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"Obstacles don't block success; they
define, motivate, and compel it!"
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"...
I skate because I love it. I skate for those moments in training when I
shout out loud "There's no where else in the world I'd rather be than
here, now, alive, doing what I love." I skate for the fierce price and
belief in myself that comes from conquering obstacles and challenging
perceived impossibilities. I skate because I've learned that something
only becomes impossible when you start believing those who say it can't be
done. Skating will never be my whole life, but when I skate, I am
alive. Because I skate, I am now alive." (Meaghan Buisson, written
correspondence to a friend)
In a sport where most successful athletes begin
from early childhood, Meaghan is truly unique. She was 19 years old
when she first tried inline speed skating, after seeing skaters training in
her hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. "I was on my road bike and
couldn't catch them," she laughs, "After that, I just had to try the sport!"
A strong athlete who competed nationally in five different sports as a
teenager, Meaghan immediately felt a powerful connection with inline
skating. She competed in her first event, the 1999 Canadian National
Championships, a mere three weeks into the sport, where she won the novice
division. The following year, Meaghan, despite being nationally
identified in both rowing and team handball, decided to focus on inline.
With that year however, came
acceptance into the faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of
Saskatchewan. Meaghan left the Manitoba skating scene and moved to
Saskatoon. In only her second season on skates, Meaghan was over 700
kilometers from any other inline speed skater in the country. With no
coach, no teammates, she trained on her own, receiving programs from Bruce
Craven, Director of Athlete Services at the Canadian Sport Center -
Saskatchewan, and speeding tickets from the local police.
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 Her
break-through came in January 2003, when she met John Monroe, Saskatchewan
Amateur (Ice) Speed Skating Association Head Coach, five-time Canadian
Inline World Team Member, and coach of the 1999 Canadian Inline Speed
Skating Pan American Games Team. John started coaching her - the first
time Meaghan had ever received coaching expertise in the sport. She
hasn't looked back since.
A two-time recipient of the Manitoba Order of
Sport Excellence, Meaghan is the current and five-time Overall Canadian
Champion, holding twelve current Canadian and National records. From
1999 through 2006, she has won 47 Canadian National Championship Titles,
placed second 16 times, and finished third six times. In 2004, Meaghan
became the first Canadian to ever race on the World Inline Cup circuit,
where, with a win in Lille, France, she became the first Canadian inline
skater to ever to win a major international event. |
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Meaghan’s break-through 2004 season ended abruptly however, with a serious
training accident the day before the World Championships began in Abruzzo,
Italy. A collision with another skater left her lying unconscious on the
track with a severe concussion. She subsequently
returned to Canada, where doctors doubted she would ever skate competitively again.
Looking back, Meaghan later said her injury and the months that
followed were a blessing in disguise. Unable to do anything physical,
not yet knowing if her injuries would be permanent, she found the strength to deal with
another personal challenge –a thirteen-year struggle with eating
disorders. With the support of her coaches, Meaghan entered treatment at the
Westwind Eating Disorder Recovery Center
in Brandon, Manitoba in the fall of 2004. There, she started her long
journey back to health.
After a
winter at Westwind, Meaghan returned to Saskatoon to continue her recovery
process, and, eventually, start skating once more. Incredibly, after
just five weeks of training mainly off-skates, Meaghan successfully returned
to the World Cup Circuit. In her very first race following the
previous year's devastating crash, she skated to an amazing 13th place
finish in the Biel World Cup. |
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Highlights from her 2005 inline season included a top-10 World Cup finish, three National
and Canadian Records, and winning every race at the Canadian Inline National Championships
for the second straight year.
In
August 2005, Meaghan swapped her wheels for blades, having promised John she'd
try at least one season of long track ice. Less than three weeks later, she
placed 3rd at the Olympic Oval's Summer Classic. Her finishing time
marked the 3rd fastest 5000m ever raced by a
Saskatchewan woman.
She was subsequently was
named to
the Canadian government's "Own The Podium", a federal program aimed at
capturing as many medals as possible at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in
Vancouver, Canada. |
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Photo credit: Arno Hoogveld |
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In a brief foray back to inline in the summer of 2006,
she set multiple Canadian Records en route to winning a third consecutive
National Championship. The same week, she shattered the Solo Marathon
Time Trial World Record, breaking the previous mark by over ten minutes
while racing on Montréal Villeneuve Formula One Auto Racing Course.
Following her victory, she returned to ice.
Meaghan's long track career
was dashed, however, after two years of repeated low back injuries. By 2008, the
problem was clear - a genetic narrowing between two of her vertebrae pinched
off a major nerve in her low back and legs each time she skated in the
tightly tucked static body position required for long track. The
injury was complicated by the fact Meaghan suffers from Raynaud's Disease, a
severe cold intolerance that would
routinely result in her feet blistering from the cold while skating on ice;
even while training indoors at Calgary's Olympic Oval. As
she finally exclaimed to her coach, "I love everything about long track
speed skating... except, well, actually physically skating on ice!"
With that, Meaghan decided to listen to her
heart as much as her body. Her frustration and disappointment after two
seasons of injury on blades was countered with the sheer delight of
returning to her first love, inline speed skating; now ironically
short-listed for an Olympic berth!
For the 2009
season, Meaghan will be based in the Netherlands, racing for a Dutch-based
team. Competition plans include a return to World Cup racing and ultra-marathon
events. |
 Within the community, Meaghan is a skilled
motivational speaker whose heart-felt messages and dynamic presentations appeal to all audience ages and backgrounds.
Fluently bilingual, she has
presented at national level conferences and in schools across Western
Canada.
In 2007, concerned
by the prevalence in disordered eating behaviors among youth, she founded Active Voices, a school-based initiative focused upon the
prevention of eating disordered behaviors
and
related issues. Coupling athletic
background with personal experience, Meaghan's ability to encourage youth to
embrace healthy lifestyle choices and physical activity while staying true
to themselves offers unique appeal for any audience.
All
presentations are curriculum-based, age-appropriate, Board reviewed, and
available in either French or English for grades 3-12. The first year
alone (2007/08),
Active Voices presentations and workshops were received by nearly
4000 students across the three Prairie Provinces. Meet with
unequivocal support from teachers, administrators and students, Active
Voices is currently being incorporated into a not-for-profit
organization with the goal of being available at no cost to schools by 2010.
To learn more about
Active Voices, please click here. Outside
of skating, Meaghan loves reading and writing. She is an active
environmentalist with an extensive background in both back-country hiking
and canoeing (flat and Cat III/IV whitewater). An ardent animal lover,
she delights in being around animals, having owned and/or fostered
snakes, rats, cats, dogs and several other species throughout the past years. |
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