The SG race here in Rocarraso, Italy was a very interesting one for me. I knew what I wanted to do in inspection, got in a great warm-up on other parts of the mountain, visualized a ton, was confident going to the start, and ended up making a few stupid mistakes. I wasn't moving into the ski the way I have been recently. The power cultivated in the top of the turn is what seperates the good skiers from the great ones, and without it one cannot hope to compete. That said, at the end of the day I was still 25th out of all the juniors(19 and under) in the world. I know I ski well enough to compete at this level and that I belong here; that is what I am taking home with me.
The evening after the race we all headed into town for the awards ceremony to cheer on the days victors. Good sportmanship is important in these international events, and we were definitely not going to miss a chance to show our good will. OF COURSE we didn't go there to see all the beautiful, blonde-haired Norwegian girls standing in the crowd, not a chance! But somehow after the event was over we found ourselves walking to dinner with 6 girls instead of going back to our hotel with our coaches. I wasn't complaining! We walked around town for an hour looking for a restaurant that opened before 10 pm (it being 7:15 at the time) until we finally came to the agreement that our time was better spent getting take-out pizza and eating it at the girls hotel. You might hear, "take-out" pizza and cringe a little bit, but let me tell you it's a little bit different than Pizza Hut! I think I could live of the stuff if I ever got stranded in an Italian restaurant for a few months.. Not bad at all!
Anyways, after that adventure we headed to a restaurant where all my German, Austrian, and Swiss buddies were celebrating the days success. Around 11 o'clock the waiters came out and moved all the tables into another room: the DJ got into place around 11:05, and the party got started soon there after. I won't go into details, but lets just say that when we got out of there at around 1:30 am things were still on an upward plane on the dance floor. ;) There had to be a couple hundred people crammed into the space eight tables had taken up earlier in the night and a line out the door of people trying to squeeze their way in. Absolutely nuts!! We got a ride the 5ks home with the Austrian Ski Team, and thank goodness because I was not really looking forward to that walk at two in the morning! I got to my room and started snoring before my head hit the pillow. Pretty sweet first euro-club experience!
Now we have 3 days off before the GS race, and one more before the SL. The GS spot went to my buddy Tanner Farrow after training today, but hopefully I can get the SL nailed down. It would be pretty bumpy, but I would love to see where I stack up! We'll see how it all plays out, but either way I'm getting a lot of good freeskiing in and having a blast with it! But of course, how could I not? ;)
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