CALGARY - Hayley Wickenheiser hopes her new book will win over those who dismiss her sport as a two-horse race between Canada and the U.S.
One of the most recognizable names in Canadian hockey opens the door to her life in the months leading up to the 2010 Olympics in "Gold Medal Diary — Inside the World's Greatest Sports Event."
"I think people look at women's hockey and say 'It's a guaranteed silver medal for Canada' when it's so far from that," Wickenheiser said Monday. "There's so much preparation that goes into making it look easy, if that's what people think.
"I wanted to convey that to people and for them to get a little bit of an insider's view of what it looks like, which may not be as glamorous or as exciting as people think."
Wickenheiser opens her diary in August when 26 players congregated in Calgary to try out for the Olympic team and ends it a few days after Canada's 2-0 triumph over the U.S. for the gold medal.
Canada dominated the competition in Vancouver, outshooting their opposition 48-2.
As Wickenheiser chronicles Canada's intense preparation, the team captain wears her heart on her sleeve in relating her internal struggles during that arduous journey.
The three-time Olympic gold medallist recorded her thoughts and feelings almost daily. The 32-year-old from Shaunavon, Sask., admitted when it came time to put them on paper with collaborator Wendy Long, she had to edit out some profanity.
"Besides taking out the profanity, we tried to keep the emotion in it about how the day was going," Wickenheiser said. "It's pretty raw."
"There's a lot of ups and downs emotionally, both personally and from a team perspective. I tried to convey that as best I could and not just the good things, but the frustrations that come with it. I tried to make it as real a story as possible."
While there aren't startling revelations in the book, there's enough interesting tidbits combined with Wickenheiser's sense of humour to keep a sports fan or aspiring Olympian turning the pages.
Former Philadelphia Flyer player and executive Bobby Clarke is her confidant, and former Oiler Mark Messier also became that for Wickenheiser in the run-up to the Games. Canadian actor Donald Sutherland, a women's hockey aficionado, emails her regularly.
Wickenheiser, the MVP and leading scorer at the 2002 and 2006 Olympics, is an incredibly fit athlete, but the Canadian women were pushed to the edge of their physical capabilities in the six months before the Games.
Wickenheiser became worn down and suffered a knee and back injury. She was also diagnosed with pneumonia two weeks out from the opening ceremonies. That kind of information would never have been revealed before the Games, lest it give the American women ammunition.
"It was to the brink of extreme fatigue many times and it wasn't just me, it was the whole team," Wickenheiser said. "The whole concept of that was the Olympics would be easy, would feel easy. Many days you were questioning that.
"It was a constant question on the mind of the players 'Do they know what they're doing? Are we going to be tapered in time?'"
Wickenheiser's leadership skills were tested and she relates an instance during boot camp where she made the wrong decision with a teammate and had to make amends. Canada's all-time leading scorer also had to come to terms with scoring less at the 2010 Olympics and doing more grunt work, such a blocking shots, to help her team win.
The Canadian women played a regular schedule of games against Alberta Midget Hockey League teams in preparation for the Games. The U.S. is the only country that consistently gives Canada tough competition in women's hockey, so AMHL games were crucial to Canada's Olympic preparation.
When asked during the season about the dynamic of playing against males, the Canadian women maintained the boys were respectful, but Wickenheiser reveals that wasn't always the case. She tells of playing the Edmonton South Side Athletics and being called "probably the worst things that could be said to a woman."
The game ended with Wickenheiser snapping and putting Dane Phaneuf, younger brother of Toronto Maple Leaf defenceman Dion Phaneuf, in a headlock. The Canadian women won that game 6-1, but TSN highlighted only one goal and spent more time on Wickenheiser's sideshow.
You can hear Wickenheiser's sigh emanating from the page. Her frustration with the media's treatment of women's hockey is a common thread in her book.
While Wickenheiser is open about her feelings in the book, she doesn't spend a lot of time on her personal relationships. Her adopted son Noah provides comic relief with his utter lack of interest in his mom's hockey career.
She makes it clear longtime partner and Noah's father Tomas Pacina, a hockey coach from the Czech Republic, is important in her life, but she devotes about three pages to their relationship.
"It's a book about hockey and the Olympic experience and life as an athlete versus my life," Wickenheiser explained. "The focus of the book was to keep it on the team and the process."
Where the book will have widespread appeal is her depiction of life inside the athletes village in Vancouver. Wickenheiser is observant and descriptive and makes the reader feel they are part of that cloistered environment.
"I didn't want it to be an all-hockey book," she said. "That's part of it, but I think an athlete's life and an Olympic experience is important and so is what happened in the villages and sharing in successes and experiencing the highs and lows of the village life. When at the Olympics, you're on the hockey team, but you are so much a part of the bigger team."
Wickenheiser collaborated on a children's book "Born To Play'' five years ago and says she's not currently interested writing her full autobiography. "Gold Medal Diary" provides a snapshot of her life.
"It was an idea I liked and it really hadn't been done before," she said. "I thought it would be important for people to understand what a team or an athlete goes through in the lead up to the Olympics and then actually at the Olympics.
"I think the general public doesn't really know what it's like every single day for athletes."
"Gold Medal Diary" is published by Greystone Books ($29.95) and has been in bookstores since Oct. 9.