RESILIENCE… is the token word for this season and it definitely defines my performance this week in Park City, Utah after last weeks’ disappointment in Whistler. I won my 3rd World cup of my career on Wednesday, but there wasn’t a moment of time to be wasted celebrating because I had less than 24 hrs to prepare for the 8th and final World cup race of the year. And I managed to win the Bronze medal, moving me up to 7th in the Overall World cup standings. Not bad considering I missed a race and had some bad races, so this will be my start number in Lake Placid, NY in 2 weeks time at the World Championships.

Racing in Park City is very exciting! It is a really short track, so the times are always close together. The snow dumped on us all week, so of course it would be the same for both race days. Day 1 I slid down the track and was ranked 1st. By the time the rest of the field had made it down the track the margin was slim between competitors. I was in the lead by 2/100ths over Amy Williams of Great Brittan. 5/100ths in front of the German Marion Trott, and the gaps between sliders continued to stay small. I was standing at the bottom of the track thinking this will be the 3rd race in a row that I’m leading after run 1, can I keep it together? I was laughing when I got to the top in disbelief of the situation. I though of calling Cal, my sport psych, right there on the spot so he could remind what I needed to do. But he did a great job by coming to my rescue in Whistler and I was able to take care of myself. His words, “Resilience” and “Instincts” kept coming to my mind. After 14 years of sliding, you’d think I’d have enough experience to rely on my “Instincts”…so that is exactly what I did.

When I was standing at the top of the track alone with mere hundredths to spare, I felt the same as I did in St. Moritz and Whistler, CALM… but the difference this time was my focus. In the 2 previous races, I was trying to better my 1st run and focusing on my weak areas and ending up overdoing it and making the problem areas even worse, Obviously, 1st to 17th in Whistler…This time I visualized the track as usual in my warm up, but I decided to back off of everything. “Let it Go” as one of my coaches would say, which means so much more than what you’d think. Seeing the #1 when I crossed the finish line was a huge relief!

As I said earlier, no time for celebrating, I had race prep to do all over again for a race that was going to start 20 hrs later. But it was a sweet reward to hear “O Canada” play as I stood on top of the podium.

Day 2, Race 2, Great practice for World Championships and the Olympics which is a 4-heat race over 2 days. That was my mentality for the Park City series. We tried a difference strategy for my warm up, obviously Whistler in 2010 is the big picture and we do have to take some risks in World cup events to find out what works best. But this didn’t work so well…we wanted to try moving my warm up closer to the start of the race to benefit my start. I was too fired up and my push was better, but I didn’t slide as well as needed to and was in 6th after the 1st heat. Again, what a great opportunity to practice holding it all together. Not getting discouraged and keeping focus, but most importantly relying on my instincts.

I had a much better 2nd run so I made my way over the winners circle and I actually got to stay there quite a while. Again the race was so close with sliders only separated by 100ths, anything could happen. I had moved into 5th position and I was watching Amy Williams come down the track. She had gone through the last split in the track only a couple of hundredths ahead of me and as she crossed the finish line the timing clocks on the TV monitor stopped working. I was standing there in disbelief and anxious to find out where I stood. Finally I heard the announcer say her time and I realized I moved up another position. Of course I wasn’t cheering against Amy, but the suspense was really built up! My run ended up being the fastest run of the 2nd heat and I was able to stand on the podium again for Canada, this time for the Bronze.

What a great way to end the World Cup season and it definitely sets the stage for a very interesting World Championships in Lake Placid in 2 weeks.

I haven't been home since Nov 9th, but a silver medal on the last European track is a sweet way to leave this continent. It has been a frustrating season, but I know there is a reason for all of the struggles. From illnesses to making stupid mistakes on race day, which has been every race this year! I should be happy with a silver medal from St.Moritz, but it is pretty hard to be sitting 1st place and make a mistake like hitting at the very top of the track and losing by 9/100ths. Maybe my German coaches and support staff are starting to rub off on me. When I dropped 5 spots in Igls and smiled into the camera, they asked me why I didn't have any fight in me? I responded by saying I'm Canadian and I made a mistake and there is no sense in beating myself up over it. But when I came up the outrun on my 2nd run in St. Moritz and saw a #2 by 0.09sec I was fighting mad. Kerstin, our team leader who is German, was extremely supportive and happy for me to win silver, but all I could feel was that I lost the gold. She kept telling me its ok, it was so close and that was just it... the what if's are haunting.

