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!!

Check out the article in the Calgary Herald

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Sports/Stampede+picks+bucking+horse/1051522/story.html


LAS VEGAS

The Calgary Stampede brought 14 bucking horses to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.

They'll be taking 15 home.

A new one was added to the herd during the WNFR's weekend bucking horse sale.

He's a five-year-old dark bay stallion and cost the Stampede $20,500 US, the highest price paid at the sale.

And it all went to a Canadian Olympian now training in Germany.

The horse was owned by Mellisa Hollingsworth, the 2006 Olympic skeleton bronze medallist from Eckville.

Her dad Darcy, who raises and supplies bucking horses to amateur rodeos, gave the stud to Mellisa when he was born.

But, the horse, packing the name Eagle Tracks, wasn't exactly rider friendly. He had some buck in him. And that goes back to his breeding.

He's a son of Grated Coconut, the Calgary Stampede's world champion bareback horse.

Hollingsworth and the Stampede swapped studs for their breeding pro-grams about six years ago and Darcy had Grated Coconut in his breeding pen before he became famous.

"We've been tracking the horse for quite awhile," said Keith Marrington, the Stampede's senior manager of rodeo. "We just bided our time and we knew Darcy was bringing him to the sale this year."

He outbid Oklahoma stock contractor Bennie Beutler for the horse, the last $500 clinching the purchase.

"He was coming home, we didn't want to leave him down here,"said Marrington. "He's the real deal, no question about it. He bucked like Grated Coconut at the sale."

His name has already been changed. He'll be known as Northern Coconut.

It's expected he'll make his first appearance at the early June rodeo in Hand Hills and Marrington is so confident he predicts "there's an 85 per cent chance the horse will be selected for next year's WNFR. He's that good."

Following the sale, Hollingsworth's mom texted her and told her what the horse brought.

"She was really excited and wanted to know what she could do to reciprocate," said Marrington. "I suggested that when she goes to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver she put a G65-N49 on her uniform if it's all right with the Olympic officials. She's thinking about doing it."

Those are the numbersofGratedCoconut and Northern Coconut.

"It would make for a good discussion piece," Marrington noted.

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