Team USA

Team USA
Sloan's Lake

28 January 2007

Kimberly, Canada

We finally made it up to Kimberley, B.C. after a long and trying day in the airports and on the road. We didn't arrive until 0600 the morning of the 23rd so we didn't get a lot of sleep. The Super G race was the 24th and because I was only a spectator due of lack of points I had an easier day than the rest of my team. GS was the following day and I skied well but not without mistakes. There were some really good things about my runs and I have definitely made some positive changes in my GS and it’s starting to show. Unfortunately, I didn’t do such good things on the pitch both runs and I ended up in the back of the pack. It’s frustrating in a lot of ways, but it’s also encouraging to stick with it and finish 2 solid runs.

I was hopefully for the SL the next day but that didn’t work out as planned either. One of my teammates got hurt in a training run before the start of the race and even though I tried not to worry about how she was doing I still had a hard time finding my focus. I thought I had it together in the start gate but halfway down the course on my first run I ran into some trouble and had to hike to make a gate. I’m terribly slow at hiking but I was having a really good run before I messed up and I NEEDED my second run for my mental health. Going into my second run I knew I didn’t have a chance so I just relaxed and laid down a solid run. Sometimes you just have to ski smart and get the finish, and it’s one of the hardest things to do as a ski racer. I needed to get the World Cup SL finish more than trying to win the run and possibly blowing out. I walked away feeling good about the day and my skiing. Right now Europe is in rough shape as far as snow pack so I’m crossing my fingers that this wasn’t the last World Cup race of the year.

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