Snowboarding is relatively new to the Olympics, making it’s debut in the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. Unbeknownst to the athletes who were taking part in the first halfpipe and giant slalom competitions, a little girl named Marianne Leeson was also making her snowboarding appearance at the Milton Heights Racing Club in Canada.
A resident of Burlington, Ontario, Marianne first started ski racing several years prior, when she was 7 years old. At the age of 10, she discovered snowboarding and has been passionate about the sport ever since. “Marianne was just a natural,” says her proud mother Lin. “Her first time out, she rode the board right down to the bottom of the hill and just loved it. The sport was fairly new so Marianne was able to grow with it. We started going to events held by the Association of Ontario Snowboarders and then she entered into Provincial competitions.” Leeson won the Provincials at the age of 15… and then again at 17.
Now 18 and a graduate of M.M. Robinson High School, Marianne has headed out to the West Coast to join the Calgary Snowboard Club and take her snowboarding to the next level. Says Lin, “Because she is training full-time, her coach wants her to have the proper gear. Marianne has high arches like me, so we visited a Pedorthist to obtain the right running shoes and orthotic inserts. Her training is very intense right now. She’s running and working out whenever she’s not on the hill. The extra activity was starting to impact her feet, arches and legs. When she was a weekend warrior, she really didn’t have much of a problem but all of that has changed now.”
Understandably, aching muscles are prevalent with athletes who are trying to achieve peak levels of performance. Sports medicine doctors often prescribe orthotics and stabilizing footwear to enhance performance and most importantly, to prevent future injury. A high arch predisposes the ball and heel of the foot to higher pressures. In fact, athletes in training tend to have callouses or hot spots in these areas. In a normal foot, less than 1/3 of the sole of the foot carries the body’s entire weight. But with a full-length moulded orthotic, weight is evenly distributed across the entire sole of the foot, lessening pressure on the heel and ball.
In the case of a high arched foot, it is most important for the Pedorthist to build the orthotic as high as the arch will allow. In addition to giving arch support, the orthotic also reinforces the outside edge of the foot. With the foot now solid to the ground, stability is greatly improved. This is important to all athletes, as it increases their reaction time in relationship to the ground, allowing for quicker and more accurate upper body movement. Such stability is also crucial in preventing ankle sprains from tired muscles.
And while her own schedule isn’t nearly as rigorous as her daughter’s, Lin Leeson is also an orthotics wearer due to high arches. “I’ve actually got multiple pairs,” she explains. “I’ve got them in my running shoes and a pair of hiking boots. I even have them in my ski boots!” Marianne Leeson was recently selected for the 2010 project which is the National Development Team for Canada. She’s not been guaranteed a spot in the Vancouver Olympics at this point, but she has been identified as a candidate for those Games along with eight other women. Marianne competes in Alpine Racing.