock to the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang sitting at 386 days, the speedy Valjas is finally feeling like himself again. He credits witnessing his older sister compete at the 2016 Rio Summer Games for providing an extra spark in his training.

Kristina Valjas and her partner Jamie Broder advanced to the round of 16 in beach volleyball, only to lose to fellow Canadians Sarah Pavan and Heather Bansley.

“It was just crazy,” Lenny said of the atmosphere at Copacabana Stadium. “I was so nervous. I don’t even get nervous for my own races — or at least nothing like how helpless I felt in the crowd watching her about to serve at the Olympics.

“I was pretty moved after that. I’m just so proud of her, of everything she’s done and I want do to the same.”

For as much as Hayley Wickenheiser achieved in her hockey career, the fivetime Olympic medallist is determined to up her game in retirement. The first step is medical school, but she hopes to eventually return to the hockey at the highest level. “I really like emergency trauma, probably because it’s the adrenalin and the intensity of what it’s like to be in hockey, play on a team and managing egos and thinking on your feet really quickly,” Wickenheiser said. “So it really appeals to me. And I think that combined with sport, you can really do a lot. It’s a platform to make a bigger impact.” … Canada’s Len Valjas, pictured in 2014, ended a four-year World Cup podium drought with a team sprint victory alongside Alex Harvey on Sunday in Toblach, Italy.