On August 19th Carrie Johnson earned the fourth spot in the semi-finals for the women's K1 500m race. In the semis held on the 21st, she finished a mere five tenths of a second behind South Africa's Jennifer Hodson which sadly bumped Johnson out of the finals. Johnson has had to battle more than racers in other lanes to get where she is competitively. She was diagnosed with Crohns Disease, an inflammatory bowel disease with an unknown cause, in 2003. Despite debilitating flare-ups surrounding important races, Johnson has maintained the top position in women’s sprint kayaking. She is currently helping the Crohns and Me Community set up a dialogue about the disease so sufferers of it don’t feel isolated. Paddler caught up with her right before she left for the games.

Paddler: Where are you?
Johnson: In Chula Vista, at the Olympic training center, we’ve been back (from Szeged, Hungary) for about a month.

Paddler: Has your training changed the closer you get to the Olympics?
Johnson: Especially since we’ve been back. It is very intense in both workout intensity and volume.

Paddler: Could you give an example?
Johnson: Our workout this morning was 500 meters 10 times for the best average time you can hold. That would have been the hardest workout in our cycle. We have a four-week training cycle in which we build for three weeks and rest on the fourth. That would be a hard third-week workout, and now you’re building on that.

Paddler: Did you grow up far from the Olympic Training center in Chula Vista?
Johnson: Close, I was born and raised in Clairemont, (San Diego) I went to high school in La Jolla and am currently a student at UCSD (University of California-San Diego), where my training is much less rigorous.

Paddler: I had a roommate in college who went to high school in Clairemont. His name is Alan Vespe.
Johnson: (Silence)

Paddler: Okay, sorry, um, why are you guys, um, training in Japan before the Olympics, and how long are you going to be in Beijing for?
Johnson: We leave the U.S. on the 1st and we are in Japan till the 14th. We will be in China until 25th. The main reason is to stay focused and to stay out of the commotion and stay out of the excitement, especially with a second week sport a lot of people will be finishing their races. Our coaches thought it would be better to stay out of that environment.

Paddler: What is the first thing you plan to do after you finish competing in the Olympics?
Johnson: Have some dessert, something with chocolate. Then I plan to start decompressing from the last four years.

Paddler: What was it like knowing you were in the Olympics for those months while your teammates battled for spots?
Johnson: As soon as I crossed the finish line at trials it was a huge relief. It became a little bit different for me than for everyone else. I was training for that specific tangible goal. There was a different kind of motivation for me for that couple of months. I could just sit back and train.

Paddler: What is your strategy for the games?
Johnson: Most likely it will be the winner of the heat will go directly to final. The best opportunity is to win the heat and have three days off. The Olympics are different from the world championships. If you only race one event, you only race once, so you can go all out in a heat and not worry about it. In worlds, you have multiple heats. In the Olympics, you can go harder and plan on being fresh.

Paddler: When were you diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease?
Johnson: In 2003—I started paddling with symptoms that January. It’s a disease that goes up and down so I went through periods of being able to train and not being able to train. I qualified for worlds but had to decline because it became its worst right before worlds, so I went and had to watch. Taking that time off made me realize how much I loved paddling, I came back with whole new motivation. Being a younger athlete and being taken out, I wasn’t expected to be on the 2004 team, and I upset the trials and made the team.

Paddler: How has it been training with Crohn’s Disease?
Johnson: I have to work with Nathan (Luce, head sprint coach), sometimes I do have to (train during flare-ups). It depends on the time. Generally I am fine to do all of the workouts. Sometimes I do have to work with him to modify the workouts. I do a lot of biking instead of running. As long as you stay positive, I do as much as I can do, I actually had a flare up before Olympic trials. Nathan would tell me to just paddle easy, or recover, I also did technique paddling or laying on the couch doing visualization. It is hard to stay positive when you can’t do what you want but you should always stay constructive.

Paddler: Could you tell me about Crohns and Me?
Johnson: It’s a website, crohnsandme.com, that has general information about the disease. They have video clips and interviews with people who have the disease. The goal is to make people comfortable about having it and talking about it. It isn’t something that you talk about very often, it is important for people who have the disease to know. When I was initially diagnosed this wasn’t something that was available and I felt very isolated and didn’t know that it was more of a common thing. I want people to hear my story and know that people can live a normal life with the disease.

Paddler: Is there one of those Hungarians in particular you are gunning for?
Johnson: The K-1 woman is Katalin Kovacs. She is a multiple-time Olympic and world champ, she would definitely be the person I am going for as well as everyone else. The Hungarians have come out here (to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista) and trained with us, she is a phenomenal competitor, but I have seen her as a real person and I have seen her get tired. On August 23rd it’s whoever can pull it altogether and have the best race of their lives.

Paddler: With all of these reporters asking you questions around Olympics time, is there a question you wish you could ask them?
Johnson: Wow that’s something I’ve never really thought of before. With a lot of reporters I would wonder about their interest in kayaking as a sport. How they heard about me, or my sport. But you are from a paddling magazine so the answer is obvious.