I delayed writing my next blog on account that I had no inspiration on what to write about. I want to write out a blog about skiing, but as things were, that would probably have been a very negative subject, and any more negativity was something that I wanted to avoid.
Anything I could have written about that was positive most likely would not of been about skiing, and since this site is all about skiing, I think all of you readers would have found that rather boring. So I simply didn't write. As I have said before, things were not going well. At the end of January, I had 6 World Cup points. 6 points. If I had 600 I might have had just over half of the points the World Cup leader had, but no, I had a whooping 6 points to my name.
Things were pretty grim, and my confidence had tanked both on the hill and off. I don't completely understand how, but somehow my coaches still had the confidence in me that I was clearly missing, and decided to give me a shot at World Championships and they named me to the team. As excited as I was about the nomination, I was also struggling to somehow find the courage and inspiration to continue on the same path.
In the last World Cup race before World Champs in Garmisch, Germany, I was the slowest by almost 2 seconds when I came down and didn't know how much more of that I could take. I drove that night to Val d'Isère, France, arriving after midnight in order to make it in time for the 1 hour of free skiing on the race hill that the race organizers allowed us before the super-G race.
My first time down the hill, I was in shock, my second time own the reality hit of how technical and difficult this hill was, and my third time at the start, I was in tears wondering how I was going to make it down this super-G course when I had no confidence about my skiing and couldn't even free ski down it without problems.
I hit an absolute low with frustration and insecurity pretty much consuming me. That night after watching some video I threw my hands up and said "you know, I just don't care anymore." I defiantly didn't understand at the time, that what I thought was giving up, was actually the moment that may have helped me turn things around, the moment that helped me understand what I needed to do was just stop and breath a bit. The next day in the super-G, I didn't have a great result by many standards, but I skied the hardest turn on the hill well, and was fast on the bottom part of the course. It was a small building block, and a place to start.
The next few days I had a chance to get used to the hill without the pressure of the race. The training runs got better and better each day, and by the time the next race came around I felt like I had a plan and was ready to charge the course, and not just ski it. In the downhill portion of the super combined, I surprised my self with a 7th place result. The slalom was not so stellar, but who cares when I finally had some speed to work with! I was looking forward to continuing to improve in the last training run before the downhill race, but that was cancelled along with the 1st scheduled race day because of too much new snow on the track. I knew I had to keep my same plan throughout the cancellations, and be ready to go whenever that happened. When race day finally came around I felt like my plan was still in my head and going to work. I was running 5 and happy to be in the start.
During the run, I felt very confident about my line, and I hit the few sections I wanted to well. I crossed the finish line knowing that I gave my best effort, and I was going to be happy with it no matter what. Habit this year is to look at the bottom of the scoreboard for my name, and I was psyched to find I was not there, and even more surprised to find my name at the top, and ahead by nearly a second!
I got to stand in the leaders box for one racer too! Lara Gut was the next racer down and she ended up with the silver medal. I ended up in 9th place, and while I may not be a World Champion, I had a victory for myself. I remembered that I could ski fast, and that I can compete with the best in the world, and most importantly I know why I was able to! I hope that I can keep competing for the next few weeks to finish out the World Cup season.
Author: Stacey Cook
Things didn't go well
I delayed writing my next blog on account that I had no inspiration on what to write about. I want to write out a blog about skiing, but as things were, that would probably have been a very negative subject, and any more negativity was something that I wanted to avoid.
Anything I could have written about that was positive most likely would not of been about skiing, and since this site is all about skiing, I think all of you readers would have found that rather boring. So I simply didn't write.
As I have said before, things were not going well. At the end of January, I had 6 World Cup points. 6 points. If I had 600 I might have had just over half of the points the World Cup leader had, but no, I had a whooping 6 points to my name.
Things were pretty grim, and my confidence had tanked both on the hill and off. I don't completely understand how, but somehow my coaches still had the confidence in me that I was clearly missing, and decided to give me a shot at World Championships and they named me to the team. As excited as I was about the nomination, I was also struggling to somehow find the courage and inspiration to continue on the same path.
In the last World Cup race before World Champs in Garmisch, Germany, I was the slowest by almost 2 seconds when I came down and didn't know how much more of that I could take. I drove that night to Val d'Isère, France, arriving after midnight in order to make it in time for the 1 hour of free skiing on the race hill that the race organizers allowed us before the super-G race.
My first time down the hill, I was in shock, my second time own the reality hit of how technical and difficult this hill was, and my third time at the start, I was in tears wondering how I was going to make it down this super-G course when I had no confidence about my skiing and couldn't even free ski down it without problems.
I hit an absolute low with frustration and insecurity pretty much consuming me. That night after watching some video I threw my hands up and said "you know, I just don't care anymore." I defiantly didn't understand at the time, that what I thought was giving up, was actually the moment that may have helped me turn things around, the moment that helped me understand what I needed to do was just stop and breath a bit. The next day in the super-G, I didn't have a great result by many standards, but I skied the hardest turn on the hill well, and was fast on the bottom part of the course. It was a small building block, and a place to start.
The next few days I had a chance to get used to the hill without the pressure of the race. The training runs got better and better each day, and by the time the next race came around I felt like I had a plan and was ready to charge the course, and not just ski it. In the downhill portion of the super combined, I surprised my self with a 7th place result.
The slalom was not so stellar, but who cares when I finally had some speed to work with! I was looking forward to continuing to improve in the last training run before the downhill race, but that was cancelled along with the 1st scheduled race day because of too much new snow on the track. I knew I had to keep my same plan throughout the cancellations, and be ready to go whenever that happened. When race day finally came around I felt like my plan was still in my head and going to work. I was running 5 and happy to be in the start.
During the run, I felt very confident about my line, and I hit the few sections I wanted to well. I crossed the finish line knowing that I gave my best effort, and I was going to be happy with it no matter what. Habit this year is to look at the bottom of the scoreboard for my name, and I was psyched to find I was not there, and even more surprised to find my name at the top, and ahead by nearly a second!
I got to stand in the leaders box for one racer too! Lara Gut was the next racer down and she ended up with the silver medal. I ended up in 9th place, and while I may not be a World Champion, I had a victory for myself. I remembered that I could ski fast, and that I can compete with the best in the world, and most importantly I know why I was able to! I hope that I can keep competing for the next few weeks to finish out the World Cup season.