A member of Canada’s cross-country skiing team bound for next month’s Olympic games in Sochi grew up in North York.
And Lenny Valjas, 25, who attended North York schools throughout his youth, is gunning for a podium appearance in the 1.8-kilometre sprint event.
"I’ve reached the podium in World Cups five times (in the last two years) so I know it’s possible," he said during a phone interview Wednesday, Jan. 15 from Canmore, Alberta, where he is training. "It’s the same as every other race and somebody has to be top three, and I know I have the goods to be top three."
At the same time, he said, "All I am really focusing on right now is the process leading in and making sure I’m 100 per cent ready. And I’m going to give everything I have when I get on that race course."
He’s raced at the Sochi course once before, calling it "the toughest course for sprinting on the World Cup. It’s going to hurt. It’s going to hurt the body, it’s going to hurt the lungs."
The key for him, he said, will be to climb the hill, literally.
"There’s a giant hill two-thirds of the way through," he explained.
With climbing more difficult for bigger guys such as himself (with a six-foot-six frame that is atypical to the sport) he said he needs to stay in contention going up the hill.
If he can, he said he should be in a position to make a move in the final 400 metres, which he termed "a long, gradual downhill" to the finish.
He’s also hoping the national team coaches will pencil him in for the 15-km race, as well.
His Olympic appearance will cap a long journey that included earning two silver medals for Bayview Glen, the North York private high school he attended, at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) provincial cross-country skiing championships.
"That was frustrating because it just never came together the day I needed it," he said, with a chuckle, leaving no doubt as to which colour of medal he was pursuing. "It was always close. They were fun races."
A talented multi-sport athlete, during his teens he was on both Ontario’s cross-country and mountain bike teams before finally deciding to focus on cross-country skiing.
At high school he suited up for several varsity teams, including soccer and baseball.
Although he was raised in "a volleyball family" with both parents (Peter and Marianne) and his sister (Kristina) playing varsity volleyball at the University of Toronto, he was exposed to cross-country skiing as a youngster and competed through his youth at his home club at Hardwood Ski and Bike north of Barrie.
His parents have since moved to midtown Toronto but during his high school years, the family lived near Bayview and Finch avenues and prior to that near Yonge Street and York Mills Road. Prior to Bayview Glen School he attended Cummer Valley Middle School and Owen Public School, both in North York.
Follow Lenny Valjas on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LennyValjas or visit his website at http://lvaljas.blogspot.ca