I wrote an entirely different blog that I was planning on posting this week, but a good friend texted me recently asking if I wanted to do a ‘reflect on 2023’ journaling prompt with her that we had done the previous year and it reminded me of the importance of reflecting (something I don’t do long-term very often).
Reflection helps me see patterns in my skiing, in my mindset, in my overall happiness, and I’ve begun to realize that part of maturing as an athlete is being able to recognize patterns quickly and adapt whenever needed.
So I decided to take todays blog as an opportunity to look back at some highs and lows of 2023, see what lessons I learned and patterns I discovered - or still haven’t figured out.
The year started out strong in St. Anton Austria, one of my new favorite resorts for its unbelievably beautiful and expansive mountains. Unfortunately this weekend was a big let down for me as I struggled with equipment issues and our new technician. This taught me the importance of speaking up and realizing that if I wanted to be competitive on the World Cup I needed consistent and reliable skis. Luckily one of the US Ski Team technicians (Zoran - who is my tech this year!) came to my rescue and I learned that I needed to get better at asking for help sooner - not wait until things are so bad I feel completely helpless or waste opportunities.
Next we headed to Cortina, Italy. I finally felt like Team Stef and Trish was operating well and we were doing everything we could to give us a chance on the World Cup. One of my proudest accomplishments of 2023 is racing independently. It was a massive challenge throughout the whole year - it felt like every weekend we were faced with some sort of new obstacle that made it seem like everything was going to fall apart, but we somehow managed to be resourceful, flexible and positive enough to make it through. Especially now being back on the team with full support, I am incredibly proud of our little team last year.
I was only allowed to race the downhill in Cortina and I didn’t score points but I felt like I was making good progress in downhill and I loved having Connor come to watch — a huge highlight of the season.
After Cortina we went to Chatel for Europa Cups and this was a huge highlight of the season as well! I wasn’t super fast, but I felt like I really understood the progress I needed, and why I was losing time (which is sometimes a big question mark for me in Downhill). Despite being slower than I would have liked I was super happy and was able to enjoy the beautiful French Alps and mountain villages.
We also got to see long time family friends from Holimont - the Stoates - for dinner which was a real treat while on the road for three months!
And Chatel has my favorite crepes in the whole world which definitely added to the happiness, along with spending time with other US girls racing the europa cups and feeling like we were all working together and cheering each other on.
After Chatel, I went to World Champs, which on paper might look like one of my biggest accomplishments of 2023, but in reality this was probably one of my biggest lows. I found out last minute I wouldn’t be able to work with the US technician I had been working with and had to find a tech last minute (that I had never worked with). I also wasn’t able to bring my own coach, so I felt like I was totally on my own and didn’t do a good job of asking for help (sensing a pattern here :)). So I completely dug myself into a mental hole and was quite miserable and distraught going into the races. This sounds almost comical looking back, but in the moment I could not think rationally. I reflected on this a lot right after it happened and ultimately realized that I really struggle to ask for help, especially when I feel like I’m not good enough or don’t deserve to be somewhere or don’t want to be a burden. So this was both an issue with asking for help and confidence and pride in myself.
One big positive from World Champs was seeing Erik Arvidsson’s mom Carol at the finish after I had a pretty gnarly crash in the Super - G. I completely broke down to her and she could not have been kinder and gave me the pep talk I needed to start believing in myself again. Mom’s are just the best :)
Next up, I headed to Crans Montana for more Europa Cups, and this was a great highlight. I was skiing fast, I knew what I needed to improve and we were having a great time with the same crew from Chatel.
Keely Cashman finished second the last day and everyone was stoked !
Another big highlight came a week later at Crans Montana for the World Cup when Stef and I both scored - Stef getting her very first World Cup points - making it a huge day for Team Stef and Trish!
The last World Cup of the season was in Kvitfjell and it was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I felt like I was skiing really well, but I was sooooo slow, and couldn’t really figure out why. The lesson from this weekend was that I still have a lot of work on certain speed skills that don’t transfer from my tech background. I also need to get better at learning how to adjust my skiing for different course sets and different hills. This was a hard but important pill to swallow and has been a huge focus for my entire training block heading into this season.
But again this weekend was made much better by family and friends coming to watch! Big reoccurring theme here :)
The next photo is one of my favs - Bob Armstrong clicking me in at the Whistler Nor Am Finals. Big full circle moment since Bob was one of my childhood coaches at Holimont and the Armstrongs are great family friends. A good reminder that skiing is really about all the amazing people you meet and the lifelong friendships you make.
