For those of you who know me well, it will be obvious to you that my new career as an executive coach it the right move for me. I have the passion and the skills to help others to achieve their goals and achieve their “Olympics” – whatever that looks like to them. We all have big goals and some of us will do what it takes to reach those goals. I can help people achieve their high performance goals.
As an executive coach, I work with executives, business people and even athletes helping them to improve their mental, technical and physical game to achieve success! I am really excited to be starting a new career!

Who would have thought that signs would turn out to be such a contentious issue in Richmond? At my first All Candidates Meeting in Richmond, I said that I would like to see business signs at least 50% English. I had no idea there were so many people in support of this!

My vision for Richmond is one where we are a single community that is inclusive and welcoming. In order to be inclusive, we have to make people feel welcome. We welcome people with our actions and our words. If our words are incomprehensible to half of the population, then we are not inclusive. (My own campaign brochure is one side English, one side Cantonese.)

There are people from other areas of Metro Vancouver who are not comfortable coming to Richmond because they do not feel welcome as they cannot understand the signage. Surely we also have tourist visitors who also feel this way. This feeling does not encourage people to come and spend money in our stores and restaurants. This sense of alienation is not good for business – for anyone!

For many newcomers, the lack of English signage makes it too easy to get by day to day without learning English. By having signs in 50% English, people begin to recognize the English words and learn the language. We want our new immigrants to learn English and be a part of our community – we do not want them to be afraid or isolated in their homes due to language issues.

We need to create a policy whereby: “We in Richmond are an inclusive community”. We show that we are inclusive by having our signage in at least 50% English.

I don’t believe that we currently need a bylaw to enforce this policy – just as there is no written rule that we don’t use certain words when referring to others (such as the “N” word). Businesses that are inclusive will ensure that their signs reflect the policy and businesses that are not interested in being a part of the Richmond community, will do what they like and suffer the economic consequence when people stop patronizing their businesses in favour of “inclusive businesses”.

If, in a few years, there is no visible difference in the signage, then I would be in favour of creating a bylaw and enforcing it – the same as in Quebec, where sign laws have been in place for decades. I would, however, prefer if we could show our commitment to our community voluntarily.

I would like to change some of the neighbourhood zoning to require more green spaces, not only in individual property lots, but small park areas where people can gather with benches and opportunities to get together. In our high rise homes, we need to better plan the spaces between the developments – creating squares with small parks, picnic tables and benches and coffee shops. If we have the vision, we can create spaces that encourage people to get outside and meet each other.

I would like to ensure that we support the arts and combine ESL programs with them to encourage people to get out of the house and engaged in their community. There are a lot of people here who have a lot of skills and talents that they would like to share, we just have to figure out good ways of connecting the dots.

Probably we have to start getting people out and engaged through Chinese language actives that start teaching English.

If we don’t start teaching English and getting people out of their homes we will have some long term problems as this group ages.

With careful planning and a strong vision of what we want our community of Richmond to look like, we can create policies that will help to realize the vision.

City of Richmond Elections are November 19th, 2011.

come out and vote for Alexa Loo for Councilor.

2010: The Big Year

This year has been the biggest year of my life – and we are only halfway through the year! I competed in the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, placing 12th – and missing the chance to compete in the round of the top eight by only .01 of a second! The snowboard season wrapped up with me winning my 7th Canadian PGS title. On May 21, I got married to the love of my life, Ari Goosen, and we began the slow process of applying for his permanent residency, as he is an American. After going on a wonderful honeymoon, we celebrated our marriage at a party in New York City with friends and family that were not able to join us in Vancouver for the wedding. This past weekend, I spent at the Post Olympic Excellence Series in Lake Louise with a number of my teammates from the Canadian Olympic Team. The sharing and discussions served to cement in my mind that I am ready to retire from sport and move forward to new and different goals.

Fully inspired and energized by my fellow Olympians, I am embarking on my transition out of sport and into the work world. I am excited to be able to put my Chartered Accountant designation and my Chartered Financial Analyst education to use. My character traits and skills that helped me to become a two-time Olympian will serve me well as I find and begin a new job.

I still love sport and I am convinced that sport helps to build the foundation for a strong and happy life. I also believe that Track and Field skills are the foundation for nearly every sport. With that in mind, I am pleased to be assisting Avril Douglas, 400m World Record holder, to deliver the Track Rascals Program to children aged 6 – 8. The program will be offered through the Kajaks Track and Field Club in Richmond and is scheduled from July 19 – August 18 on Monday and Wednesday evenings. For more information, please call: 604-241-9094.

Thank you for sharing my 2010 Journey with me! It is time for me to begin a new chapter in my life and I look forward to sharing that with you too!

I am very excited to be getting married on Friday May 21st to the love of my life, Ari Goosen. We are both pleased to be able to invite the students of Homma elementary and their parents to join us at the wedding ceremony at St. Joseph the Worker Church on Williams Road in Richmond at 4 pm.

This is an open event and all are welcome!

