Catching up and lessons learned

 I'm very late with this, but here we go...

My season wrapped up with Junior Nationals, and a trip to race in the Swedish National competition.
I wasn't able to train the week before JNs, so did not have such great results for the first two races, but got back into the groove by the sprint day, and had my best result of 2nd place, even with breaking a pole in the first 25 meters of the quarter final.  Despite the slush, the amazing volunteers were able to shovel a great course, and our hotel room was right in the middle of the sprint loop!

 

The big climb in the semi final of the sprint. 

Photo: Skinnyski.com

 

My biggest supporters: my parents and coach after the sprint race. 

I raced a sprint, pursuit, and relay in Sollefteå, Sweden.  After the races, we moved in with a biathlete at the Skidgymnasium and experienced what being a student athlete is like in Sweden.

My host, Elvira, and I.

 The American relay trying to act Norwegian. 

Photo: Claire Waichler

On my last day in Sweden, I took a bus into Stockholm from the airport and walked around the city.  I absolutely loved the city and the architecture, especially in the Old City.

According to my attendance, I have missed 9.5 weeks of school.  I'm finally getting caught up, but let's just say that when I wasn't in school learning, I learned A LOT.

1.  Just because you are skiing next to a European boy, they are not necessarily faster than you.  Many times yes, but there are actually Euros that aren't superhuman at skiing.

2. On a similar note, Americans can win international races.  We had Americans on the podium or very close to it at every race event I went to.

3.  You need to get comfortable being uncomfortable.  Whether it's trying to sleep on a plane, or attempting to have a conversation with someone who doesn't know English very well, there will be some awkward and uncomfortable moments when you're traveling and racing internationally.

4. Talk to the people around you on the plane.  I met the Paralympic CC ski coach on the plane to Romania, and a member of the USA Bobsled team on the way home from Norway. 

5.  Plan on not doing homework.  Get as much as you can done on the plane and before you go, but once you arrive, enjoy where you are.  Experience is a much better teacher than a textbook anyways. 

6. Take the road more traveled, just make sure you take the time to talk to the people walking there with you.  They probably have a pretty cool story.  For example, the man I met in Stockholm who plays his trumpet outside his church every day, and had some very interesting opinions about Trump.

7. Always bring your ski boots and AT LEAST one set of training clothes and all your electronic chargers in your carry on.  On the way to Sweden, my bags didn't make it to Stockholm, so I had to survive 3 days with only 2 shirts, a ski jacket, and a generous roommate who let me borrow clothes.

8.  When you are packing, under pack, because either it won't fit on the way back, or you'll want to buy some chocolate to bring home.

9.  Listen to local music if possible.  I always bring my iPod, which can pick up local radio stations, and found out I really like German pop music. 

10.  If you wake up and don't know where you are, don't panic.  It happens.

11. Europeans don't use a top sheet, just a comforter.  Weird? Maybe.

12. Essentials for the airplane: cough drops or vitamin C tablets, hand sanitizer, eye covers, a blanket, ear plugs, and Dramamine (in case you get nauseous or really need to sleep)

13. Go to events when you can: try out curling, go to a hockey game, or even go for a jog in a city you've never been in.

14. Try new foods, even if they sound weird.  Pickled herring? yum!

15.  Make friends when you can.  You never know when you'll see them again.  I ran across a friend in the airport in Oslo that I hadn't seen since I met her in Belarus.  It's amazing to have friends from across the world.


Last but not least: my next adventure is starting next fall at Michigan Tech! There's still lots more to learn, that I should actually be in school for.

Youth Olympics, Lillehammer, Norway

First things first, here's the link to the sick video Claire Waichler made from Romania.


