Well, no on can accuse me of lacking consistency in GS right now! Although I am ready to punch through and get into the top-15 for the first time this season, I am still really pleased with my consistent top-25 finishes.

My first run in Lienz last week, I charged into 19th place from starting 41st. My coaches were psyched with my skiing and I was relieved to prove that Panorama wasn’t just a fluke… The course second run was very unrhythmical and I over-skied the straight sections pretty badly. To me, the error really just demonstrated that I hadn’t faced a single course set both in, and out, of the fall line all season, and I basically didn’t know how to approach it. Regardless, I ended up in 22nd place for the day.

Christmas in Kitzbuhel. Stacey, me, and Lindsey
After a very quick—but very needed—trip home to Seattle over the new year, I returned to Europe to race GS in Spindleruv, Czech Republic. My body was a little stiff and sluggish after all of the travel, but I somehow managed to qualify for second run, coming in 27th position after first run. I felt lucky to have made second run after a not-so-good first run, but I guess it proves that I must be doing something right!

I skied a really solid, aggressive second run—one that I felt was my best GS run of the season so far… And my time proved it. I was 14th fastest for the run and moved up to 25th place overall for the race. I was hoping to move up more than that, but just posting a top-15 single run really made me feel like I am making great progress.

I am really pleased with my GS right now. I mean, I just scored top-25 results in three consecutive World Cups. I have never scored in two consecutive GS’s before, let alone two in the same season. I am proving that I am a contender with the best GS skiers in the World, and I have SO much more left in the tank! I’m not even 100% yet, nor have I really found my “groove…”

I am looking forward to training some GS this week so that I can iron out some kinks before my race next weekend in Maribor, Slovenia. I really think that after all of this consistent GS skiing, I am due for a “breakthrough.” I truly think that when it does come, it is going to be huge!

After Aspen, I hopped the pond to Europe. My first races were a Downhill and Super G in St. Moritz, Switzerland. I only did one training run on the downhill course because the flat landing off one of the jumps made my knee pretty sore. I was confident that I could do well in the race, however, because I’ve raced in St. Moritz several times—my first being the 2003 World Championships. Unfortunately, the downhill went down in a fashion I feel all too familiar: I skied well but was just unexplainably slow… Well, the very long flat at the top does help explain it a little bit, but doesn’t eliminate the frustration.

After a disappointing downhill, I am always excited to get on the mountain the next day for my favorite event, Super G. It is literally a relief for me to see more gates (more turns) set on the hill! The course was a fast set and had some tricky spots. I was pleased with my performance. Even though I made a couple of tactical mistakes, I attacked from top-to-bottom. I still think that my ability to “send it” in Super G—despite my very limited amount of training—is a very promising sign. If I can ski so confidently this early in the season, then I think it is inevitable for things to start falling in place in my upcoming races. Afterall, skiing is the easy part… it is the mental game that is so difficult.

Getting 24th in the Super G wasn’t by any means impressive, but it was definitely another positive step forward in my very progressive “comeback.” I was excited to head to St. Anton, Austria because I’d heard it was a technical downhill course—right down my alley. When I arrived, I wasn’t disappointed. We were racing on the men’s course from the 2001 World Championships. I have always wanted to race on a true men’s downhill course because they are always more technical and action-packed than a typical women’s course.

The St. Anton downhill is pretty insane. There are huge, sweeping turns at the top, then the course narrows as the trail funnels into the trees, eventually plunging over a “waterfall” called the Eis Falle—a very steep schuss which we skied straight down. The rest of the course is fast turns over a lot of terrain. I did all three training runs, the second of which I was 19th fastest. There were a lot of delays on the third day of training because so many girls were crashing. The light was very poor by the time I ran so my coach decided to have me pull out half-way down the course for safety reasons. It was a bummer to not have a full run, but considering one of my competitors was air-lifted to the hospital, I was glad to just be safe.

