Overtime

This was my first time ever travelling alone, my first time travelling overseas, and my first time ever competing in snowboarding at the Olympics. It was a lot of firsts, but I guess that's good, seeing as first is my goal, right?

My name is Abbey Paquet; I'm part of Team Canada this Olympic Winter Games. I'm 22 years old, from Montreal, Quebec and I'm a now-professional snowboarder. Snowboarding has always been my passion, the adrenaline and feeling of having all the power in the world is what I love about it. It makes me feel invincible, like no one can touch me or tear me down for those few minutes as I ride down the hill.

A lot of people find snowboarding to be a fun sport that they can easily pick up, but to me it’s much more than that. It’s everything in my life, it’s my main focus and I’ve given everything up to get to where I am now; competing in Sochi for my country. That’s part of the reason why I’m travelling alone, to free myself of any distractions that might prevent me from getting gold. I am determined.


Upon arriving at the hotel with many of the other athletes, I decided that it would be best for me to catch some sleep before the opening ceremonies, which were scheduled for tonight. Seeing as the women’s slopestyle wasn’t for a few days I wanted to be fully rested, which meant no late nights and fitting in as much sleep as possible. There would not be a tired bone in my body if I had any say in it… which I apparently did not.

I settled into my hotel room, unpacked my bags and set my alarm for 5pm, which gave me 3 hours of prime napping before I had to be up for the opening ceremonies. I changed into a pair of Team Canada Roots pants, and put my straight brown hair up in a bun. I quickly got into the cream coloured sheets of my bed, and was asleep as fast as I was awake, thanks to what I presumed was the Canadian hockey team beside me.

“Johnny ya fuckin’ plug I haven’t seen you in yeeeeeaaarsss.” I heard from the thin wall my bed was against.

I rolled over to see that the time was 3:00. Cutting into my napping hours? It takes a lot to set me off, but waking me up is an instant death sentence on the offender’s behalf.

“Jamie, how’s it goin’ buddy!” I heard someone else yell, equally as loud. Now it was my turn to be loud.

“HEY JOHNNY-JAMIE COULD YOU KEEP IT DOWN? PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE TRYING TO SLEEP HERE.” If I wasn’t rested enough before competing, and I didn’t place, their heads would be rolling.

Everything got really quiet, until not ten seconds later I heard a knock at my door. If I were ever to kill someone; today might be the day. I opened the door, not even caring what I looked like, even though I knew my hair was probably a mess, and was met with a giant hand about to knock again.
“Can I help you?” I said, crossing my arms and eyeing the hockey player. I recognized him to be Jamie Benn. No big deal, just another athlete. Another annoying, hockey playing, waking me up from my nap, athlete.

“Me and Johnny here were wondering if you wanted to go out with a bunch of us before the opening ceremonies?” He asked.

“No thanks.” I turned around and went to close the door, before he stood between the frame and the door, stopping me.

“C’mon, it’ll be fun!” He said, winking. What is it with the hockey player type?

“No thanks. I’m a Habs fan, you’re annoying, now let me sleep.” I slammed the door, and crawled into bed to try and salvage the last hour of sleep I could get before I went into total Olympian mode.

Notes