After a disappointing World Cup result in Nendaz, SUI, where I placed 25th, and an even more disappointing World Cup result in Stoneham, where I fell in my first run, got up and continued riding, only to miss the last gate and get disqualified, I still qualified for the Canadian Olympic team! The team was announced in Quebec City with much fanfare, including a deejay and a smoke and light show to introduce the 2010 team to the media!

I left Quebec feeling good and went home for a few days where I visited Homma elementary school, chatted with a few television and radio stations and managed to find and buy my wedding dress!

Buoyed by my successful dress-shopping excursion, I left Vancouver again to join the team in Bend, Oregon. Mt. Bachelor, a short 30 min drive from Bend, is one of the best places to snowboard or ski. There is a great variety of terrain and typically lots of great snow! This trip was no exception. Our first day of training, it was snowing and by the next day, the sun was shining and the grooming looked fantastic!

Of course, as our luck would have it, by race day, today, the snow was falling and the wind was howling. The racecourse was set out of the wind, but the top bit of the chairlift ride was an arctic adventure unto itself.

We raced the PGS today. I qualified second after getting hooked up in a heelside turn and looping wide out into the powder next to the race line.

In the finals, I raced Ivanna Trudel – an ex racer from Quebec who is making a bit of a comeback. Then I went against up and comer Megan Farrell – cousin of my teammate Pat Farrell. Finally I met up with Kimi in the semifinal. Kimi looked like she was going to beat me until she made a big mistake two gates from the finish, allowing me to move onto the big final where I faced of against Caro. Caro fell in the first run which gave me the full penalty advantage moving into our last run and she was not able make up any time on me and I took home the gold! For sure this was our best race ever, with me in first, Caro second, Kimi third and Arianne our rookie in fourth – we completely shut the Americans out of the podium!

In the men’s side: Michael was first, Chris Klug from the USA second and Jasey third – so, it wasn’t a total Canadian domination, but there is always tomorrow when we will race a two run GS at Bachelor.

Hi!

After a disappointing World Cup result in Nendaz, SUI, where I placed 25^th, and an even more disappointing World Cup result in Stoneham, where I fell in my first run, got up and continued riding, only to miss the last gate and get disqualified, I still qualified for the Canadian Olympic team!  The team was announced in Quebec City with much fanfare, including a deejay and a smoke and light show to introduce the 2010 team to the media!

I left Quebec feeling good and went home for a few days where I visited Homma elementary school, chatted with a few television and radio stations and managed to find and buy my wedding dress! 

Buoyed by my successful dress-shopping excursion, I left Vancouver again to join the team in Bend, Oregon.  Mt. Bachelor, a short 30 min drive from Bend, is one of the best places to snowboard or ski.  There is a great variety of terrain and typically lots of great snow!  This trip was no exception.  Our first day of training, it was snowing and by the next day, the sun was shining and the grooming looked fantastic!

Of course, as our luck would have it, by race day, today, the snow was falling and the wind was howling.  The racecourse was set out of the wind, but the top bit of the chairlift ride was an arctic adventure unto itself.

We raced the PGS today.  I qualified second after getting hooked up in a heelside turn and looping wide out into the powder next to the race line. 

In the finals, I raced Ivanna Trudel – an ex racer from Quebec who is making a bit of a comeback.  Then I went against up and comer Megan Farrell – cousin of my teammate Pat Farrell.  Finally I met up with Kimi in the semifinal.  Kimi looked like she was going to beat me until she made a big mistake two gates from the finish, allowing me to move onto the big final where I faced of against Caro.  Caro fell in the first run which gave me the full penalty advantage moving into our last run and she was not able make up any time on me and I took home the gold!  For sure this was our best race ever, with me in first, Caro second, Kimi third and Arianne our rookie in fourth – we completely shut the Americans out of the podium!

In the men’s side: Michael was first, Chris Klug from the USA second and Jasey third – so, it wasn’t a total Canadian domination, but there is always tomorrow when we will race a two run GS at Bachelor.

Cheers,

Alexa

Nendaz 2010

Following the great race in Austria, we drove a million hours – or, at least it felt like a million hours to drive our gutless rental car to Leysin, Switzerland where we trained for a couple of days.  Leysin is quite close to Montreux, which made for a nice day trip for us on our day off.  Once the sun came out, the views were amazing and the snow was perfect and we made some great strides in our snowboarding.

One of our highlights in Leysin was a team dinner at the Fromagerie, where we enjoyed a traditional raclette: melted cheese on potatoes and cured meats.   After dinner, the real show started.  There is a guy who makes the cheese right there in the restaurant!  He put 280 litres of milk into a gigantic copper cauldron and put it over the fire.  Michael was tasked with stirring the milk until it was exactly 55 degrees Centigrade (about 35 minutes later).  Then they put some enzyme in the hot milk to create the curds.  After scooping the curds into cheesecloth and packing it up, they pressed the excess fluid out of it with a huge log contraption and Voila!  Cheese! They cure the cheese for at least a year before it is ready to be served and then it is returned to the restaurant and fed to the guests.

After the great training in Leysin, we trekked a couple of hours to Nendaz – just east of Verbier.  Nendaz hosted a Europa Cup event and will be hosting a World Cup this coming Sunday.

