Vol. 7, No. 1
- Magnet Designation for UNC Hospitals
- Ethnic Minority Visiting Scholar Lecture on Feb. 21
- Meet Micah McCanna, Nursing Student and Winter Sports Athlete
- SON’s Barksdale Featured on UNC.edu
- News You Can Use
- 2011 Carolina Summer Research Institutes and Courses
Meet Micah McCanna, Nursing Student and Winter Sports Athlete
Micah McCanna says he likes to stay busy, and he certainly does that. The senior accelerated BSN student has figured
Senior ABSN student Micah McCanna balances nursing school with serious training for Olympic winter sports in Lake Placid, N.Y.
out how to balance training for bobsled and skeleton winter sports with class, clinical, studying, an honors project, spending time with his fiancé, and working at UNC Hospitals.
McCanna is part of the USA Olympic Elite Developmental Skeleton team. Skeleton is a fast winter sliding sport where the competitor rides face down on a small sled down a frozen track. People are quite surprised to hear that this North Carolina native who played on the East Carolina University baseball team is competing in winter sports. Ironically, McCanna says he doesn’t even like cold weather. It is the competition he craves.
“I got really interested in bobsled and skeleton during the last two Winter Olympic games,” he says. “I looked up the athletic requirements for these sports and realized I had the strength and speed.” He submitted an athletic resume and then went through a series of physical tests last year.
He did so well in the physical tests that he made the Elite team, which means he only pays for his travel. He trains with the team in Lake Placid, N.Y., experiencing forces up to 5 g as he travels down the frozen track.
Read more here.