Frustration and anger made Emily Brydon run away from skiing after the 2006 Winter Olympics. The realization she still had a passion for the sport, and a chance to fulfil a dream before she retires at the end of this season, prompted her to return for the 2010 Games.

“If Vancouver wasn’t here, I probably wouldn’t have come back,” Brydon says during an interview at a restaurant not far from the mountain where she will compete for an Olympic medal.

“How cool would it be to podium here, to win here. To achieve something very few people achieved at home, at the end of my career. It’s just too perfect. It would be a dream come true.”

The 30-year-old from Fernie, B.C, has been on the national alpine ski team since 1997 and plans to retire at the end of this World Cup season.

“It’s allowed me to kind of give it my all,” says the winner of seven World Cup medals and nine Canadian championships. “I don’t want to have anything left in my tank at the end of the day.”

The ’06 Turin Olympics were a nightmare for Brydon. Her best result was a ninth in the super-giant slalom, following a disappointing 20th in the downhill.

She bravely held back tears while Canadian media at the bottom of the hill asked her if it was time to retire.

Privately, Brydon asked herself the same question.

“That was one of the low points in my career,” she says. “There was nothing wrong with me, there was no one to blame. It was me who failed, me who was kind of lost.”

When the World Cup season ended, Brydon booked a ticket and escaped to Australia for six weeks. She needed the time to think about why the sport she loved had become the enemy.

“I hated it,” says Brydon, shivering at the memory. “I never really stopped loving skiing, but I hated racing.

“I hated the politics of the sport. I hated how much I associated myself with my results. Being an athlete, it’s really hard to keep your identity separate from your results. I struggled a lot with it.”

The warm Down Under sun thawed the cold in Brydon and shone some light on her problems.

“I knew the only way to come back was to have a different attitude,” she says. “I figured out the only way to do that is make it less about me and more about something else.”

Brydon, who is an ambassador for Right to Play, established the Emily Brydon Youth Foundation.

The foundation’s goal is to supply financial support to youth living around her hometown so they can pursue interests in sports, the arts or education.

Last year the foundation bought equipment and lift tickets and paid for instructors for young skiers. It has sent children to summer camp and helped pay for playgrounds and a skateboard park.

“Having this project outside of skiing makes me step outside my bubble from time to time,” says Brydon.

A revitalized Brydon has claimed four podium finishes since the start of the 2006-07 season. She claimed her first career win in a super-G at St. Moritz, Switzerland, in February 2008. She also has managed 16 top-10 finishes.

But she struggled again last season. She battled illness for part of the year and experienced several bone-rattling falls. Her best result was fifth in a downhill in Austria.

Patrick Riml, director of the Canadian women’s team, says he grew concerned Brydon had become too involved in activities outside of skiing.

“She had a lot of stuff going on,” Riml says from his home in Solden, Austria. “Because she is involved in so many different organizations, at some point she couldn’t handle it anymore.

“Emily and I had a really good conversation about this.”

Brydon wasn’t alone in struggling last year. No Canadian woman had a top-three finish on the World Cup circuit.

“It can work in a positive way,” says Brydon. “We know we can succeed because we had the results in the past.

“We are going (to the Olympics) as the underdog. Maybe that is a good position. It’s a less stressful position.”

Brydon has always been an athlete full of potential, but may be held back by her brain.

An emotional, passionate person, she can over-think situations. A mistake in training can turn into a mental stone on race day.

“For me, my weakest link is my head,” Brydon jokes. “It’s a well- known fact about me.”

Riml says Brydon has the potential to stand on the podium during February’s Games.

“On the right day, nobody can beat her,” he says. “If everything works together, and is in her favour, she can win the downhill.”

By JIM MORRIS The Canadian Press