The Youth Olympic Games were quite possibly the best week of my life (so far at least).  For me, they were more than just some races in Europe.  I remember watching the London 2012 Olympics 4 years ago and thinking to myself, wow, I really want to do that.  By 2012 I had started skiing, but was not very fast yet.  If you didn't know, I was not a talented athlete when I was younger, and had no real hope of ever becoming an athlete, although I loved the idea of it.  Watching those games both sparked my dream of competing but also placed a lot of doubts in my mind: am I strong enough?  Do I have the mental toughness? What if I try and fail?  That ski season, I just barely made the Midwest Junior National team, and erased a little bit of the doubt. With the Games as my motivation, pushing myself to be better was easy, but I'm still not the best I can be.  That's the beautiful thing about skiing though, there is always progress to be made, and I can always get better.  I have no idea what the next few years will hold, but I'm so happy I had the opportunity to race at the Youth Olympics. 

Here's a bunch of pictures from the trip since I need to dedicate the thousand words to my homework...

The Races:
I got to race three times in Lillehammer.  The first race was the 6K sprint.  I missed 1 each in prone and standing, and felt like I was skiing fast.  During my last lap, I was in 5th place, which fired me up to ski one of the fastest 2K laps I think I have ever skied  (I started bib 20, so there were still a fair number of people behind me).  Having a bunch of Norwegians cheering on course "Go America Go!" helped too.   I finished in 10th!!!

 

Photo: Lillehammer2016

The 7.5K pursuit did not go quite as well.  I missed 3, 2, 1, 2, which was disappointing, but it was hard to be sad for too long about a bad race at such an amazing event.   Chloe had an INCREDIBLE day, and did America proud with her 4th place with clean shooting: 20/20 shots. 

   

Our last race was by far the most fun I've had racing in awhile.  The mixed relay was 2 girls (skiing 6K sprint races) followed by the boys (7.5K).  Chloe shot well and was in 2nd place for awhile.  I got the hand off in 7th, and skied up to 6th by the first shooting.  I only know the place because I remember skiing into the range and getting directed to point 6 thinking to myself, "woah, we are in 6th place at the Youth Olympic Games."  I used one relay to clean.  Coming into the range for standing I had moved into 4th place, and I had to force myself to take an extra breath and calm down.  I used 2 relay rounds for that stage, but still left the range in 3rd.  Vasek and Eli both skied fast, and we finished in 7th place. 

You can view results here.

 The Experience: 
 

My distance ski on the real Birkebeiner ski trails.  If you don't know the story of the Birke, you can read it here. Or if you want a little more detail here.

 The range and some good spelling.

The line of flags from the 70 nations at the Games.  We walked through this path on the way to and from every meal.  We also had to go through security every time we left the village, so for every meal and training session.

 

Athlete housing. 

 I took my off day to drive to Oslo with my family to

 see some sights, including this gnome.

And this cool ship outside the opera house...

...and an interesting sculpture garden.

A statue representing the Birke story in downtown Lillehammer.

A church in Oslo and the Olympic flame in Sjogg park. 

 Downtown Lillehammer all decked out in YOG stuff.  

Photo: Lillehammer2016

The People:

My sister, Jess, and aunts Sara and Ashley came to cheer me on. 

I went to cheer for the cross country skiers Hannah and Hunter, and these little kids took a break from their skiing to watch me and the other Americans with our flag. 

Vasek watching a man make skis in downtown Lillehammer. 

The skiers and biathletes meeting an Olympic hockey player (plus a Swede photobombing).

The boys making friends with their Yoggers, and Nikita, a slope style athlete and I, after the hockey game. 

One of the many many highlights of the week was that the boys won Gold in ice hockey! Congrats to them, and all the other athletes winning medals!

Lastly, congrats to my roommates Caiti and Cora on their silver medal in curling (and thanks to teaching me so much about the sport!)

Youth Olympic Games, Lillehammer 2016

Rest and recover: Anholtz style

After YJWC, we traveled to Anholtz, Italy, to train for a few days before the Youth Olympic Games.  Here's a couple pictures from that experience:

 

Main street in the town we stayed in. 

 

Our neighbors, and source of fresh milk every morning. 

 

A little trip to downtown Dobiacco.

  

 

The inside of the church. 

 

Narrow streets, small cars, and crazy drivers. 

 

Italy is very religious and these were all over.  

 

A German prayer

 

A picture from the range in Anholtz. The snow was as perfect as the views.

 I skied up the pass between Italy and Austria that is snowed in for skiing and sledding in the winter.  On the left is Italy and the right is Austria. 

