Extraordinary skill made alpine skier, Thomas Grandi,
But no amount of training and ambition last season could help the 36-year-old reclaim the success he had known early in his career.
Forced to acknowledge that he was unlikely to reach his goal of qualifying for the
His public struggle over when and why to quit the sport he once dominated highlighted the conundrum many elite athletes face -- including some who will compete in the upcoming Games -- as they advance in years yet remain capable of high-level performance.
Dr. Michael Joyner, a scientist at the Mayo Clinic in
"A lot of these people are still very, very fit and can compete a high level but they have these tremendous internal standards that they can't live up to their own expectations. I mean, for a guy like [Grandi] being 20th just isn't good enough," Dr. Joyner said.
"They're addicted to improvement, they're addicted to finishing first or setting new personal bests and so on and so forth and to be anything other than the absolute best is difficult."
When Grandi retired for the first time, at age 34, he was doubtful he could continue to train full-time and secure an Olympic medal.
"When I first retired I thought ‘the Olympics are still too far away for me to be able to continue full-time as an athlete and make it there.' I never imagined I would be able to make it there," Grandi told CTVOlympics.ca in a recent interview.
Such an instinct is in keeping with what science reveals, Dr. Joyner said. The peak capacity of human cardiovascular systems begins to decline in one's late 30s and early 40s. An average person will lose 10% of that capacity per decade, starting at 30, he said.
Exceptions do exist, however, and 30-somethings who exercise intensely can stave off the effects of aging until their mid-forties.
The lure of the Olympics was too much to resist and Grandi initiated a carefully-planned and ambitious comeback.
"After a year off and a year of rest, I felt like I could do it again," he said.
"I was surprised by how well my body reacted to training. I think as you get older, you're not as good off the couch, but if you put a lot of work into it you can reach quite a similar or same level you were at before."
Grandi's comeback demonstrates that through a significant and steady amount of training elite athletes are able to slow the aging process, Dr. Joyner said.
"You can delay that decline through training until you're about 40 and then - through hard training - you can delay the rate of the decline by about half," he said. "In other words, you can start to age 10 years later and the rate of aging is cut by about half."
Such superior physical ability is part of what makes deciding to retire so difficult. Dr. Joyner has observed other athletes as they try to reconcile their changing physical abilities with the logic of remaining competitive.
"That's not atypical to see somebody [like Grandi] who has either been successful and trying to hang on for one last Olympics or people who in fact do come out of retirement," he said.
Grandi did not accomplish his Olympic goal, but remains pleased with the attempt he made in part because training challenged the expectations he had of his body.
"As you get older, you can still get to a very high level but you have to work harder to get there. But, if you do work hard, your body does react and perform really well and that's what I was really impressed with," Grandi said.
"Sport is something that keeps you young and being athletically competitive, maybe not to the degree that I have been but to be active and continue in sports really does keep you healthy and young.
"I think people can really take something from that."
SOURCE: http://www.ctvolympics.ca/
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