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Failure makes Stavrakos stronger
Star hurdler; Mental toughness pays off in spades
ARPON BASU, The Gazette
Published: Wednesday, September 03
Depending on what kind of athlete you are, a crushing failure can either be a blow to a promising career or can provide some motivating humility.
It is the latter path that St. Laurent native Vivian Stavrakos chose, and it has propelled her right to the Canadian track-and- field elite.
Stavrakos, who turns 14 in two weeks, came home from the Canadian Youth Athletics Championships last month with a silver medal in the 15-and-under 80-metre hurdles.
When asked at what point things began to click for her in the hurdles, however, Stavrakos did not point to one of her big successes, but rather to a painful failure.
She recalled the outdoor provincial championships two years ago in Quebec City, where Stavrakos won a gold medal in the long jump, but tripped over a hurdle in her favourite event.
"I was crying, first of all," Stavrakos said, smiling at the memory, "but it made me want to work harder."
Stavrakos and her coach at the St. Laurent Select track club, Jelena Lolic, began working on the mental side of the sport from that point on, and the results began coming quickly as she won the hurdles at the provincial championships a year later.
Lolic has coached Stavrakos ever since she arrived at St. Laurent Select as a 10-year-old, pushed to start running track by her phys-ed teachers who recognized her speed.
"When I first saw Vivian do hurdles, I always thought she had a natural talent," Lolic said. "But what was special about her is that people with natural talent tend to rely on that talent and don't work hard. But Vivian has always been a hard worker."
That hard work led her for the first time this summer to the national championships, where Stavrakos arrived as a serious long shot to reach the podium. For starters, she was only in her first year of eligibility, and it's often those in their second year who go home with the medals.
But most importantly, Stavrakos had to adjust her timing, because Quebec doesn't use the same distance between hurdles as the rest of Canada.
"Watching the girls from the other provinces in training, they looked tough, it was a bit intimidating," she said. "But I just ran my race and focused on my performance."
Stavrakos qualified for the 80-metre hurdles final with the fifth-fastest time, but she turned it up in the final, shaving 53-hundredths of a second off her clocking in the heats to capture the silver medal.
That result makes her the fastest in Canada for her age, seeing as the rest of the top four were all a year older than her.
But it took some convincing to make Stavrakos realize just what she had accomplished.
"At first, I figured second place was pretty good," she said. "But then my dad told me, Jelena told me, everyone was telling me what a big deal it was. So now, looking back on it, I can see that."
arponb@videotron.ca
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