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Women ready for Lake Louise

It’s time to strap the race skis on and go 120 kilometres an hour down the ski hill. That’s right, it’s downhill season! We have just arrived in Lake Louise and the training runs are underway.

It’s time to strap the race skis on and go 120 kilometres an hour down the ski hill. That’s right, it’s downhill season!

We have just arrived in Lake Louise and the training runs are underway. It may be hard to believe, but going 120 km/h down a ski hill is really fun!

The men raced in Lake Louise last weekend, both downhill and super G. They had some excellent results and this weekend it will be our turn to step up and perform.

At the men’s Bombardier Winterstart races in Lake Louise Jan Hudec made the history books when he won Saturday’s downhill. The last time a Canadian won a downhill on home soil was back in 1989 when Rob Boyd stepped on top of the podium at the World Cup in Whistler. Now he is one of our coaches, so maybe his winning abilities are transferring over to us. In Sunday’s super G race the guy’s claimed three positions in the top-10. The challenge is on for the women’s team.

While the men were in Lake Louise the women were in Panorama, where we raced giant slalom and slalom events. World Cup technical events have not been held on Canadian soil in many, many years! The town was so happy to be on the world stage, and the races were great. The crowds were out, the weather was cold, and we were all ready to race. It was my first GS race of the season and I was really pumped to be starting on a hill that I had trained on a lot.

Seeing the spirit and the atmosphere in Panorama this past weekend made me excited about what is to come for the World Cup events in Whistler. When we are on the road in the winter the World Cup is our life — to be able to bring that home for Canada to see is amazing motivation to perform.

The conditions in Panorama proved to be pretty tough as they had injected water into the snow at 12 of the gates to improve the snow conditions. Instead, it kind of made the gates feel more like a skating rink. I grew up skiing in Whistler and we don’t really see a lot of ice around these parts, so I would say that ice isn’t my strength.

I was starting 64 th and knew I would need a fast run to get into the top 30, but unfortunately I didn’t make the second run. However, there were some great things to take from the run and from the race — one of them being that I no longer want to start 64 th . Everyone has to start somewhere, but this weekend I’ll work on getting some great results so that I can get the 400 World Cup points I need to start right after the top 30 in GS.

It’s important to feel confident in the start and I felt that. This will only help me for the upcoming races this weekend, when Lake Louise is going to see just how strong this women’s speed team is.