1 week to go - Paralympian eyes the podium with full support

New Zealand’s snowboard cross rider Carl Murphy is hoping for gold at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games next month (7-16 March).  Should the man from Wanaka climb the top of the podium the role of his wife, Aleisha, should also be admired.

‘Behind every good man there’s a great woman’ may be a well-worn phrase but it rings perfectly true for Carl and Aleisha Murphy.

Carl is among the world’s top adaptive snowboard cross riders gunning for gold at next month’s Sochi 2014 Paralympics. Aleisha is his wife, best friend and mother to his three-year-old child, Oliver.

Should Carl – a below the knee amputee - deliver his dreams and ambitions in Russia, the 34-year-old will rightly be lauded as a New Zealand hero taking the plaudits. Yet behind the scenes, putting in the “hard yards” raising Oliver and keeping the family home in Wanaka ticking when Carl is out on the slopes training is Aleisha. The significance of her role should not be diminished.

The pair met as childhood sweethearts aged 14 in New Plymouth some 20 years ago. Carl was “always determined” admitted Aleisha. He qualified and worked as an architectural draughtsman – he still works part-time – before taking up competitive snowboarding at the age of 27.
He rapidly rose through the ranks in his new sport, starring internationally in World Cup and World Championship competition.

Yet he remained frustrated snowboard cross was not as on the roster of sports for the Paralympic Games and with a young family to support - following the birth of Oliver in early 2011 - he considered competing for “one more season” before retirement.

Then out of the blue everything changed. One morning in May 2012 they received the news snowboard cross had been accepted as part of the Paralympic programme for Sochi 2014. Nine months earlier the sport has been rejected from the showpiece event in Russia, so the decision was unexpected. 

Carl was naturally elated being given the chance to fight for a medal on the biggest stage, for Aleisha, the prospect sparked a range of different thoughts. “It was mixed emotions for me,” Aleisha commented with straight forward honesty. “Don’t get me wrong, I was excited for Carl and 120 per cent behind him, but at the same time I knew things were about to change with his training demands. It was like, okay, if this is going to happen we need to talk sensibly.”

Shortly after the news broke, Carl met with High Performance Sport NZ (HPSNZ) and Snow Sports NZ staff to work out a detailed training programme for Sochi 2014. His regimen was radically overhauled. His training volume was massively increased. Each segment of his life scrutinised and re-evaluated in an effort to improve performance.
The pair, who had married in 2007, needed to adapt quickly to their change in circumstances.
“It has been a huge adjustment,” explained Aleisha of the past two years in which Carl is away training and competing from December to March in North America and is also committed to training for large chunks of time on the slopes in the New Zealand winter. “Carl hasn’t always been an athlete. I guess he’s changed in that he now has so much more determination and drive in him to succeed. He’s still the same Carl underneath, but occasionally I have to remind him to be Carl, the dad and husband and not just Carl the snowboarder.”
The birth of Oliver has brought additional challenges. Carl is currently the only member of the NZ Snow Sports squad to be married with a child. HPSNZ and Snow Sports NZ have been very supportive to Aleisha’s needs, but with their families scattered between the North Island and the UK life can be demanding.

“We’ve got great friends down here in Wanaka, but friends are very different to family,” added Aleisha, who herself does not ski or snowboard. “My mum is great in that every summer (while Carl is away training in the North American winter) she’ll fly down for a spell and help me out or I’ll go up to her. At the same time when I’m home alone and Carl is away it is quite difficult.”

Aleisha plans to fly out with Oliver to attend the Sochi 2014 Paralympics with her father and Carl’s mother, who both live in the UK. Yet access between husband and wife will be limited prior to his event. Any appointments will have to be formally made through the Chef de Mission.
“I’m not going there with any expectations (of meeting up with him before the event), I know he has a job to do,” she explained. “I’m definitely not going to having dinner’s out with him. If we get to see him before his race, that will be great. If not, we’ll be down the bottom of the course cheering him on.”
Yet on the biggest day of her husband sporting life, how will Aleisha feel watching events unfold in Sochi?

“I will be freaking out,” she added with a giggle “It will be a bit like road kill in that you don’t want to look, but can’t help but to look.  “When he’s overseas racing often during the night I’ll be awake looking at the phone every five minutes checking for his result to come through. On the day I’ll be so nervous but so excited as well because I want him to do well and I know how much he wants to do well.”
Team Murphy have packed away their New Zealand flags in support and are set for the outcome of the biggest competition of Carl’s life. The hope and expectation is gold, for the rider who was ranked joint No.1 in the world until a recent injury has seen him slip to No.3.

Yet has Aleisha considered how Carl will cope should he not match his high expectations when he competes on Friday 14 March – his day of reckoning. “I’ve talked about it with Carl and for him, he has not even thought about it because it is all about positive imagery,” she explained. “I have thought about it myself and he will find it hard, but he’s such a level headed guy he’ll get through it. There is every chance it may not be his day. That is the nature of sport. We’ve just got to hope for the best.”

So can a spouse of a Paralymic athlete going for gold enjoy the experience?
“Yes, I enjoy seeing him succeed and doing what he wants to do, but at the same time because I don’t travel with him I have to do the hard yards at home,” she said. “Carl is a great father and a great husband. I couldn’t ask for more, but at the same time it is difficult for me. I’m not going to say it is beautiful and fantastic all the time because the reality is it is hard work. Athletes often talk about the role their sponsors have played after winning a title. Actually, I think, I might be the No.1 sponsor.”

Few would disagree.