After all of the drama of the third training day, I’ll admit that I was nervous for the race. Although I have made tremendous improvements over the last few weeks, apparently I haven’t entirely overcome my fear of downhill yet. I convinced myself that the best way to handle it was to ski offensively, which worked… until the fifth-to-last gate at least. I had a really solid run going, but towards the bottom of the course where speeds are exceptionally high and the light was exceptionally poor, I got bumped around by some pretty major ruts in the snow. Instead of powering through the bumps, I panicked and wasn’t as clean as I should have been. It wasn’t pretty, BUT I came down in 25th place.

Again, placing in the mid-twenties isn’t particularly spectacular, especially when my teammates are getting such phenomenal results, but considering my struggles with downhill the past several years… I’ll take it! The Ski Team reported that it was my best downhill result in nearly four years. I had no idea it had been that long. It had been so long since I had been competitive in downhill that I started to lose faith that it was possible to even get in there and score. Scoring points with a less-than-perfect run helped instill some badly-needed confidence in my downhill.

My team had an amazing weekend in St. Anton—Lindsey and Julia won and got third place in both the Downhill and the Combined. There was a lot of excitement buzzing around the USA camp. It isn’t easy to keep perspective in such an electric atmosphere. I constantly have to remind myself that I am literally still in the healing and rehabbing phase of my knee injury. I have to force myself to stay within myself, and be patient with my goal of finding satisfaction in incremental gains.

If I look at my season to date with this goal in mind, I am right on pace. Every weekend of racing has been incrementally better than the previous weekend. I have been top-25 in all three of my disciplines, and it is only December! My results may not be getting any attention now, but I know that I am building a very solid foundation on which the rest of my season will grow. For once, I feel calm and in control of my career.

With a four-week speed block in the books, I am ready to trade in my long boards for my GS skis. My GS is really good right now and I look forward to racing in Lienz, Austria next weekend. In the meantime, I have a few days off for Christmas, which I will spend in Kirchberg, Austria. I miss being home at this time of year, but luckily I will get a whopping THREE days back in Seattle after my GS race in Lienz to catch up with my family!

I have been doing this ski racing thing for a long time.  There is no denying that ups and downs are just part of the game… It amazes me that, in my tenth year on the National Team, I feel like I am learning more now than I ever have before.

Last week I arrived at Lake Louise feeling reasonably confident after scoring in my very first race back since my injury.  I was aware of my limited amount of training, but had convinced myself that I was plenty-prepared to start racing Downhill and Super G.  The second I got onto the downhill track for inspection, fear knotted in my stomach and tears welled in my eyes.  I realized that I was horribly wrong.

While I had spent months in the gym getting physically prepared to race this season, I couldn’t ignore the reality that mental preparation to ski 70 mph comes exclusively from on-snow speed training.  The fact was, I hadn’t had much on-snow training, and what little training I’d had, was mostly in GS.  I hurt my knee in Downhill.  I was scared to go fast again.

After some reflection, I decided to take a little step back.  First, I had to recognize how huge it was for me to even be attending a World Cup downhill when just a couple months prior I wasn’t sure if I’d be skiing this season at all.  Second, my limited days of training in Austria and Colorado simply didn’t prepare me to race Downhill, despite what I thought I’d convinced myself…  So my approach to the week became very simple: treat it like training.  All I could reasonably ask of myself was to ski each day better than I had the day before.  The goal shifted from being fast, to being satisfied with incremental gains from day to day—just like I would treat an average day of training.

Given my simple goal, the week I spent in Lake Louise was a big success.  I executed good tactics every day, had great jumps, and made technical improvements.  I got 42nd in the race, but my result was beside the point—I’d built basic confidence on a fast, icy course.  My coaches were really happy with my progress and my skiing.  So was I.

I had higher expectations for the Super G since, after all, it is my event.  To be honest, I actually surprised myself at how “normal” I felt racing the Super G.  Both mentally and technically, I really didn’t feel much different than I did in any of my races last season.  I ended up 26th place, which wasn’t what I wanted, but scoring points in my first SG was still a great start to my “comeback.”  Not to mention, the wisdom and perspective I walked away with after just one week of skiing was invaluable.

