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World Championships 2007

For the past two and a half weeks I have been in Are, Sweden for the 2007 FIS Ski World Championships.

For the past two and a half weeks I have been in Are, Sweden for the 2007 FIS Ski World Championships. We arrived on a Wednesday and I left this past Sunday, only three days short of three weeks! It was great to be able to settle in and stay in one spot for a while but it got a little long by the end. Throughout the winter season we get used to being at a different place every week, although not everyone stayed for the whole length of the championships, but there were a good bunch of us who stuck it out right to the last event. However, this being my first world championships since 2003, I was pretty happy to be there, however long it took!

The first event to go was the super G, followed by the downhill training runs. We were supposed to have a few days of training before the first race, and the men would run the day before us to open the championships. But that would only happen in an ideal world. As it turns out, we arrived and the temperatures were sitting at zero degrees Celsius and as the race days were getting closer the weather was getting worse — I don’t think you could have even run a slalom in the weather they were getting!

So, things were delayed, and delayed, and delayed again. The men’s super G was cancelled right away and then the following day, the ladies super G day, was cancelled as well. In the first few days our weather days were being used up, and the downhill events hadn’t even started. I think it was at this point that the stress levels of the organizers reached a breaking point.

The apartments that we were staying in were right near the race hills, as were the other teams’. On the days of the cancelled events, we would look out our front window and see all the spectators walking past towards the finish area, only to walk back out again when the races were cancelled. I felt mostly for them, they should have been given notice at home if the race was on or not and saved themselves a trip.

The weather continued to persist for the next few days; high winds, snow and fog would not allow us to start the first events. The hardest thing about this for a racer is having to keep your motivation up and to keep your head into the race, day after day. On top of that, these are the world championships where you are hoping for your best performance of the season — this is the time to peak.

On a Wednesday morning, exactly one week after we had arrived in Are, we awoke to beautiful sunny weather, cold temperatures and a perfect race day. Finally. We had used up so many days doing nothing that now they had to schedule the men’s and women’s super G race on the same day; men first. I woke up and I was excited to be racing but at the same time I had gotten so used to getting up and having the day cancelled that I couldn’t really believe it. The most important thing for me was keeping my race prep plan going over the course of those down days. It can be difficult to do when the weather outside is ugly but it’s so important to keep your head into it. I think that I did that well and was ready to race that Wednesday.

We warmed up and inspected the course while the men were racing next to us. We heard that our guys had done really well, three in the top 10, only hundredths of a second from the podium. That was my inspiration! When I left the start gate that afternoon I left nothing on the hill, I tried to take risks in the line where I could and to be smart in my line where I needed to be. As a racer, when you cross that finish line, the best part is knowing that you did everything you could on the course, essentially you did your job. After that it’s just waiting to see if your best on that day is good enough to be the best!

For me, everything came together but other girls were still faster than I was. I finished the day in fourth place, only hundredths of a second from the podium! So close, but still my best finish ever at the world championships — that felt great and I was proud to have been racing for my country.

The downhill events ran smoothly and when race day came along the Canadians were ready to perform. The men and women ran on the same day once again, and again the men ran first. Jan Hudec surprised us all by getting his first world championship medal, a silver. It was absolutely amazing to be there and to see it in person. He had inspired me on that day and I think he reminded us all that at the world championships, like the Olympics, anything can happen. I was so happy for him, what an amazing day.

  Even better than that though was that all the guys on the downhill team now had to shave their heads into mohawks because of a bet they had made prior to the race. When we make bets on the women’s side it’s usually more along the lines of our coaches having to do something — not us!

In the technical events we had some close podium finishes but not close enough. Throughout the whole event I felt that the Canadians had great momentum and we really fed off of each other’s results. We were having fun and we were performing. All I can say is watch out for the next world championships, or even the next World Cup events because I think we have got something to prove.

We will be back onto the World Cup schedule this weekend, and there are only a few more events until the World Cup finals. But maybe more importantly, we only have three weeks left in Europe!