Europe Recap, Schladming Nacht Slalom

I got back from Europe Wednesday night, a little worn down and ready for some time away from the ski slopes. Since the New Year I have been hammering from race to race, skiing in 6 countries in a little over three weeks.

The racing in Europe was exactly what I thought it would be, full of good skiers and high on intensity. However, because of warm weather and some unfortunate circumstances with the amount of Americans over in Europe my race schedule was significantly pared down from the original plan. Instead of competing in 10 races I was only able to start 5. On top of that, I did not find out if I was competing in many of the races until the day before, sometimes the afternoon before. This made prepping for each race more hectic than it had to be and to be honest was a bit frustrating, leading Adam Cole and I to name ourselves "Team Shitshow". Nevertheless, those were the cards I was dealt and I still expected myself to show up for each race.

I had some race runs that I was proud of, but I was not able to put together a complete race that did anything significant for me. The training before the Europa Cups at Zuoz, Switzerland, and with the Italian military race (Forestale) team in Cortina were great opportunities and confirmed that my skiing was on par with anyone else. I think I'm in a solid position for the rest of the season and looking forward to racing back here in the States.

The night before heading home Adam and I decided to head to Schladming, AUT and watch the World Cup night slalom. I had never been there before, and had high expectations of watching a night race with 50,000 crazy Austrians. Just like last year at the Hahnenkamm, Schladming lived up to everything I thought it would be. My favorite moment was Nolan Kasper's post-run celebration after smoking the second run. He came through the finish line with a lead of almost a second, caught an American football from Will Brandenburg in the crowd and slid to a stop doing his best Heisman move before windmill spiking the ball. T.O. would have been proud. I heard from Warner Nickerson that FIS was none too pleased about this move and most people in the crowd had no idea what he was doing, but Adam and I thought it was amazing and were cheering at the top of our lungs. Sadly no video of it, but I took some video from the rest of the night.

On Friday I headed back to the Boys and Girls Club in DC that I had been working with this fall. It was nice to plug in so easily with the program and was great to see some familiar faces. This is my favorite part of being an ITA athlete, and in my opinion the most important helpful aspect as an athlete. Even though I can be gone for 3 months and only have a week to ten days of free time, I can apply myself in a meaningful way with little or no lag time. Speaking of being gone, apparently while I was away the LA Lakers and Obama both visited my BGC branch, crazy! I guess that's what happens when you take off for months at a time, oh well.

NorAm Recap, Ziggy and Europe

This is the first reliable internet connection that I have had since getting to Europe, so I'm a little slow on the NorAm update from earlier this month in Quebec. I skied well in the slaloms, getting 5th and 8th place in the two days and moved up in the NorAm SL standings. I am around 40 NorAm points out from the top two positions so I have a definite shot at reaching my goal of getting a WC spot if I ski the way I know that I can at NorAm Finals (2 SL, 2 GS).

The GS races didn't go nearly how I had hoped. I am pretty bad on flat hills and the GS venue had plenty of it, even a short uphill section. In my opinion it should never have been chosen as a place to hold a NorAm, but given my performance that might just sound like sour grapes. The first run of my first GS race, with the leader bib, I skied a little cautiously on the middle steep section and underestimated what this would do to my time. Starting 3rd I finished the run in 22nd, less than 9 tenths off the lead, and only 4 tenths out of 4th. Flat hills tend to push the times together. The second run was better but I was unable to make up huge amounts of time and I ended the day in 16th.

I was pretty upset that I had skied sub par in the most important run, so far, of my season. I decided to attack the course the next day and ski with much more purpose. On the first run I skied well up top and off the pitch, and was executing my game plan. On the bottom flat I let my skis run a lot more but pinched off a gate over a roll on the bottom of the course, got low in my line and was fighting to get back to the next gate which happened to be in a compression. At the last second I realized that I wasn't going to make the gate, or if I did, that I would be doing the same thing for my next turn. I ended going under the panel and through the two GS poles, a la Kyle Rasmussen at the 98 Olympics. This was extremely upsetting. I did not think I was anywhere close to danger and the suddenly I was out. However, upon realizing how close I was to potentially detonating for yet another time, I decided that the outcome could have been worse. As it turned out I wasn't the only one who had problems at this gate. I ended the series in about the same position as where I am in the SL standings, with a real shot at making this season a success in both events.

I flew to Europe one day after the NorAm series and about 12 hours after Ziggy, the Kelly's dog, got ahold of my helmet when I was unpacking my car at their house and chewed off part of the earpiece and bit threw a pair of googles. Calling Jed, the Uvex rep, was rather interesting. I was a little out of sorts since I had to fly the next morning, but he and Chris Frank saved the day and got me to Europe with a functioning helmet.

Europe is very warm. So far I have been here for ten days and only today raced for the first time. I had been 0 for 4 for races happening up to this point, so it was finally good to actually go out of a starting gate even if I did go out in the second run. Tomorrow I am heading to Zuoz, Switzerland for some training with the Team and hopefully a start or two at another Europa Cup. Pray for cold(er) weather!