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Welcome to PAULMURRAY.CC, the official homepage of Paul Murray. Here you can follow my training and racing for XC skiing on the road to Vancouver 2010. See you on the tracks! Pic -Chris Hocking.

NEWS

Recent video updates- Silverstar training camp- CLICK HERE.

WAXING ROOS BLOG- Our Olympic waxing team has their own blog. Click HERE- to see what antics the boys have been up to at the games.

22/4/10-New beginnings.

The Vasa was one hell of an experience. I managed to drag myself across the finish line after hitting the wall at 40km and walking every uphill until the 80km mark. Still it was a fun day and I am stoked I finally did it.

I am now officially retired. I was always going to finish ski racing after the 2010 Games, and after 2 months of some serious down time and contemplation I feel like I have definitely made the right decision by hanging up the skis. I won't ramble on about about my time with the team, but I do want to thank all my family, friends, coaches, team mates and my sponsors who have made the journey possible.

Right now I'm about to start work at Mt Beauty Secondary College again and have spent the last 6 weeks working on the house which has been both hard work and fun. I'm looking forward to enjoying skiing on sunny days, riding my bike a lot more and getting involved with coaching a lot more this year.

I won't be updating that often anymore but to all of you that have read my page and been apart of the ride thanks for checking in.

5/3/10-AOC Athletes commission election.

I am back in Sweden now with Zoe. It's her first time here and I have to say there is more snow here than I have ever seen! It's crazy. I had a great last week at the Olympics. The closing ceremony was wicked and we really had a lot of fun that night. Thanks to the Aussie girls who looked after us and were awesome hosts in Vancouver. It's a bit of a let down leaving the games. I guess it's hard not to feel a bit flat after such a massive event with all the build up and hype that surrounds it.

I am stoked to write that I was elected as one of the two winter athletes elected to the Australian Olympic Committee athletes commission. I am really looking forward to being part of this commission and hopefully having a positive impact for winter sports.

It's great to be back in Sweden for the Vasa loppet which is on Sunday. I have never raced the Vasa and am super exited to be healthy and getting a start, I am also a little nervous as I haven't done much specific training for it the last 6 weeks....

26/2/10-Powder and the fourth Wally video.

Click HERE for the new Wally waxing video. They are coming thick and fast as Finn has nothing else to do and is driving us nuts with his demanding Director antics. This fourth one is the best yet. Enjoy!

Today I had my second day on the alpine runs in a row. Nothing to say but fresh snow, some great powder stashes and an empty mountain. Retired life isn't that bad.

25/2/10-A day on the lifts.

Click HERE to see some telemark action from our day on the lifts today at Whistler. Duane doing his thing in this video. It was so much fun I'm going back for more tomorrow.

22/2/10-Sprint relay.

Today's team sprint was hard. Our plan was to hang on as long as we could.Simple as that. Simbo was on fire and he made our team look good for nearly 4 laps. We were in the mix for 3.5 laps and then my legs exploded at the bottom of last climb and then it was all over. I lost a lot of time in that last bit to the second last change over and Simbo was sent out by himself. When he tagged to me for my last lap I was still swimming in lactic acid and couldn't recover. I lost a big chunk of time my last lap and was hanging on as best I could, but as the seconds slipped away it cost us a few places in the overall result which was a shame. Today was the hardest race I can remember for me for a very long time. I can't remember ever going so lactic so that I thought I might not make it around the last corner. I had a big spew in the finish area and was totally smashed for a long time afterwards. Our skis were great today. Another top job from the boys in the wax shed!

It was great to have this Olympics finish racing with Simbo and even though our result on paper may not be that good I am happier with today than the individual sprint.

So that's me done. A massive thanks to our service team and all the people who helped me get here. My family, Zoe and Mum and Dad have been incredible and Finn has done more to help us than anyone could ever ask for.

My sponsors have been incredible along this journey and I feel very lucky to have had their support.

A massive thanks to everyone that has been sending emails, sms's, messages on Facebook and Hero messages. They have been awesome to read and inspired us to do our best.

Tonight I am a retired ski racer. It feels weird to write that.... I will head to Sweden to ski the Vasaloppet next week but I have done no preparation for that race and I am hoping to just finish the 90km race. Then it's back to OZ for a normal life and summers at home!

The plan for the next few days is to relax, have fun and enjoy the last week of the games. I will keep updating as the games continue so keep checking in.

CLICK HERE- to read today's report on the Aussie Olympic webpage.

Thanks for reading!

21/2/10-Sprint pics.

My family enjoying the sunshine after the race.

The guys in their Aussie flags.

Sprint qualifying.

Tomorrow's sprint relay should be fun. The snow is fast and hard and the track is in great condition. Simbo and I skied this morning for 45 mins or so and are both looking forward to tomorrow. I will be stoked if we can hang in the bunch for 3-4 laps.

20/2/10-Wally the wombat waxer.

Click HERE to see our secret waxer, Wally the wombat doing his thing in the wax room on YOUTUBE.

I had a relaxing time the last 2 days hanging out with my family and enjoying some sunshine. It was nice to be back skiing again today. The sprint relay should be alot of fun on Monday morning.