We thought it would be great training to race the Europa Cup, as both races are on the same run.  Pretty much all of the girls who race World Cup were in the race and the event was quite stacked and pretty much a World Cup without the points or the prize money.  But seeing as I race for fun, I was keen to go.

Kimi had great qualifying runs, winning the qualifiers.  I was not so fired up and managed to qualify 9^th and Caro qualified 10^th.

In my first round of the finals, I raced against Isabella Laboeck from Germany.  She has been racing well lately, but I beat her in both runs and moved on to the quaterfinals to race her teammate, Anke Karstens.  Anke had just beaten Kimi, so I felt no remorse when I beat her and moved onto the semifinals.

In the semifinals, I raced against Selina Joerg, also from Germany.  My first run against Selina, I laid down a pretty good first run.  In my second run against her, she made a huge mistake and hit the wrong side of the gate.  The wrong side of the gate is fixed quite well into the ground and is not very forgiving when you crash into it.  Just as she crashed, I made a mistake too.  I looped out of the course.  I thought I would have enough direction to carve around and make it to the next gate and keep going.  I did, kind of.  I did carve into the powder at the edge of the course, but the fence was a little closer than I thought!  My board slid under the netting of the fencing and my body was still on the inside of the fence!  “Uh oh!” I thought, “This is going to hurt.”  Then my hip made contact with the fence post – which was a slim stick holding the net fencing in place.  The post popped out of the ground!  I kept going and took out another post!  Amazed that I was still on my feet and moving, I carved back into the course and finished the race!  Selina was not able to catch me and I moved onto the Big Final while she went to the small final.

I got to the top to race for the gold and guess who I should meet?  Nicolien Sauerbreij from the Netherlands – the girl who beat me last week!  She got a free pass in her semifinal round as Michelle Gorgone from the USA got injured and dropped out of the race – so Nicolien was fresh and ready to go.  In the first run, I rode hard and I beat Nicolien by about half a second.  In my second run, however, I made a mistake on a heelside early in the course and lost a lot of speed.  I tried to make it up by charging hard.  I moved into a toeside turn, hit some ice and ended up on my face – with snow caked into my helmet to boot!  I got up but there was no chance to catch her and I had to concede first place to Nicolien for a second race in a row.  But second was pretty good training for the World Cup this Sunday!

Michael brought home his first Continental Cup victory!  Jasey rounded out our podium by finishing third, while Kimi was 9^th and Caro was 13^th.

We kicked off the January World Cups by boarding the planes in Canada on the 31st of December. The plane was delayed, so, when we boarded the plane, the captain greeted us with a cheerful, “It is 2 am in Frankfurt. Happy New Year!” – So much for ringing in 2010 with a bang.

Our first World Cup was in Kreischberg, Austria near the town of Murau – about two hours southeast of Salzburg. The town has a brewery that is 800 years old. Although, it was just as well that they were not offering tours, as we had to race.

I love racing in Kreischberg. This was the first place I ever won prize money in a World Cup – way back in 2002 in a World Cup Snowboardcross. I also qualified for my first Sport Canada funding in 2003 by finishing in the top 16 at World Championships! So, my feelings for this race hill are very positive. The race hill itself has a bit of terrain: with a gentle slope onto flat, then dropping over a sharp knoll back onto flat and then dropping over another knoll into the finish line. The snow is usually firm, dense man-made snow – this is my favourite as I am a pretty powerful rider and I like to push hard on my board and the hard snow holds the edge and helps me to generate speed.

As I had done quite badly in the last few World Cups, my World Cup ranking had dropped (it is the cumulative points from all of my World Cup results in the season) and I was starting out of the top seed: bib 21, to be exact.

The course had big turns, which require a lot of lateral movement and strong carving, and a number of rhythm changes, which require a smart approach to the course – this course was designed for me! I took my first qualification run and rode well, finishing 3rd in my course. After the second qualification run, I went into the finals ranked third.

First round of the qualifications, I beat Tomoka Takeuchi from Japan in both runs. Moving into the quarterfinal, I beat Heidi Neururer from Austria in both runs to move me into the semifinal where I faced her teammate Marion Kreiner. I beat Marion in the first run by the full penalty of 1.5 seconds. Then in our next run against each other, I made some crazy mistakes by trying to straighten out my line too much. Four gates from the finish, I was on my butt and Marion was a little bit ahead of me. I stood up, carved the third to last gate and ripped past the last two gates to beat Marion and move on to the Big Final! As we turned and watched the replay of the last few gates, Marion saw how I tore up the last three gates and beat her across the finish line and yelled, “Scheise!” (I will let you guess the translation.)

Then came the Big Final, racing for the gold. I was against Nicolien Sauerbreij from the Netherlands. She is a tough competitor and I managed to let that rattle me. I did not stick to the line through the gates that had been working for me all day, rather I tried to run a straighter line, which got me into trouble and forced me to make some mistakes. She beat me in both runs and took the gold, while I posted my best result ever and came home with the silver and a lesson learned.

Jasey brought home his second World Cup victory in a row, Caro finished 16th and Ekaterina, one of the up-and comers, finished 18th. At least we rang in the first World Cup of the year with a bang!