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< Sept/Oct 2000
	Olympic Preview
Ratcliffe vs. Shipley A heavyweight match-up awaits in Olympic K-1

It has all the makings of a Riddick Bowe/Evander Holyfield heavyweight fight. Only in this case the boxing ring is the slalom course in Sydney. In the two corners: Scott Shipley from the U.S. and Paul Ratcliffe from Great Britain.

If it made the Vegas charts, Shipley would be the underdog. Ratcliffe has won the World Cup the last two seasons, each time upsetting Shipley, who was leading going into the finals. Shipley has held the title three times. Since the last Olympics both have accounted for four out of five of all World Cup wins.

Shipley and Ratcliffe have dueled each other almost exclusively on the World Cup circuit since the 1996 Olympics. Shipley, the World Cup champion that year, came from behind to snatch top honors again in '97. Ratcliffe did the same to Shipley in '98. Last year unmasked perhaps the most dramatic series of all, with the final World Cup event at Sydney coming down to the last winner-take-all run. Ratcliffe gained a second and a half on his rival to retain the title.

The first World Cup race of the 2000 season proved no different. Held in Sydney on the Olympic course, three racers were left in the second run—Switzerland's Mattias Rothemund, Ratcliffe, and Shipley—and each knew the podium came down to the last run. Ratcliffe did it again, blazing down the course two seconds ahead of Shipley who stumbled in a late gate. An Italian grabbed second to snatch the silver at Shipley's expense, a reminder that there are more than two threats for top honors in this Olympiad.

The reality of the situation is not lost on either of them. Despite their consistent success in World Cup competition, neither has ever won an Olympic medal or World Championship. Last year's World Championship was a stunning reminder. They finished their first runs first and second, with Shipley a scant eight-hundredths of a second ahead of Ratcliffe. Ratcliffe hit gate one on his final run, clearing the way for Shipley to snatch top honors on any other day. This time, however, it was Canada's Dave Ford finishing first. A missed stroke left Shipley in second for a third time.

Ratcliffe's win at the first World Cup gave him a leg up on the 2000 season, where he was sitting 10 points ahead of Shipley with five races to go. This is an Olympic year, however, meaning the World Cup takes second stage. Neither Ratcliffe nor Shipley will race more than half the World Cups this summer, concentrating instead on training for the Games.

For Shipley, preparations have already begun. Eighteen countries won K-1 spots for the Olympics. Shipley and Ratcliffe secured them for the American and British teams. The British, like many other countries, awarded their spots to the qualifying paddler if he or she medals. This left Ratcliffe with an Olympic berth more than a year ahead of the Games. Shipley had to wait until April, after dueling it out with fellow countrymen. It was the most terrifying competition of his life. "It was such an all-or-nothing event," he says. "If I won I would go to Sydney, if I lost, the boat went into the garage and I went back to school." In a way, it was a good precursor to the Olympics. The Sydney Games will have even more pressure.

Shipley envied Ratcliffe's secure position throughout the winter, but those roles switched after World Cup number one. In a surprise turn of events, Ratcliffe's countrymen fought his pre-selection in court. Just after the race, he was summoned back to England by court order, and was forced to win his country's selection races to guarantee his spot.

In 1996 Ratcliffe and Shipley shared the same English coach. They met in the French Alps to train together during their final preparations for Atlanta. At the time Shipley was ranked first in the World; Ratcliffe had yet to medal in international competition. They spent three weeks sparring on the Isere River before journeying to Atlanta where each, in his own way, lost the Olympics. They haven't trained together since, though they remain friendly rivals.

Shipley is used to a gut-busting training pace. He grew up training in the Pacific Northwest, far from the U.S. training center in Washington D.C., honing his skills on the Northwest's whitewater and in workouts done at the Canadian winter training site. Most of Shipley's winter workouts were done in snowy British Columbia 500 meters upstream from a treehouse he lived in. Shipley, who spent his first winter as a full-time athlete based in this treehouse, tried to make it through the training season on $1,200 in funding he received for being the world's fastest junior the year before. Rent in the treehouse was $30 a month, sharing a port-a-potty and outdoor kitchen with his training partner.

The location's only redeeming feature was the industrial-strength water heater the local rafting company installed to supply showers for their customers. The two of them would thaw their frozen gear in its bathtub before dressing for workouts. They would then rush to the slalom course in hopes of beginning training before the cold seeped through their wet clothes. The workouts were coachless and unorganized. Shipley and the Canadians would hang their own gates, set their own training schedules, and evaluate their own performances.

Ratcliffe comes from a different background. His first years as a full-time athlete were spent at England's Holme-Pierpoint watersports center, a facility with heated locker rooms, showers, and a man-made canal with alternate gate sites. It's also home to the British team's coaching staff. The two athletes' different origins created evenly matched paddlers. In practice the two train the same way. Each shuns coaching staffs at home in favor of training alone in the winter.

Shipley and Ratcliffe pass by each other after Shipley's training run at the first World Cup, each giving a relaxed and silent nod to the other. Five minutes later it is Ratcliffe's turn to train. He accelerates past the starting dock and over the first drop. One hundred and thirty-five days from now he will have run out of practice runs. He will paddle these same few strokes when the bell rings signaling the start of the Olympics. Most likely his rival will be either just ahead, or just behind, each vying for gold in what Shipley has promised will be their final duel.

—edb