This past week has been pretty hectic. The final leg of my Europe trip has really snuck up on me. I just finished a brief slalom tour of racing. The first slalom races were held in Italy just over the border from Austria in a town called San Candido or Innichen. This is an interesting part of Europe because it is technically part of Italy, but was once part of Austria prior to World War II. This region of Italy called Sud Tirol was a prized possession of the Austrians and many of the locals still consider themselves more Austrian than Italian. German is spoken throughout the region and culturally it is more similar to Austria than Italy.
Racing in Italy is unlike racing in any other European country. Some form of national service is required from all Italians, whether it is in the police, finance, Carabinieri, or military and all of these groups have top-level ski teams. In Italy many athletes complete their mandatory service by competing on these government funded ski teams. These teams manage to turn out many of Italy's top European Cup and World Cup athletes. This structure is the complete opposite of any other European county. In those, if one is not on the national team by the age of 19 their ski racing career is over. It is more similar to the college route that many in the United States take, except there is not a four-year limit. All of this makes for extremely tough competition at the FIS races within Italy.
Our trip there was for a pair of slalom races that were part of the 62nd Annual Military Championships. In Europe, the FIS races are a much bigger deal to the towns, resorts, and ski clubs hosting the events than in North America. They all take pride in hosting the events and put on a great race. This series brought all other hosts to shame. As I rode up the lift the first morning, I was in complete shock to see well over 100 military personnel working on the course. In addition, there was a television crew that broadcast the race on live network television throughout Italy. For only being an FIS race, this one was a big deal in Italy.
During the first race, I realized that I had become a bit spoiled by the moderate European winter climate. The temperature that morning had dipped down to -15 degrees centigrade or about 5 degrees Fahrenheit. To me, that felt frigid, but then I saw the weather at home last week and didn't feel so bad. In the first race, I started number 21 and had a really aggressive run that moved me up to 10th. Interestingly, I was a hundredth of a second behind one of my good friends and former Williams College teammates, Charles Christianson.
Because of the live TV coverage, I was a bit thrown off at the start of the second run. The start interval was slowed down to nearly a minute and a half between racers; it is typically between 30 and 45 seconds. It amazed me how this simple change threw my rhythm off, not to mention the camera man with his camera right in each athlete's face in the starting gate, but it was neat seeing the slow motion highlights of my run on the jumbotron after crossing the finish.
My second run was equally as aggressive as my first and managed to move me up one spot to 9th in a race that was exceptionally tight - 9th place I was only 0.7 seconds off the win. I was pretty happy with how things went. It was my second strong slalom race in a row. I have always been happy with my skiing here in Europe when no one starting after me beats me and this was that case. It was also nice to win a bet between Charles and myself; he owes me some chicken wings when we get back to the US.
My confidence was very high for the second race the next day. Confidence is huge in ski racing. When an athlete has it, they are able to charge so much harder and that brings out each athlete's best skiing. I did this on the top portion of the course and was carrying some speed. As the trial broke from a flat section to a steep pitch into the finish, I got a bit thrown. I thought I would be able to recover, but my tips caught on the next gate and I was down on my side sliding.
During that small crash I slid into a gate on my tailbone where I had injured it earlier. The crash set me back a bit. I was supposed to have one day off then have two more slalom races back in Austria. After the day off, I was faced with a tough decision. I really wanted to do the upcoming races, but I was in a lot of pain. After the Austrian races, I am scheduled to do a few more European Cup races, which are more important for me. Because of this, I decided to skip the first race and see a trainer.
After an hour with the trainer, I was out the door somewhat skeptical as to how much good it had done. He realigned my spine through some chiropractic work, massaged the muscles in my back and injected some holistic pain relievers into my back. Much to my surprise, I was feeling ten times better that night and decided to do the final slalom race to test things out before a 12 hour drive to France.
The morning of the race, my warm-up was a bit off, but my body felt great. That was all I was worried about. I was amazed at how good the snow was on the race trail. The day before, they had received nearly two feet of snow. Before the races, the ski club at Soell, Austria, had spent nearly two weeks preparing the trail and it showed. They were able to push the new snow to the side and get down to the ice.
I had a first run that I was very happy with. I moved from 24th to 12th and was just over a second off this year's winner of the Kitzbuhel World Cup slalom and winner of that race, Felix Neureuther. I was happy with how I skied and wanted more in my second run. My second run was cut a bit short. About six gates into the run, I was shot out of the course. It happened so quickly that I had no idea what happened, but that happens in slalom.
After the race, I had time to pack my stuff up and get ready to leave early the next morning. That day, I was in the car from 7 am until nearly 9 pm. We left Koesson, Asutria, and dropped someone off at the Munich airport. From there, I hit the road with my coach, Luc, and we drove nearly 700 miles to Meribel, France. Meribel is just outside Albertville, the site of the 1992 Olympics. My first race, a European Cup GS, will be tomorrow here in Meribel with a European Cup slalom the day after. These are the races I have been gearing up for all trip.