The first week has truly flown by. A typical day looks like this:
Wake up, pre skiing warm up, breakfast, pack everything for skiing, ski (we’ve had long days on the hill because it takes a bit to get up there and the chairlifts are really slow.) Get done with skiing lunch, dryland, PT, watch video and then have a little time to hang out or explore the village before it’s dinner time and then a little more hang out time and bed!
I also wanted to answer some questions I’ve gotten from the last blog! (thank you for all the questions), but if you want to just see the photos keep scrolling :)
Do the drones ski right over your head and , if so, can you guys hear them?
They are on cables above the course and only on the races, so I don’t know, but I don’t think anyone has said they can hear them. I doubt it.
Why can’t you hear the icy sliding that you usually hear when the first 20-30 skiers have gone….it still sounds “like snow”?
How do they keep the snow snow…and does it SKI like real snow or can you tell that it was all made for the events?
The snow here is definitely a bit funky because it is all 100% man-made. (They only get 3-6 inches of natural snow fall a year even though is super cold! This is because its a very arid climate. BUT there are trees because of the rain from the monsoons in the summer.) The snow feels very hard and super fast and grippy even though its slick in some spots, so maybe this is why it sounds different on tv. It took me a couple days to get used to and I had to change my set up (canting of the boots) to be less aggressive so I could still be forward and pressure without the edge ‘grabbing’ too much. Some athletes are definitely having a harder time than others, but overall the course workers have done a phenomenal job with hill preparation. There are NO ruts ever because the surface is so hard.
Can I watch my friends at other events, or are the logistics of getting to practice and back and forth to gear and food and rest etc etc just loads to manage?
Good question! I went over to the ‘sliding center’ where Luge, Skeleton and Bobsled compete and watched Women’s Luge which was so fun! These are the only other athletes in our village so this would be the only other events to watch. Everything else is a very long bus ride away and very much discouraged. I also went up and watched the alpine womens gs :)
Do you hang out with other athletes in the village?
I mostly hang out with Team USA athletes because of COVID. We see other athletes in passing and chat on the hill or in the dining hall but there isn’t a ton of interaction. However, I did go to the very cool Virtual Reality room this evening and they have a fun two person game which is both very entertaining to play and watch so there were a bunch of athletes hanging out there. This was the most ‘social’ thing I’ve done so far and we were all masked :)
What is the dining hall like?
Watch this TikTok! https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdkENmhS/
Please feel free to ask more questions in the comments or email me directly!
Here are some photos:
Thats all for now, more to come soon!