st Lambrecht

I am back at home after my first race weekend in st Lambrecht Austria, it was an amazing trip. We arrived Wednesday night after a smooth trip, I went with my dad (coach), brother and sister. Thursday I skied on my slalom ski’s, I needed some runs to get used to my orthosis but I ended up skiing way better than before! I’m starting to put more pressure on my leg so next step will be the gas spring. In the afternoon I trained slalom with the Canadian para-skiteam, they even timed me! I was really happy with this opportunity to train slalom, very nice of them to give me this opportunity. I made a video of 3 of my runs.

this pic is kind of strange, there are 2 of me ;)

Friday was the day of the super combined, I’m not racing speed events (yet) so it was a training day for me. I trained on my GS ski’s and I found my speed, I think this was my best skiing since my leg impairment. I even made some jumps. The orthosis worked great and my dad was proud. Before I was born my dad was a ski racer and Dutch national coach.

It was a beautiful day sunny and quite hot but the slope was amazing, hard and a bit icy, great. All though the conditions where great the super combined was canceled due to safety issues, problems with the nets.

With my brother and sister

The team captains meeting was intense, most coaches wanted the super combined to be rescheduled since they came especially for this event. The organization said to consider the request to reschedule on Sunday. So next event giant slalom (GS), 150 competitors and a very strong field with even world champions racing. I got bib 19, first group is the visually impaired (VI) girls 10 for this race next group was mine bib 11-20 standing girls, bib 21-33 where the sitting girls. And the rest where all guys, VI, Standing and sitting.

I prepped my ski’s and went to bed early.

Saturday I was excited to race but not too nervous, felt pretty good. During inspection I noticed some pretty sharp turns, I memorized them and knew where they where and what to do. But still… I started first few turns in tuck, they where smooth and I skied them good and fast. I went over a hump into a steep part, I knew that’s where the very sharp turn is did my best but was too late for the next two gates. My line was completely wrong, tried to do all I could to make the third gate, the sharp one and I crashed… That was it I was down, ski’s and poles were gone. So I got a DNF (did not finish) in my first race back, hate it! I know it’s all part of the game, it happens and will happen again, but had it to be my first race?

I was frustrated and even cried, yes I’m weak, just human. I wanted to get my point limit and I knew it was possible, that’s what made this so frustrating. And in the back of my head I knew they would probably cancel the slalom race because of the super combined.

The slalom indeed was canceled and we went home this morning.

Even though I feel a bit down because of the DNF and canceled slalom this was a great experience and I had a good time over there. It was nice to meet some of the other racers, everybody is so nice! Love it. There are still two race weekends coming up, although the German races are missing FIS codex. The last opportunity will be the races in st Moritz, I really want to go but don’t know if my dad is able to go with me, or if I have to arrange for someone else.

But first la Molina training camp, I leave on Friday.