So, after a few false starts in getting us all out to our first World Cup training and racing camps in Switzerland, we eventually got going against what seemed like an unlucky streak. First of all, Brett was struck down with a nasty bug back home and could not travel for a week. Secondly, we had a nasty car accident on the way to the airport on the M23, on the 3rd of January. With airbags deployed and a funny noise coming from the engine, my mum still managed to get me to the airport with two hours to spare – she always plans in extra time for all eventualities. Thank you KAP motor Group for sorting us out with temporary wheels and fixing the broken Volvo.
In Switzerland I was firstly guided by Hammy and then as the races got closer we shipped in my spare guide and good friend Katie Guest who kindly stepped up to race my first World Cups in 2 years. She is an amazing skier and from a very successful skiing family – thank you Katie.
I had a niggling neck pain, from a bit of whiplash from our incident on the M23, that would not go away. Our first run on the GS course was pretty good, considering I had not raced World Cup races since Pyeonchang 2018, but I was hurting by the second run and could not move my neck.
As we didn’t have a Physio out with us on the Team, I made the decision to fly home the next day to get treated at the St Lawrence Clinic by my trusted Physio, Fiona Errington. After a couple of days I was ready to return to snow. The stars were starting to align, at last. Brett was better and my mum was going to travel out with me to Slovenia. We had a couple of days to train together before the next set of races – 3 GS.
Our plan was to race for confidence and build up some positive thoughts. In the first GS, we had two good clean runs, putting us into third place. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we could be standing on the podium, but there we were with massive smiles on our faces. We were chuffed to bits. The second race was even better. sadly, what I hope will be our main rivals, Veronika Aigner from Austria, had a fall and did not compete for the rest of the week. This left the competition wide open. We took full advantage of this and scorched into first position and stood on the the top podium for the first time in 3 years. We were thrilled that we are still competitive and have the ability to be up there with the best, even though it is early days. The third race of the week was as good but we left too much wriggle room to be pipped in the second run by the German vi team. Noemi Ristau. A silver medal is still awesome from where we have come from.
I’m home now, with my university hat on and hours and hours of lectures to catch up on. Although obviously procrastinating as I write this blog for my website.
Back to training in a couple of weeks but I would like to thank my wonderful coaches John, Hammy and Jo and ski tech Allo for all the work they put in, to get us up and running this season.