 

Some other highlights were a time trial on the World Cup course, as well as seeing Bjorndalen training! (The equivalent of Aaron Rogers or Brett Farve for biathletes).

When in Rome, I mean.... Romania

 Here's the highlights of my week at the Youth and Junior World Championships in Cheile-Gradistei, Romania.  There were 39 countries and nearly 400 athletes racing.  Cheile-Gradistei is tucked right in the mountains of Transylvania at 1290 meters (which you could definitely feel walking up stairs).  From the restaurant where we ate you could see Mount Buceg, and from my window Piatra Craiului.
 

 The Races:

  

Photo: Ian Neuhaus

These are my results from the week: 
10K Individual: 59th 
6K Sprint: 52nd
7.5K Pursuit: 55th
3x6K Relay: 16th 
It wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but I raced hard against some really incredible athletes, so I am happy with how the week turned out, and that we had enough snow to race on by Monday.  My shooting was there the first two days, but I was still sluggish from traveling.  For the second two races, my shooting was not nearly as good as usual, although I felt better on skis.  It's a good thing I have a week in Italy to recover and put the two together before the Youth Olympics in Norway. 

 The Youth Relay: Ari, me, and Chloe. 

Shout out to Ari for cleaning (+1 relay round) her standing stage!!!

  

The start of the Sprint.

Photo: Ian Neuhaus 

 The view of the stadium.  The range is behind the wall on the right. 

The Adventure:

I've found that racing doesn't change a lot based on where you are.  2K is 2K and the targets don't get smaller or farther away once you get to an international race.  The hills might be a little bigger, but guess what? What goes up must come down!  What changes when you go to an international competition is exactly that, it's international.  There are different people, languages, cultures, and even smells that can seem so foreign.  I like to take advantage of every opportunity I can when I travel and experience as many parts of the culture that I can, whether it be trying some sketchy food or walking through a castle.  Here's just a few of the highlights of the week:

 

Photo: Claire Waichler  

There were a lot of stray dogs near the venue.  One in particular was named Sheba, and lived right near the restaurant we ate at every day.  We think she has 2 kids and is 9 years old, but the woman we talked to didn't speak English very well, so Sheba might be 2 and have 9 kids.

 

Having Sheba made being away from Louie a little easier. 

 We went into the village for lunch one day.  In Romania, lemonade is literally lemon juice and water, and you get to add your own amount of honey or sugar.  I had a great time with that...

 

Sweetening. 

Photo: Claire Waichler

We toured Dracula's Castle, which is actually called the Bran Castle.  Dracula came about because Vlad Dracul was the Romanian prince in the 15th century.  Dracul signifies that he was part of the Order of the Dragons (Ordo Dracul) for protecting Christian Europe against the Ottoman Empire.  His son's name was Vlad Dracula, which literally means son of Vlad Dracul. He got the reputation of being blood thirsty because of his nickname Vlad the Impaler, which was his chosen way of killing enemies.  Add Bram Stoker's creative mind, and you have the legend of Dracula. 

  

Just three Red Knights in a castle (Red Knights are my school mascot).

 

What? Only men can rule a country? We don't think so. 

 

Rapunzel are you in there?  

When we got to the venue it had been snowing or in the middle of a cloud for a few days (they postponed our first race 1.5 hours because of the fog!).  All the trees were frosted white and gorgeous.

 

A winter wonderland.

 

I'm not sure what this guy's job was, but he looked official doing it.  

 

I dyed the ends of my hair purple to match the USA suits.  The Norwegian girl right next to me had blue hair, so I decided we needed a picture together.

 Ari and I with Robi the event mascot (Romanian Biathlon). 

Photo: Peter Carroll 

One of the highlights of the week was Sean Dorherty's incredible results.  He had bronze, silver, and GOLD! That makes 10 out of 12 possible medals in his career. Hearing our national anthem played in the ceremony was truly a moment to remember. 

 

Spectating with Team USA!  

 

The hallway before the boys brought out their bags...

 

 Thanks for an awesome week, great coaching, and wicked fast skis!!! Go Team USA!!!