Crans Montana World Cup Update:
I finally found the finish line in Super G and scored some points on Sunday finishing 21st - my first ever WC SG points!
The downhill days were a little less exciting with one DNF and a very slow second race, but I was able to stay focused and positive for the super-g on Sunday. I was quite tired heading into the day, but just kept telling myself to keep moving forward and stayed focused the whole way down. It was definitely a safer Super-G run for me, but that was exactly the plan and I’m hoping to build on this result for the last three super-g’s of the World Cup season. We have a double header SG this weekend in San Pellegrino Italy which I cannot wait for!
Now on to the questions:
Thank you so much to everyone who asked me such great questions. I’m going to lump a couple together and break them into seperate categories.
My path growing up: motivation, parents and setbacks
I’ve written about my mindset growing up ski racing a little bit before, and talked about how my goals were never to make the ski team (I didn’t really even know what the ski team was until I was in High School) or go to the Olympics. Truthfully I never thought I was good enough. Coming from a small mountain in NY, I knew there were girls in VT and out west that skied so many more days than me, so I just assumed there were people much much faster than me. But this didn’t discourage me from trying my best. I did have success in NY and I did love to win/hate to lose, so I trained really really hard in the limited days we did get on snow. I always joke that my twin brother is the reason I am fast because I hated losing to him, but I think it was mostly that I always kept raising the bar for myself - whether that meant trying to beat him, or all the boys, or do better at the bigger races. This approach has stayed consistent throughout my ski racing career to this day. I just love the challenge of ski racing and always felt really excited about working hard to get faster - and I (mostly) felt that I could see a clear path on how to get faster. I think I would have stopped already if I thought I had plateaued or wasn’t sure how to get faster. But by no means did I ever have any thoughts of World Cup racing as a child. It was always one step at a time and you never know what can happen. My big breakthrough came my sophomore year of high school when I made the NTG (junior national team) and moved from WNY to training more full time with the Ski Team. I had made U16 nationals the year before and gotten pretty much last, and then set a goal to train as hard as possible to go back and do better the next year. I shocked myself (and I’m sure some others) when I ended up top 3 overall and qualified for the team. I talk more about that in this blog.
The biggest advice I have for younger racers is to keep focusing on the skiing and fundamentals and to ALWAYS send on race day! I will also add that my parents were incredibly supportive but did not push me into skiing (or any sport). They simply provided the opportunity for me (and all my siblings) to take it more seriously if we wanted - which I am incredibly grateful for! The only skiing related advice they gave me was to focus to the finish which is still pretty valuable to this day :)
And yes! I have had many, many thoughts about quitting throughout the years. Some last a second, some a day, some a couple days. However, I would never let myself quit in the middle of a season (I am a big believer in committing to something and seeing it through), so whenever I thought “why am i doing this”, “this is so hard” “I don’t want to keep going,” it was always something that I would address at the end of the season and so far at the end of every season all the positive feelings far outweigh the negatives. I think it is super normal to question why you’re doing something - especially if it’s really really hard, so I don’t freak out at all when I have these thoughts. I just try to approach then objectively. I will also add that this is by far the most confident I have ever felt in my commitment to skiing and it makes every single step of the process so much more fun and enjoyable because I feel so sure that I want to be here doing this! (This is something I am really proud of but it took a lot of reflection to get here).
My travels: food, hotels, and favorite spots
Here is a completely non comprehensive and random list of SOME of my favorite, weirdest, worst, happiest, best places and things I have experienced while ski racing.
New Zealand: I haven’t been in a couple of years but I absolutely LOVE the South Island of New Zealand. It’s breathtakingly beautiful, the food is the absolute best cafe style farm fresh cuisine, the people are so kind, it’s not crowded, and the weather in their winter/spring is delightful!
Italian Siestas: Pretty much everything is closed in Italy from 12 - 3 and all day Sunday and I find it extremely inconvenient and don’t enjoy eating meals for that long either!
Val D’Isere France: My favorite stop on the World Cup. The town is lovely before Christmas time, 100% walkable and ski in/ ski out town, it’s a bit fancy but not too much, the race hill is so much fun, and the crepes are delicious.
Diavalo Pizza with Burrata: My absolute favorite pizza order - Burrata in Italy is amazing.
European vacations I swear that no matter where or when we are at a ski hill, some country has a vacation going on because it’s always busy in the mountain resorts. Or skiing is just that much more popular over here :)
Kaiserschmarrn, Schnitzel, Rosti, Käsespätzle: all my favorite Austrian dishes
Sochi Russia: The most enthusiastic skiers. I have a vivid memory of going there for World Juniors and training in the absolute pouring rain and the hill was still PACKED with public skiing, apparently completely unfazed by the weather.
Paying for the bathroom at Reststops: mildly inconvenient - especially when you’ve got to go!
Trying to ride the airport escalator with a luggage cart full piled high with ski bags: This one is pretty self explanatory, but by far worst airport experience ever - wouldn’t recommend.
Last day of the World Cup Season last year: Kajsa Lie, one of the Norwegian skiers invited a bunch of racers to her Pizza resteraunt and then we all went out bowling in Oslo after and it was so fun because we never get to hang out with the other racers outside of training and competeing. I have so much respect and admiration for all the other girls on the tour, and it has been really nice to get closer to some of them over the years and know them more off the hill too :)
Being on the road for 3 months with one duffel of clothing: I honestly don’t mind the living out of a suitcase lifestyle and appreciate that it has certainly made me a minimalist.
Church Bells: They are always ringing in Italy - and at the weirdest hours, but it’s very beautiful.
My training off the hill: Nutrition and Workouts
I also got a LOT of questions about my training off the hill. I wrote this blog diving into the training leading up to the season which has a lot of detail on everything we do. But for the season itself we keep it pretty light and simple. We are full on from mid November to April so most of our workouts are tailored towards strength maintenance, injury prevention/recovery, core and power workouts. We will usually alternate between A1 spin sessions, core, power, yoga and then we try to do a lift before every day off. I also do a 10 minute morning warm up every day before breakfast and a quick on the hill activation warm up before each run. In terms of nutrition, I travel with all my supplements (which I detailed in this blog), and try to just get as much protein and calories as possible so I’m not losing weight during the season. I find I eat 2-3x more in the winter than any other time because I lose so much weight from the cold and stress of competition season.
There were a couple more questions on Mindset which I am going to save for a future blog coming soon :)