Injury doesn't subdue Calder

By Kelly Exelby | 9th February 2010

When the burn of lactic acid in her quadriceps and hamstrings threatens to overwhelm her, Tauranga Winter Olympian Katie Calder knows she's already dug deep at least once this season to push through the pain barrier.

A broken wrist last October proved little setback for the diminutive 28-year-old, who wrapped up her crosscountry skiing preparations over the weekend at the World Cup in Calgary.

Calder has qualified for all of crosscountry's individual events - the 7.5km sprint, the 10km, 15km and 30km.

The mangled limb, broken when Calder tripped on a fresh dump of snow while out running in Switzerland last October, was no impediment. "The day they fitted the plate and screws into my wrist I was skiing with one pole."

Calder at first didn't realise the seriousness of her injury, which came as she was preparing for the Northern Hemisphere winter. "I thought I'd just sprained it and kept running for another hour back to Davos. About halfway there it started throbbing quite hard so I ran to the hospital for x-rays."

Read more in today's Bay of Plenty Times