Skier saw ‘a time of tremendous change’ across her chosen sport
“It was a time of tremendous change. It went from leather, lace-up boots and wood skis to plastic boots and fibreglass skis and went from a focus that was every two years for world championships and Olympics to where ski racing is big-time every year. The World Cup, of course, changed that. I just look at it now and marvel at what they do and how they ski … even the little kids.
“But, you know, the more it changes, the more it stays the same. The actual techniques that you use and what it takes to win hasn’t changed. The skis have changed, the equipment has changed, the courses are faster, the snow is harder, it’s better organized. So there’s lots of changes, but you still have to work harder and you have to do the work where nobody’s watching and you just have to get in there, in the gym, and do all the physical conditioning that’s required. It’s not glamorous at all, but those who do it, they get rewarded, and it takes a certain natural talent as well.
“One other thing it takes, and maybe that’s why it’s so interesting, is that it does take a passion for skiing. If you don’t love being out there on the mountain, if you don’t really love it, it’d be a tough life.”
Speaking of life, sometimes it throws us a curve, and so it did last year for Nancy Greene Raine.
A cough unrelated to a cold led to a checkup and chest X-ray that detected tumours in her lungs. A “very active” tumour was also found in her thyroid.
That was removed, and radioactive iodine was administered to destroy remaining thyroid cells. Fortunately, they had not spread to the lungs, where “a golf ball, ping-pong ball and eight or 10 marbles” turned out to be signs of non-Hodgkin mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma.
It was cancer, yes, but those cells contained a protein marker that could be targeted by a drug administered in four injected doses ending in mid-December. Greene Raine reported neither pain nor sickness from those treatments, and her son Willy, a 1992 Albertville Olympic Games alpine competitor and now Alpine Canada’s athletic director for skicross, posted video of “Nana” skiing with grandsons James and Kingston at Sun Peaks during the holiday season.
There was also a CT scan in mid-January, after which a radiologist friend assured Greene Raine there was “nothing to worry about.” A telephone consultation with an oncologist in Kelowna, B.C., last week also produced positive news.
“To quote her,” Greene Raine said before flying back to Ottawa to resume Senate duties, “The scans were very good. The tumours have shrunk significantly, and all that’s going to be required is monitoring: blood tests in three months. It looks like it has been dealt with.
“You never know. … There’s still something there. They don’t know if that’s just scar tissue or if that’s active, so they’ll just keep checking it. Nothing to worry about.”
She said her own experience had given her a great opportunity to see first-hand how Canada’s health-care system works.
“I can tell you we have amazing people working in the system in terms of doctors and technicians and the nurses, but we need a better way of getting early diagnostics, and the system’s a bit dysfunctional. It’s not as efficient as it could be, which is hard on people when they have to continually go in between tests.”
Maybe she can whittle away at that after she retires.
Her “bucket list” includes sharing additional time with her grandsons and possibly travel to reconnect with people she and Al first encountered on the international ski circuit. There’s also a continuing contractual relationship with Nancy Greene Ski League, for which she approves all sponsors, and she wants to stay involved at Sun Peaks as director of skiing “as long as they’ll have me,” which of course would mean skiing as much as possible.
“I plan to stay active and healthy and engaged,” she said. “It’s a chapter that will close, but there are lots of interesting things ahead.”
Ed Champagne has no doubt his good friend will succeed at retirement, too.
An Ottawa resident and also a Canadian Ski Hall of Fame inductee, Champagne began a twodecade career as national alpine ski team business manager, administrative director and director of public and athlete relations a year after Greene Raine retired from competition in 1968.
Her personality hasn’t changed since then, Champagne says, and she has kept up “with all that’s going on in the ski world. … She’s still a going concern, even at 74, and she is highly respected across the country. Her knowledge and her interest and her love for the sport is well known.”
No doubt that passion will involve keeping an eye on the alpine ski action from South Korea.
The Canadian team named Jan. 29 totals 14 athletes, including five hoping to become the first female Canadian to claim an Olympic alpine prize of any description since Kerrin Lee-Gartner’s gold in downhill at Albertville in 1992.
The women’s giant slalom race in South Korea is set for Feb. 12, three days shy of the 50th anniversary of Nancy Greene’s gold medal in France. The slalom is Feb. 14, followed by the downhill on Feb. 21, the recently added alpine-combined competition on Feb. 23 and the alpine team event on Feb. 24. Men’s races are scheduled for other days.
“Sport is the ultimate reality game,” Greene Raine said. “There’s no hiding anything in sport, especially when it’s covered the way some of these sports are covered now. There’s no rehearsal, it just unfolds.
“I think that’s why so many people like to follow it, even though they might not be athletes themselves.”