I was really excited to head to Aspen after Lake Louise.  It is such a luxury to get to race in my home country for once, and the hill in Aspen is my favorite on the entire World Cup circuit because it is so technical and fun.  We had the privilege of visiting the local Aspen schools when we got into town.  Lindsey, Kaylin, and I had an hour-long question and answer session with about four hundred fourth through eighth graders.  They asked great questions and I really enjoyed the opportunity to drive home a few messages I personally believe in.  The kids were fired up to have us in town for the races, and we were barraged with autograph requests following the assembly.

Photo Credit: Zack Ornitz, Aspen Daily News
Our two days of downhill training were a blast…  Then, it started to snow.  A lot.  It snowed so much that the downhill race on Friday was cancelled and we were forced to (boo hoo!) go powder skiing.  It was definitely in my top-3 powder days, ever.  The face shots were so thick, I was choking on snow!  My true passion for my sport lies in freeskiing, so getting the chance to go out and enjoy some freshies was an absolute treat.  You can watch a funny little video clip from the epic powder day at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnRfMG9GF98

I was extremely disappointed they decided to cancel the Super G altogether, in favor of running the downhill on Saturday.  It is a shame to lose a Super G on what I believe to be the most technical and challenging course on the circuit.  Of course I am partial because Super G is my best event, but I do believe it was a mistake to try for the downhill over the Super G.  Because it continued to snow, the downhill was moved down to the Super G start anyway, plus, the slower speeds of Super G would have made for a safer race as well…

Despite the overwhelming amount of fresh snow, the Downhill race began on time on Saturday.  Conditions were questionable.  Due to excess snow on the course, two girls suffered season-ending injuries within a half hour of each other.  After a long course-hold the race was ultimately cancelled after number 37.  I never even got to go out of the start gate.  The race was scored and counted like usual even though about a third of the field never got to race.

I left Aspen with a bitter taste in my mouth.  My one opportunity to race in the U.S. turned out to be quite anticlimactic.  It was a disappointment to lose the Super G, then to top it off, I missed out on the chance to score in the Downhill on my favorite hill.  While I am now hungrier to kick butt in my European races this season, I still feel bitter that my rare opportunity to race in front of family and friends, and my one chance to gain exposure in my home country on American television, was squandered.  I am grateful, however, that I was not forced to race in what were deemed unsafe conditions.  So at least I left Aspen in one piece!

With the North American portion now behind us, the World Cup circuit resumes next weekend in Switzerland.  I will be spending the remainder of December in Europe, including Christmas.  With a Downhill and Super G coming up this weekend in St. Moritz, I look forward to building off my solid start!

Getting 25th place has never felt so extraordinary.

Last weekend was my first race in eight months. It was my first race since I had 28 holes poked in my femur. First race since I spent six weeks on crutches, and six months doing rehab. It was my fourth time scoring a World Cup top-30 in GS, ever. And I accomplished all of this on just 22 days of training over the last month and a half.

I did not ski my best GS in Panorama last weekend, but simply getting a second run in my first race back since my injury was a tremendous accomplishment. I know that I have much better skiing in me, but just starting the season on such a positive note makes me really optimistic for the rest of the season.

Although Panorama is traditionally an easy hill, the conditions this time around made it quite tough. Because there was such limited snow, only the race hill was skiable, leaving us nowhere to properly warm up prior to the race. They also decided to treat a majority of the gates—basically all right-footers—with water, making the snow extremely hard and icy. The inconsistent and challenging snow made the first run of the race pretty brutal. I definitely didn’t feel good on the exceptionally long course, but I skied well enough to get 25th for the run, and qualify for second run.

I ran fifth second run and definitely felt like I skied a lot better. I got launched pretty big off a roll towards the top of the course, but felt like I recovered and made my way back into the course with satisfactory grace… I was very surprised to be 2.4 seconds out when I came into the finish area. I guess it was one of those runs where I skied decently, but just wasn’t quite fast. Still, finishing 25th for the day, out of 72 racers, was more than respectable.

It is such a relief to have my first race out of the way. Now that I have Panorama under my belt, I feel like such a weight has lifted off my shoulders. All of the apprehension and pressure I felt during my six months of rehab has disappeared.

So often I questioned if making a comeback from my injury in such a limited amount of time was even possible. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to compete this season at all, let alone ever again… The severity of my injury was such that I even made alternate life plans, going so far as to arrange to study philosophy in Scotland for a quarter this Fall. Not many people recognize it, but racing last weekend was the most powerful statement I have made in my career.