OK, enough whining! The positives... It was a great day for Canada Silver and Bronze for the women and another Olympic qualifier. I moved up into the top 10 in the World Cup standings so I will be in the draw for the upcoming Whistler World cup and inching my way closer to a better start number for World Championships in Lake Placid at the end of Feburary. We have a bit of break now until the Whistler World Cup which is Feburary 5th. I'm so excited for everyone to see Whistler and of course there is even more energy surrounding this race because it is the Olympic test event... 1 year out from the big show!

Wish all of the Canadians luck and I really hope we put up some great results!

What a weird week! We show up to Cesana, Italy in the snow and that is how it stayed. Our race was officially cancelled due to snow! I have never seen the snow fall like that in my entire life! Vehicles completely buried and avalanches closing the roads, it was so surreal! We didn’t even get a chance to slide down the track, we were snowed in at the Olympic training center until Wednesday morning when we decided to go to Konigssee to get some training runs in before the World Cup in January. It was bitter sweet for me, I wanted to sliding on the 2006 Olympic track again, but I’m still recovering from my flu and cold so I think I lucked out on the 1^st half of the season to end early. The race will be made up somewhere on the 2^nd half, but as of now we haven’t heard where.

It was like groundhogs day yesterday making the 11hr drive that we just made only 4 days earlier, but I’m glad to be back in Germany. Especially because Duane made it here today! I’m not going home for Christmas because the turn around is too short, only 8 days. So Duane decided to make the sacrifice for me and we are going to the French Riveria for Christmas!

Our next race will be in Konigsse Germany January 9^th. So Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to everyone and check back just after the new year for another update!

Mistakes Happen…

What a whirlwind of a week! Trying to recover from the worst illness I’ve ever experienced to only get hit with a wicked cold as soon as the puking stopped! But now that I’m starting to feel alive again, boy do I ever appreciate even mediocre days! Training in Igls, Austria was pretty frustrating. I didn’t feel like myself on my sled and it was incredibly difficult to find my spirit and it resulted in bad sliding. Luckily the night before my race my coach Kelly sat down with me and brought me back to the head space where I perform my best.

Because I missed the Altenberg race I dropped to 15th in the World cup standings, which means a late start number. It had been dumping snow all week, but fortunately the snow stopped just before our race and the ice conditions were fair for all the competitors. My 1st run was the best run I had all week, perfect timing if you ask me, and I came down in 4th spot. I felt a huge relief, considering everything I had been through that when the time mattered I could still perform. I was excited to be back in the mix of things and only 2/10ths out of 1st, I was confident I could maintain my spot and perhaps even inch closer to the top of the group. My 2nd push wasn’t very smooth and on such a short track the push is critical to the down time. But once again I got through my trouble spot (corner 5) clean and felt really confident as I was navigating my way down the track. I came out of Kriesel with a slight tap on the left wall and it pushed me later into corner 8 than what I wanted. I didn’t panic I adjusted my steering accordingly and then I remember the exact moment when I had to make a critical decision. It is so amazing that we are traveling at 120km/hr and how fast the thoughts fly through your mind. I remember thinking, I have my height a lot earlier than I should I can let it go and get the entry into 9 that I need. But then my coach Willi flashed in my mind telling me how important it is to cross over from 8-9 and it is IMPOSSIBLE to hit the right wall on the entry. So I went with my coach’s voice and cranked my sled off corner 8 and I did the IMPOSSIBLE…I hit the right wall extremely hard and skidded my sled and missed my steers in corner 9. This part of the track is very flat and at this point there isn’t any place to make up time.

When I crossed the finish line and saw a #5(dropped to 9th spot) on the board I instantly started thinking about the next World cup race in Cesana. I realized I made a huge mistake, but better to make the mistake than to have a great run and not know where the time was lost.

So I’m not wasting anymore energy here in Igls. We are leaving for Cesana tomorrow and I’m already packed. I’m looking forward to seeing sunshine for the 1st time since October, and I’m also looking forward to feeling healthy and competing!!