Skiing starts to feel a bit lonely when you’re in Europe for months at a time traveling constantly from hotel room to hotel room and feeling disconnected from your ski racing community and the bigger picture.
To me skiing has always been one of the best ways to challenge myself while doing something that takes me to amazing places, introduces me to incredible people, and provides me with a feeling that is hard to put into words. It also gives me a unique opportunity to connect with other people who understand the allure and exhilaration of the sport and share a passion for working hard towards their goals. It’s this community in ski racing that has kept me going for so many years, and it’s this community that continues to fuel my love of the sport.
It’s easy to get caught up in the intensity of race season, and I struggled at times this season to take a step back and appreciate the small moments. I paid the price for this. But returning home, and spending a day at Holimont skiing around with the little U14 rippers quickly reminded me of the beauty in sport and especially in the ski racing community.
Six degrees of separation is the theory that any person in the world can be connected to any other person in the world through a chain of at most five acquaintances.
I think the ski racing world is connected by no more than two intermediaries, which is a very special thing indeed.
The uniqueness of the sport adds to the closeness of the community, so that even if you aren’t acquaintances with a fellow skier, the connection of simply being a ski racer bonds you in a significant way.
There is a mutual understanding between any ski racers of the shared experiences of pleasant elation, the mild melancholy and perhaps most often, the crushing defeats. One has a vague idea of what their fellow sportsman is going through when a few rushed pretenses give light to the hidden feelings underneath.
There’s a particular camaraderie in this understanding that validates the parts of the journey that can’t be easily conveyed, but when you open up to someone who’s been through similar they understand without you having to explain.
This is possibly my favorite part of ski racing, and something I’ve been experiencing quite a bit of recently as I returned to North America for the end of the season races. There are so many close friends here and athletes I’ve grown up racing with that it’s been so fun to see and reconnect with and hear about their ups and downs this season and laugh about the ridiculousness of it all.
Especially the past week when I was traveling alone to some of my races, I was overcome with the amount of support the ski racing community provides.
There was no problem at all in asking for help from the Canadian coaches at Canadian Nationals, and even at Nor-Am finals where titles are on the line, teams have been working together. The speed races in particular bring this camaraderie to the forefront, as all the girls discuss their line, the conditions, the course report etc. It’s us against the mountain more than us against each other.
I’ve always said that the biggest silver lining of racing Independent has been the realization of just how amazing the ski community truly is. My being forced to ask for help, has opened my eyes to the generosity and love and support of so many amazing people, and for that I could not be more grateful.
I had a rollercoaster of races in Whistler, crashing hard in the first DH race and limping through the final DH and SG race to end the season tied for first in the Nor-Am DH standings and second in the SG standings which gives me my own World Cup Spot for both events next season!
Here are some photos of the last week with many great friends: old and new :)
P.S. The biggest shoutout goes to Sheryl Fleck who was the most amazing host even though Stef stayed in Europe for more races. She took great care of me after my crash!
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