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A little piece of history

Well it’s back to Whistler and time for a little spring skiing. Over the past few weeks I have been racing back east in the Nor Am finals and the Pontiac GMC Cup Canadian National Championships.

Well it’s back to Whistler and time for a little spring skiing. Over the past few weeks I have been racing back east in the Nor Am finals and the Pontiac GMC Cup Canadian National Championships.

The Nor Am finals were held at Georgian Peaks in Collingwood, Ontario,. And the National Championships were held at Le Massif and Mont Sainte Anne in Quebec. Both races were exciting, and full of great moments for myself, my brother and my teammates.

I had returned from Europe at the beginning of March, excited to get back to racing on Canadian soil. So off to Quebec City I went with my teammate Gail Kelly in her sponsor car to the National Championships, our last race series of the season.

Before I talk about the races, I have to go into more detail about Gail’s car because it’s worth writing about. She drives a convertible Chevy Cavalier, in white – but it isn’t just your regular car. Up and down the sides of it she has decals from the dealer that had given her the car as well as a well-drawn skier with his head tilted slightly in (great racing position!). Gail’s signature is also decalled onto each side. We had a great time and got lots of attention on our drive from Collingwood to Quebec City.

When we arrived at the condos where we were being lodged at Mont Sainte Anne we were greeted by some great Canadian spring conditions – minus 10 degrees with howling winds. I thought to myself "this can’t last through the week, it’s the nationals, and it’s March, and we always get warm weather or at least some powder in Whistler." But I was mistaken. On the first day of downhill training the temperature dropped to minus 20. The sun was shining so it did warm up, but it wasn’t quite enough for my little toes in my little boots.

The following day was also 20 below but on this day we were also greeted by high winds that could almost blow you over at the top of the course. Our days on the hill would go something like this: course inspection… back in the lodge… two runs on the warm-up course… back in the lodge for hot chocolate… head up for your downhill training or race run… back in the lodge. We did have a few days where it warmed up closer to spring conditions but for the most part it was winter, winter, winter!

At the Championships we also had a dual event, province against province. The race was on! The match-ups went like this: In round one it was Alberta verses B.C. and Ontario against Quebec. The competition was fierce and there was definitely some trash-talking going on at the start… of course I had nothing to do with it. The teams consisted of four guys and four girls from each province and it was one run each in the red and blue courses as you tried to beat your opponent to move your team into the final round.

The race ran at night and the crowd was pretty big and completely enthused. Our B.C. team made it to the finals where we met up with Quebec, a classic east against west showdown. The match-ups were tight and it was pretty even the whole way through but in the end Quebec took the win and B.C. second place. But we’ll be back next year, that’s for sure.

The last event that I wanted to tell you about happened on the last day of racing, the men’s and women’s slalom races. As some of you may know both my brother and I won the national slalom titles, and made history as the only siblings ever to claim national titles in the same year, and in the same sport to boot.

But here’s why it was great for me. In the morning I was nervous, I wanted to win and knew that it would be tough. The men ran first and I was able to watch from the finish. I watched my brother’s run in complete amazement, I hadn’t seen a great run like that in a long time and as I rode up the chair for my first run I said to myself that that’s how slalom should be skied.

After the first runs were over, both of us were in the lead and the thought that both of us could win crossed my mind for the first time. I thought, wow, that would be cool.

Again, I watched the men go through their second runs, this time from the sidelines with my mom. I was nervous for Michael, but he did it and got the win. I proceeded to ski to the bottom to congratulate him before heading up for my second run, and this is what he said to me.

"Well Britt, I raised the bar and now it’s your turn to step it up and hold up your end of the deal."

I don’t remember making a deal, but what was I to do? It was time to race it.

The day was really exciting and there won’t be too many like it. It was really nice to have my parents and my sister there, and to see my brother win.

I hope everyone has enjoyed the winter and has taken a bit of the national team events with them. I’m looking forward to taking a break, and I’m glad to be unpacking my bags and out of hotel rooms for a while. Before I know it the spring training session will be underway.

Enjoy the spring and enjoy the skiing. See you on the slopes!