Another huge highlight from the year was Taos World Pro Tour in New Mexico with my parents as coach and tech! I was pretty exhausted at this point, but had so much fun with them and ended the weekend with a win!
I remember being just as nervous every single run of the dual race as I was for all my World Cups - which was a good insight for me that I really give every race run the same focus and intensity.
Taos was followed up with US Nationals where my sister Mary joined me and we were able to race together for the first time ever! Again a really special weekend with family (my mom was there as well helping us out in the start) and really solidified to me just how much happier I am when I’m around friends and family I love - and this also happens to lead to some good results :)
After the season I subleased a room in my friends apartment in SF for a couple months to work for my brother Peter at his startup Promptloop. This was a tremendous experience and I learned so much. This was a great opportunity to step away from the skiing world, flex my brain, and gain experience in the fast moving start up world.
I have a bunch of college friends that are in SF, but with work and double workouts I was quite busy, so I tried to sneak in as many morning group stair workouts and weekend bbq’s on the beach as possible :)
Other spring highlights included speaking on a panel for Play Like a Girl Foundation at the National Archives museum - reminding me of the potential I have to use my own voice and experience to empower young girls in sport.
American Downhiller camp which continues to be a highlight every year and is so much fun to coach and give back to the next generation of rippers.
My first tv commerical with The Feed where I starred for a split second in their tour de france ad!
An unbelievable family (and friend) trip to France to celebrate my mom’s bday!
Camp Mangan - which I was 50/50 on doing again this past year, and I am so glad I did because it is ALWAYS so much fun - a good reminder that I should just say yes and commit to things - especially when I know they are worth the effort.
Ushuaia Argentina - my first full training camp with the team which could not have gone better. We had awesome training, I felt super strong, was making great progress in my skiing and had a ton of fun with the other athletes. I was also still working part time and was super proud of my time management down there. I realized this year that I can have a lot on my plate for training camps but as soon as it’s race season I get a lot more stressed and nervous and it’s better to not fill my days up as much as possible.
After Ushuaia I finally settled down for a bit with the family in Canada and had the best two weeks of the summer training, working, and relaxing with the fam. I also felt the most fit and strong I ever have at this point which was really awesome to see all the hard work in the gym pay off. My siblings definitely pushed me a ton during this time which was super nice because normally I get a bit burn out from working out so much at this point in the year. Reminder to get innovative with training at the end of the summer!
Chile started off really well with me feeling strong and confident on some challenging conditions…
but getting food poisoning and the flu really took me out for the last bit of the camp. Looking back I never really gave myself time to recover from this and I think I lost a lot of strength because of that. I’m not normally very good at recovery and especially when I needed it, all I wanted to do was just work harder, which in retrospect was not productive.
Another huge highlight of the year was racing the Head of the Charles with my brother Andrew. I have so much respect for his own training and racing journey so I felt honored to be in the boat with him :)
My brothers and I also launched a sauna business: Peak Heat Saunas this fall which has been an exciting new undertaking. This has been a good reminder to keep trying new things in order to challenge myself to 1. use my time efficiently and 2. continue to learn about new things - ie. sauna and health and wellness and marketing and being small business owners!
Copper mountain in the fall was next and I had some ups and downs throughout this camp - but the biggest take away is that I need to manage my volume better. I can’t train full intensity for 6-8 runs every day at 10,000 ft for 4 weeks straight. Looking back at the training season as a whole I think a big learning lesson for me moving forward will be to manage volume better. I skied my best this prep period when I felt fresh and strong.
A very sad memory of this year was my grandma Joan (Deeda) passing quite suddenly. I looked up to her for many things, but perhaps my favorite thing about her was just how special she made every person she encountered feel. I will try to live up to this as I think I get too caught up in the process and forget to take a step back and be happy and grateful and kind in the moment - just like Deeda always was.
One final big ski highlight of the year was the St. Moritz race weekend where I got 3rd in the Europa Cup Super -G. But it felt really great because our whole team was crushing it and it is so nice and reassuring when the whole team is doing well - especially after the first race of the season!
Val D’Isere was tough because of Stef’s crash - which I went into more detail in my last blog - but this definitely put things in perspective for me and reminded me to be grateful for every single time I get to push out of the start gate.
Christmas at home 2023 - one of the biggest highlights of the year! I had such an amazing time at home with the family - relaxing, recharging, working out, making yummy food and enjoying each others company :)
And of course sauna’ing!
Looking forward to all that’s to come in 2024!
love the pictures!