It blows my mind to think of everything I have gone through over the last six months…and to think how far I have come. Pretty cool.

I just finished my second, and final, training camp and my “comeback” continues to go better than I ever expected…

Two weeks ago, I started skiing Downhill and Super G for the first time in seven months in Copper Mountain, Colorado. It only took me a few runs before I was back up to speed again. My coaches were thrilled my skiing, and I was ecstatic to have the wind in my face. I was actually surprised at how quickly I adapted to the speed, and how easily my technique came back… I suppose after ten years of being on the U.S. Ski Team, some things become second nature!

It was encouraging to end the camp with a couple of strong Super G and GS sessions—laying down the fastest times for the day. Last November I ended my prep period by stuffing myself into the woods in Keystone, breaking my thumb, and nearly killing myself… Even though the 10,000+ foot altitude definitely takes a toll on my body, it felt good to leave Colorado in one piece this year!

It is pretty nuts to think that the twenty-two days of training I have gotten over the last month and a half compose my entire preparation for the 07-08 season. I trained a fraction of the number of days I normally do, and overcame a serious injury to do so… Despite this, I truly feel like I have only positive things to build on going into this season. I feel more confident than ever.

Everything seems to be falling into place. My equipment is clicking, my technician Haffey is doing an amazing job with my skis, my coaches are being exceptionally encouraging, and the dynamics on the Team are super positive. I am really excited for the competition season to kick-off this weekend in Panorama, B.C. My last race prior to my injury was in Panorama last March… and I won it… Can’t think of a better place to start off a winning season!!

A lot has happened since my season ended in March with another knee injury at U.S. Nationals. I had my fourth knee surgery in April, which revealed significant damage to the articular cartilage on my femoral condyle. The procedure went well, but left me non-weight bearing for the following six weeks. The crutches made for a challenging quarter getting around campus at Dartmouth, but I made the best of it and finally completed my sophomore year. I happily ditched the crutches when I moved back home to Washington in early June.

My best friend Lisa and me

Since I couldn’t ski, it was my first true summer at home in over ten years and I LOVED it. My schedule was packed from taking a full-load of classes at the University of Washington in addition to all of my rehab and workouts. I really appreciated the opportunity to be a “normal” person for once, hanging out with friends, taking in concerts, outdoor movies, poetry slams, and barbeques… I made a couple of trips to the California and Washington coasts for surfing, went hiking at Crystal Mountain, did a photo shoot at Mt. Hood for Volkl, hosted friends visiting from out of town, and had the most wonderful time at my brother Doug’s wedding in Hood River, Oregon. I also had the pleasure of opening the Lululemon “Fit and Function” show, which was a premier event at Bellevue’s Fashion Week.

Signing autographs at the Lululemon store

I worked my butt off in the gym and was on my bike almost every single day for six months straight. By the time I finally got the all-clear from my doctors to ski in October, I was super strong and excited to get back on snow. I went to Soelden, Austria at the beginning of the month to do some drills and freeskiing before the rest of my teammates showed up for our official October training camp. There were days when I had pain, and some days when I didn’t, but I was skiing surprisingly well from the get-go. It felt great to jump back in the saddle, and I was especially impressed with how comfortable and natural my new Volkl/Tecnica equipment felt. I slowly eased my way back into gates when the rest of the team arrived, and by the time I left Austria on the 22nd, I was skiing GS gates full-speed and totally pain-free. Both my coaches and I were very pleased with how well I was skiing. It is crazy to think that six months ago I couldn’t walk and my legs were mushy with atrophy, and now I am skiing just as solidly as ever!

Soelden, Austria

After such a positive and encouraging return-to-snow, I am looking forward to my next training camp taking place in Copper and Keystone, Colorado in November. It will be the final two weeks of preparation before the season kicks off (for me) Thanksgiving weekend in Panorama, B.C. I am just looking to continue the trend that began in Austria—if I can stay pain-free I know that it will be an outstanding year!

