I’ll never forget, the first week of school, my team had to do an off ice conditioning test. You had to run 10 yards and back, 20 yards and back, 30 yards and back all under 25 seconds. Then you got to rest for 30 seconds and had to do it again. 10 times total to be exact. It was 10 minutes of misery. After the first two reps, I collapsed and quit on it because I had never had to push myself in that way before. I didn’t believe that I could do it and quite frankly, I wasn’t in good enough shape to pass the test. Of course, my coach wasn’t pleased, and I wasn’t even close to being on the first line the beginning of that year. It was a wake-up call I had never anticipated while in high school.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Just as I felt like I had a grip on things, my best friend and linemate from my Colorado team, Liz Turgeon, passed away in a tragic car accident two days before Christmas. I was shattered. I didn’t know how to feel. I didn’t know what to do. I was sad, angry, confused, frustrated… And I couldn’t understand how anyone could expect me to play hockey at all let alone play it well. But that was exactly what everyone was encouraging me to do. Including Liz, I’m sure. I know she would never want me to give up on something we both loved so much. But it was so hard going to the rink every day after that. For months, I couldn’t seem to find the right way to use her memory as fuel. Everything I did was driven out of grief and anger.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”“I had a rough start to my collegiate career. And sadly, it got worse before it got better.“” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:40|text_align:left”][vc_column_text]
~ Lyndsey Fry
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]It wasn’t until I started relying on her love for me and for the game of hockey that it turned around. I started thinking about the good times we had together instead of the pain of reality, and it helped me to remember one particularly special moment. After our last game together, we were both sobbing our eyes out because we knew we were going to be going to different colleges and our time playing together had come to an end. Then, I put my hand on her leg, and I said, “This will not be the last time we play together. We are going to work our tails off to make an Olympic team someday, and then we will play together again.” That was our promise. And once I remembered it, I fully intended to keep it.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content” content_placement=”bottom” bg_type=”image” parallax_style=”vcpb-vz-jquery” bg_image_new=”id^5103|url^http://www.beyondplaybook.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/shutterstock_183847610-1.jpg|caption^null|alt^Lyndsey Fry|title^Beyond Playbook Spotlight: Lyndsey Fry|description^null” bg_image_repeat=”no-repeat” css=”.vc_custom_1487014463083{padding-top: 200px !important;padding-bottom: 200px !important;}”][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. In fact, it was going to take everything I had. I started eating better, training harder, and focusing more on and off the ice. Everything I did was about that promise, and I wore a locket around my neck.
I still had to attend Olympic tryouts in June of 2013.
A few months before the tryouts, I received a call from the director of the women’s program for USA Hockey. She told me that they had Liz’s USA jersey from when she played for the USA Under 18 Team back in 2008. They weren’t sure what they should do with it. They knew that I was close with her and her family, so they asked if I would contact them to find out. When I called her mom, we talked about it for a bit, and she finally asked me what I thought we should do with it. I told her that if it was ok with her, I would like to carry it with me as far as my Olympic journey took me. She agreed.
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I took Liz’s jersey with me to tryouts where I made the early roster for the team. After that, I had it with me through a grueling 7-month training process leading up to the Olympics. I carried her with me on the road for games, I carried her with me on the hardest days of training, and when I was told that I made the final cut for the team, I held that jersey and cried into it, telling her that we did it. We made the team.
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Winning the silver medal is something that I will never forget. But following through on that promise that Liz and I made to each other is something that will forever inspire me to keep overcoming anything that comes in my way. I’m currently training for an Iron Man race in November of 2017 and raising money for kids in third world countries who need cleft lip and palate surgeries. I think she would be proud that I continue to work toward goals that are bigger than myself. I can hear her in my ear once again, pushing me to power through my training. My angel in the sky.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”5156″ img_size=”400×400″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_border_circle_2″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator color=”black” style=”shadow” border_width=”2″][vc_column_text]