The racing season has really gotten underway and at home a Canadian has finished on the podium. I start my column off this week offering my congratulations to Erik Guay for his second place finish in Lake Louise this past weekend.
I’m sure all of you ski racing fans are well informed about this result, and were maybe able to catch it on TV, but for those who are still in the dark, it was a day for Canadian ski racing history.
While the excitement was happening in Lake Louise over Erik’s second place finish in the downhill and his teams’ top 15 finishes in the super G, the women were down in Park City, Utah racing in the technical events.
I last wrote about my return to the snow and the ongoing rehab for my knee. The races in Park City were a big step for me because it was necessary for me to make the move from the injured list back into racing. It was decided at Nakiska that I was ready for Park City; and I felt confident and strong, but still there were some nerves.
I proved myself in the giant slalom race, and was able to finish with a strong result. In the first run my knee was very much in the front of my mind, but in between runs it was better than fine – I realized that my knee actually felt good.
The roughness of the course had thrown me a bit, but I soon believed that my knee could physically handle it. Mentally, it was time to turn things around, forget the injury and just go out and race.
I was very happy with the 15 th fastest time in the second run. It proved that I could let the injury go, and get back into racing form. Next race I don’t think I will be quite as satisfied about a 23 rd place finish as I will definitely be looking for faster runs and to get right back to achieving the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the season.
So what else is new you ask? Well for starters we had two of the girls from the development team start in both the giant slalom and slalom events in Park City. Christina Lustenberger from Invermere started the GS and Brigitte Acton from Ontario started the slalom event. It was great to have some younger girls around. They showed strength and I know that they will be back to race again soon.
They also raced the in the NorAm competition which followed the World Cup events. Christina, or as we call her "Lusti", finished third on the first day and in fourth the next day amongst a very strong field of racers.
By the time you read this on Friday, my stay at home will be over and I will be travelling overseas for the upcoming World Cup events. I am looking forward to building more strength into my skiing and into my racing.
Oh, and there’s one more result I should add. Earlier this week Emily Brydon won a training run at Lake Louise!
I will be watching closely and cheering for her and the rest of the women’s speed team this weekend as they race on our home turf.
Every success that the team has had is building confidence throughout the whole team. We felt Erik’s podium finish in Lake Louise when we were down in Park City, and we felt that his result proved our strength as a group. We will continue to prove that strength as the season progresses and just maybe Ken Read will see his goals for podium finishes come true sooner than later.