If you would like to view a video clip of me training GS in Soelden, go to:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1693557393111448822

I won the first Downhill training run at U.S. Nationals by two seconds. Unfortunately, bad luck came my way again when I hurt my knee landing off a roll in the second training run. I did not crash and I continued to ski the remainder of the course, but I knew immediately in the finish area that I had injured my right knee again.

Leaving beautiful, sunny Alyeska was so hard to do. The race hills there are so fun, and the atmosphere at Nationals is so enjoyable… But the swelling in my knee made it clear that I needed to get an MRI to check out what happened. I flew home the day of the first race to see my doctor in Seattle.

The MRI didn’t show much damage, so I took off for my annual spring quarter at Dartmouth College. I showed up to class a week late, so I was met with a mountain of reading to keep my mind of the injury. After two weeks, however, I continued to have some symptoms in my knee, suggesting that there was in fact some damage.

I flew home to get a scope on my knee on April 20th. It was definitely a good call to fix my knee now, rather than wait longer into the off-season. I had some cartilage floating around and some joint surface damage, which my doctor successfully cleaned up. My knee already feels better than it did before surgery and I am optimistic that I will be back skiing really soon.

In the meantime, I am busy with my classes at Dartmouth. I am slowly getting accustomed to my newly-cut hair… I donated eleven inches to Locks of Love about a month ago!

To pick up where I left off after the World Championships Super G…

It was fun to race the World Championships Giant Slalom at night under the lights. I started in the top-30 and was 24th after first run, despite my boot coming unbuckled in the middle of the run. I made several mistakes in my second run and I moved back to 29th place. All in all, my experience at Worlds in Sweden was really uplifting, and I was happy to spend some time with my parents who made the trip to watch me race.

After a short break at home, I flew back over to Europe to race in a World Cup GS in Sierrra Nevada, Spain. Slightly jet-lagged, I didn’t to perform to my potential and failed to qualify for second run. Although I definitely didn’t accomplish what I had traveled to Spain for, I did enjoy my very first trip to the country. My teammate and I climbed to the top of the mountain where we took in views of the Mediterranean Ocean and the hills of Morocco.

Warm weather and spring conditions plagued the next race series in Tarvisio, Italy. It was warm and slushy every day, which made my late start number especially challenging. I actually had decent times and very competitive splits in the downhill training runs, but in the end, I lost too much time on the very last section of the long downhill course and came in 31st place in the race. I also crashed as I tried to stop in the finish area, leaving me feeling a little banged-up in the Super G race the following day. I skied quite well in the Super G. Aside from a tactical error towards the bottom of the course—which most early-runners such as myself were making—I wouldn’t change anything about my performance. Unfortunately the track got faster for the later girls and, despite coming down in the lead, I moved back to 18th place overall.

Not making World Cup Finals was definitely tough to swallow. I scored in five out of six World Cup Super G races this year, yet I finished the season ranked 30th in the World Cup Standings. I know that my ranking doesn’t accurately reflect my ability in Super G, but I take solace in the fact that the women’s circuit will be visiting much more technical venues next season which will better suit my strengths. My World Cup season didn’t go exactly the way I had hoped or planned, but I still have so many positive things to hold on to for next year. Plus, I stayed in the top-25 in the World on the WCSL ranking system, which means I will remain on the A Team.

Last week I went to Panorama, B.C. for some Noram GS races. It was refreshing to race in a more relaxed environment and to take some time to freeski on my own. I was happy to leave Canada with a win and a second place finish, in addition to two sub-10 point results. I definitely built confidence over the two days, with every run getting better and faster than the last—I won the final race by almost a second.

I look forward to carrying that momentum into U.S. Nationals next week in Alaska… Last time I went there, I came home with a National GS title and two other podium finishes!

San Sicario was a bit of a turning point.  Not only did I feel healthy for the first time in weeks, but I resolved to find a way to be more competitive on the flats.  Perhaps my results didn’t entirely reflect it, but the week I spent in San Sicario was positive and productive.  I figured some stuff out with gliding and I built confidence going into World Championships.

