Clara Hughes’s return to greatness

by Theresa Wallace

“University is not going anywhere. So do this as long as you can, and avoid the bloody nine to five.” That, according to Clara Hughes, is what her literature professor advised her during her first month of university when Hughes told him she was going to have to drop his course to go to a month-long cycling training camp in Arizona.

The professor was her father, Ken Hughes, and 17-year-old Clara must have taken his advice to heart, because she’s still cycling and she’s leading anything but an ordinary life. Hughes is the only person in the world to have won multiple medals in both Summer and Winter Olympics – two in cycling and four in speed skating. She’s tied with fellow Winnipegger and speed skater Cindy Klassen as the Canadian with the most Olympic medals. Hughes is an officer of the Order of Canada, a member of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, a 19-time national cycling champion. She has a star on the Canada Walk of Fame. And now she’s preparing for her sixth Olympics in London next year, where just before she turns 40, she’ll race against the best women cyclists in the world.

Hughes was born in 1972 in Winnipeg. She was inspired to become a speed skater after watching Canadian Gaétan Boucher in the 1988 Olympics, completely unaware of Winnipeg’s history of producing top speed skaters. She did know, however, that being from Winnipeg made her tough. “The cold, the wind – I grew up wearing high-top runners and no hat in -35 degrees.” She also says the athletic community in Manitoba gave her a great start. “What got me into cycling was the Western Canada Games in Winnipeg in 1990. There is incredible support in that province for young athletes.”

In 1991, Hughes won her first two big medals on the international stage – a silver and a bronze in cycling at the Pan-Am Games. She had success in cycling throughout the 90s and picked up medals at many international competitions, including two bronze medals in the 1996 Olympics. Hughes also raced four times in the Tour Cycliste Féminin (the women’s equivalent of the Tour de France) and won it once. She says the race, which no longer exists, was disorganized and nothing like the men’s race. “But, I’ve raced over all the major historic climbs in Europe, worn the yellow jersey and survived that hell four times, and that counts for something.”

An ankle injury forced her to retire from cycling in 1998, but she came back the next year. After competing at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in cycling, Hughes made the national speed skating team after only seven weeks of skate-specific training. She won a bronze medal at the 2002 Olympic Games in the 5,000 m and the same year, won two medals in cycling at the Pan-Am Games. Hughes was an international star in two sports, but she felt competing at that level was taking a toll on her physically, so she gave up cycling and focused entirely on skating.

Hughes spent the rest of the decade as a skating powerhouse on the world stage, at the same time gaining a reputation as an environmentalist and humanitarian who embodied the best values of sport and citizenship. She donated $10,000 to Right to Play after winning gold and silver medals at the 2006 Olympics, and $10,000 in prize money to Take a Hike, a program for at-risk youth in Vancouver, after her bronze-medal win at the 2010 Olympics. In September, 2010 she became the spokesperson for a Bell mental health campaign.

After the Olympics in Vancouver, Hughes said she was done with competitive speed skating, but she surprised many by announcing her return to cycling last November. The expectation was that she would join Tara Whitten in the new women’s team pursuit event that will make its Olympic debut in 2012 and she competed with the team at the Track World Championships in March. But when the Olympic schedule came out, the road and track events were scheduled with only a day between them, forcing Hughes to make a choice.

“It’s clear to me with the Olympic schedule that has been set, the road race, time trial and team pursuit are impossible to prepare for, at least for me,” Hughes said at the time. “What brought me back to cycling and why I thought about it for years was and is the time trial.” It was a disappointing decision to the national track program. “Although Clara decided on the time trial and road racing, she also would have been great in the team pursuit on the track,” national team coach Jacques Landry said.

With the time trial as her primary focus, Hughes ripped across the Americas starting in the spring, challenging the best cyclists on their own turf, mesmerizing followers of the sport with her athleticism and determination and winning every time trial she entered, all in the interest of getting where she needs to be to compete at the London Games. In early May in New Mexico, Hughes won the individual time trial and road race in one of the toughest stage races in the U.S., the Tour of the Gila. A week later, she won the time trial and, battling severe cramps, the road race at the UCI Pan-American championships in Colombia, earning her a spot at the 2011 UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Denmark held in September.

Since part of her mission is to support cycling in Canada – especially women’s cycling – Hughes turned down a chance to race in an invitation women’s time trial at the Tour of California, instead competing in the Chrono Gatineau Grand Prix in Quebec. It was her first cycling race of the year in Canada and she took the time trial win, despite crashing on the rain-slicked surface at the turnaround point.

The wins continued into the summer. She beat 2008 Olympic gold medalist Kristen Armstrong in the Mount Hood Cycling Classic time trial and took gold at the IMMUNITY-FX 2011 Canadian championships in Ontario.

The success has turned more than a few heads. Speaking about Hughes’ rapid rise to fighting form on the bike, Denise Kelly the national team’s endurance coach who won a bronze medal with Hughes in the 1991 Pan-Am Games team time trial said “She’s Clara Hughes, so nothing she could do would surprise me. But there’s still a little part of me saying, ‘Wow, that was quick.'”

Hughes says her transition from speed skating to cycling doesn’t feel any different than it did when she was younger. “It’s really similar in that it takes a singular focus. My time is limited and I have to make good decisions and surround myself with solid individuals. Skating was far more difficult when you consider the intricacies of the technique. On the other hand, cycling is more complicated with equipment. Luckily, I have generous support from the bike industry and my sponsors, which has allowed me to do this right and have everything I need.”

Hughes’ training schedule includes many hours on a bike: structured interval training, specific work on her time trial bike, plus lots of stretching, core strength and altitude training. “We have a house in Utah at 7,500 feet and I train a lot up there. I train hard, but I train smart. There is always a purpose to everything I do,” she said. Hughes and husband Peter Guzman also have a house in Glen Sutton, Quebec.

Though she’s fiercely competitive, Hughes said she would like to see biking become a more mainstream and accessible sport in which everyone who wants to bike feels accepted. “It’s strangely competitive, and I would say the sport can learn a thing or two from sports like running. People need to relax more. I do hope I can contribute to a more positive environment in the sport.”

Hughes says although there is ageism in cycling and sports in general, times are changing. She takes inspiration from France’s national champion Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli who, in her early 50s, is still competing and winning. “It’s just more normal to do as you please in life now. Physiologically, I am in my prime and love what I do. I love to train hard and have a goal to work toward.” That goal, however, is not necessarily winning medals or matching her previous successes. “I don’t think about what I’ve done but think about what I can do and I certainly don’t listen to limitations suggested by others. I continually find something interesting to pursue and then find a creative approach that is fresh.”

“What sets Clara Hughes apart is her extraordinary competitiveness and her mental strength. She is determined to be great,” said Sean Ireland, national speed skating coach.

Theresa Wallace is an Ottawa-based freelance writer and a contributing editor at Triathlon Magazine Canada.