Olympic long-track speed skater Isabelle Doucet has been sharing her athletic knowledge with Yukoners for the past two weeks.

Doucet, who started skating for Canada in 1993 at the junior world championships and competed at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, is now a full-time personal trainer and part-time speed skating coach.

'I do work for a software company, UB Soft, in Quebec,' she said in an interview Wednesday evening, after a training session with a group of Yukon athletes. 'I'm a personal trainer for their corporate gym.

'I also own my own business as a high performance trainer for athletes. I design a specific program for the athletes.'

Doucet, who has a bachelor's degree in kinesiology from Laval University in Quebec, designs dryland programs which include weight training, physio ball exercises and aerobic activity. She also gives nutrition and recovery tips.

'I teach them how to build a summer program to make the athletes peak at the right moment in competition,' she said. 'The goal here is to increase speed, strength, power and endurance. I try to cover these aspects with coaches as well as athletes.'

Doucet was in Whitehorse last year for an on-ice training session with the local speed skaters and it was skating coach Tom Elliot who decided to bring her back this year.

'We felt one of her strengths was the off-ice training,' he explained. 'Number one, because of her schooling. Two, from being an athlete herself and knowing what it takes. And three, from her experience with high performance athletes in Quebec.'

Elliot said part of going to Canada Winter Games is that you need to be on a year-round training program. The club has been doing a lot of training themselves, mostly biking in the summer. But the coach said in talking to Doucet, you find out a dryland or summer program is much more than biking.

Doucet basically customizes every camp that she does, working with what the athletes have and need. On Wednesday, the group comprised of mainly speed skaters but a few basketball and soccer players as well went through a circuit routine, also known as plyometrics. It's part of a four-month program they will continue throughout the off-season.

'I do see certainly a lot of potential in these guys,' said Doucet. 'They just need a little bit more structure.'

Seventeen-year-old Kylie Gadsby said the training has been good for her, and she plans on continuing throughout the summer.

'We'll be in really good shape,' she smiled. 'It's hard work, but it's worth it.

We'll build a lot of muscle if we keep this up for sure. It's definitely going t make us faster.'

Both Gadsby and 12-year-old teammate Melanie Tait said the plyometrics circuit was especially tough.

'I've never done most of this,' said Tait. 'It was really good on my legs.

'I've never done summer training before so usually when I start in the fall it's like learning everything all over again and getting back into shape.'

Gadsby said the nutritional tips were interesting, although the skaters met with a nutritionist before Arctic Winter Games in February, so that part was mostly a review. She does think the tips were helpful for some of the basketball players at the camp.

Both athletes feel the entire training program is a good idea to continue in the future. Doucet said she's thinking about coming back next year to teach more because there's only so much you can teach in two weeks. Even though the Yukon is so isolated, the Olympian said local athletes can compete just as hard at Outside competitions, as long as they have the right program in place.

'Basically they have access to the weight room, track and beautiful pathways where they can bike,' she said. 'So it doesn't make it any different to me.'

Doucet added when she was training as part of the Canadian skating team, she was on her own. All of her teammates were training in Calgary but she was in Quebec.

'As long as you have the motivation, you can do it,' she stated. 'I hope at the end, they (the Yukon athletes) will have the confidence to make a provincial team or something. I think it's nice for them to see someone interested in their training and believing in them.

'I wasn't even on the national team when I qualified for the Olympics, I was a provincial team member. You should never give yourself any limits.'

Doucet said she hopes the local athletes can take her Olympic story as an example and say no matter what, they can qualify if they put their mind to it. Even if they suffer a few injuries, she said, it doesn't matter. They just have to keep going.

'I see a lot of people with lots of potential, but they are a little too lazy,' she said. 'So they don't go as far as people with guts and perseverance.'

Elliot said the club learned a lot from Doucet, who he called 'just a wonderful role model,' and there is a lot of local knowledge that can help the athletes continue the program.

'We have a program that we can take to Peak (Fitness), or wherever, and give them (to implement with the athletes),' he said. 'We could do this on our own right now and try not to let it go to waste.

'We have all the elements it takes to continue this program. Some of it is going to be up to individual athletes.'

Elliot said Gadsby and teammate Alyshia Kitchen are members of the gym already and now they have a structure they can follow. The speed skating club also has plans underway for a fall training camp, where they will bring up a couple of coaches from Calgary.

Elliot said they hope to have an introductory clinic that is open to the communities, so they can bring their skaters in to take part. They're also going to try and run a coaching clinic at the same time.

'For it to be successful in the communities, you need to have someone that can teach and run a successful program,' he stated.