One way I decided I would conquer the flats of San Sicario and score my first World Cup Downhill points in almost two years, was to tuck the entire course.  While my kamikaze tucking caused me to completely blow out of the course about half way down, I didn’t give up or ski out.  I poled to get back into the course and charged the rest of the way to the finish.  I was surprised to see that, despite my huge mistake, I did in fact score points.  I was 30th, which isn’t great by any means, but is definitely a step forward for me in Downhill.

I carried the same tuck-crazy mentality over to the Super G races, but still struggled on the flats.  The first day I didn’t even make it into the top 30, and the second day I was 23rd.  They were disappointing finishes, but I truly skied well, and I was really happy with the way I performed.

After San Sicario I flew north to Are, Sweden for World Championships.  In Europe World Champs are almost as big of a deal as the Olympics.  They take place every two years, and only four athletes from each country are selected to compete in each event.  There are tons of people here, and it’s been really fun and exciting so far.  Unfortunately the weather for the first several days was warm and rainy, so the Super G races were postponed for three days following the Opening Ceremonies.

When we finally got to race on the 6th, the conditions were near perfect and I was raring to go.  I skied what was probably my best Super G run of the year, in fact, one coach told me it was my most brilliant performance that he’s ever seen.  I skied well, pushed the line, tucked a lot, and nailed the jumps.  It really was a good, aggressive run.  I came down in first place and hung onto the lead for quite awhile.  Once the top girls came down I started to get bumped back, but I finished in a respectable 9th place.

I’ll admit that I was gunning for a medal—or at least top-6 so that I could get recognized at the awards ceremony—but a top-10 at World Championships is still great.  I continue to get complimented by teammates, coaches, and other competitors on how well I skied which is has been really flattering.  I am very pleased with my race and it was cool to share my result with my parents, who are here to watch.

I will be racing the GS on Tuesday and I am shooting to get my hands on some of that hardware I missed out on in Super G!

It’s been a tough couple of weeks. The World Cup circuit continues to struggle with the warm temperatures and lack of snow over here in Europe. There have been a lot of race delays, cancellations, and overall sub-par racing conditions. I was extremely disappointed when the Super G in Zauchensee, Austria—the most technical Super G on the women’s circuit this year—was cancelled last week due to bad weather.

I have also been quite sick for the last two weeks, which hasn’t made anything much easier. I battled the flu leading into the races in Zauchensee, so I was pretty weak by the time the weekend rolled around. While I did ski well in the Downhill there, the lowered start and soft snow proved too many variables for me to overcome. Finishing outside of the points (42nd) was another discouraging finish in Downhill for me, but I am confident that things will fall in place with Downhill eventually because I know that I am doing the right stuff.

When I traveled to Cortina, Italy last week I came down with an awful cough which kept me from sleeping for several nights. Sleep-deprived and all, I skied well. I definitely made mistakes and didn’t get the anywhere near results that I wanted, but that’s part of ski racing…

In the Super G race I got wide on a turn coming onto the flats which cost me a lot of speed for the remainder of the course. My splits were all top-20 until that point, but I ended up way back in 28th place. I was “sending it” in the Downhill race, but the extremely warm temperatures made the snow sticky for those of us running towards the end of the field and I finished in 35th, 0.27 out of the top-30. Thick fog in the Giant Slalom race made visibility near impossible on Sunday. It was such poor visibility that my depth perception got messed up towards the bottom of the course and I was literally in a panel before I knew it. Once I realized that the gate was so close, it was too late to correct and I was out of the course.

Despite a rough few races, I have a lot going for me. For one, I was named to the 2007 U.S. World Championship Team as of today! I expect to be racing in both the Super G and Giant Slalom races, my two favorite events. I also feel like I have “turned the corner” with my illnesses, so I am feeling much better.

I head to San Sicario, Italy tomorrow for two Super G races (one rescheduled from Zauchensee) and a Downhill. San Sicario is the Olympic venue from last year, so I am familiar with it, but not particularly fond of it. (It’s quite flat.) My best friend from home is coming to visit me during these races though, so it should be a fun week.

After San Sicario, I will be heading up to Are, Sweden for World Championships. I went to World Champs in 2003 but not in 2005, so I am really looking forward to getting to experience it again. Plus, being Norwegian, I really love Scandinavia and have always enjoyed my time there.