18/2/10-Sprint day.

I had looked forward to February 17th for a very very long time. Yesterday morning I woke up feeling how I wanted to feel. Fresh, ready and feeling good. I slept well, the sky's had cleared over night and the tracks were rock hard and fast when we got to the stadium, just how I had hoped they would be. Our wax team openly wanted crazy waxing conditions as they had jagged it all week and the general consensus was both Es and I would have a better chance of making finals if it was crazy conditions and we had some luck.

I really believed when I was on the start line that if I had a great race I had a chance of pulling it out of the bag and being on the bubble of making the top 30 and finals yesterday. I felt like I skied the first half of the race the best I have skied this whole winter, but I lost a lot of time in the second half of the race and missed the finals by a big chunk. When I crossed the line and saw how far back I was and my place, I was in shock. It probably took a few hours to actually sink in how far back on the list I was. I was pretty gutted yesterday arvo. There's nothing anyone can say or do to make you feel better. The top 30 was tighter than I have ever seen at a major championship before. Six seconds over 3.30mins. That is bloody tight. I needed to have the race of my life and then some to even have a sniff of finals with how fast those guys were skiing.

There are 3 things that I will remember from yesterday. The first is how hard our wax team have worked for us. Those guys have been busting their arses every day to give us the best possible skis we can have. It's hard for people to have an idea how important these guys are to our success and they felt yesterdays disappointment just as much as Es and I.

The second is how electric the atmosphere was in the stadium in the start area. It blew my mind! It was soooo loud, and the Aussies around the track made so much noise when we were racing. I couldn't really see them as I raced on the track but I could feel each pocket of Aussies cheering as I went by.

The third thing I will remember from yesterday is how great it was to have my whole family there with me. They were all so exited and stoked for me. They didn't care about my place or how far back I was. They were just stoked to be able to see me race at the Olympics. They looked awesome in their Aussie flags and gear. I felt really lucky to have them all there.

I have some cool pics from yesterday and will put them up when I get a chance. I now have 2 days off to relax, and hang out with my family before the sprint relay on Monday. Feb 17th didn't go down as I had planned but sometimes that is how life and sport goes. For the record I finished 55th.

16/2/10-The night before.

We tested skis again this morning after a dump of fresh wet snow and I finally got my zeros out of the ski rack. Mark Vandy has lent me a pair of his zeros and it is great to have a few pairs to choose from. Like many athletes today as the conditions changed and the track condition changed so did the best ski choice. All three pairs that I tested were the best at one point in time during the session. It gives you an idea of how tricky things are here. Again our service guys are onto it and I am completely confidant that we will have great skis tomorrow. I did a full loop of the track at easy Lev 3 just to wake the body up along with a few pickups. I'm feeling great and fresh and can't wait to get going tomorrow morning.

A massive thanks to everyone that has been sending texts, Facebook messages and emails supporting me here. I have been in my own little bubble the last few days but I have read them all and they have been awesome!

15/2/10-Simbo 45th.

Today's 15k skate was pretty cool to watch. I skied early on the tourist tracks and had just an easy 40 minute session before coming back to watch on TV. Simbo had a great race and finished a strong 45th. His whole family was there along with a big swag of Aussies making some serious noise, which he said he really appreciated.

He also said he had wicked fast skis so our service guys are really doing a great job in these tough conditions. Some of the bigger nations missed the wax today, not sure how... but they did. I'm confident that our wax guys will nail it again on Wednesday.

I'm feeling great and ready to go. I can't wait to get that race bib on and get going!

14/2/10-More pics.

Torah marching with the flag into the stadium.

After the ceremony with the flame in the stadium.

Alex, Nick and Simbo under the rings.

A bit more on the opening ceremony. We had such a great time marching. It was as good as in Torino and we all tried to just soak it up. Marching into an Olympic opening ceremony is a feeling that is very hard to describe. It's a massive sensory overload and leaves you with goose bumps as you are walking around in the stadium grinning like a crazy person. I must admit my eyes glazed up a bit as we were walking around waving to the cheering fans. There were plenty of Aussies in the crowd with flags which was awesome. The ceremony itself was incredible with wicked lighting effects. It was a pretty long day with us getting into bed just before 2am after the long drive back to Whistler. Earlier Friday afternoon I went into the Oakley house in Vancouver. The guys in there were so generous and I am kitted out with green and gold sunnies that match out race suits.

This mornings training was pretty good. Es and I had a bit of a harder hit out on the sprint track but training time was limited due to nordic combined racing and it was changing snow conditions with the track as usual. I am feeling pretty good and we did some ski testing which was good too. It's unbelievable how quickly the tracks are changing here. They started salting the ski tracks to try and keep them hard and it seemed to work pretty well.

This arvo Australia won their first medal of the games in the moguls. Dale Begg-Smith won silver. Congrats to him. It was pretty cool having most of the Aussie athletes in the Whistler village watching the final.

Simbo is up tomorrow in the 15k. He is primed and ready. Lets hope he smashes it!